Vatican Permits Canonization Cause Of 'Martyr Of Sweat' To Proceed
SEOUL (Ucan) -- The process for beatification of the second Korean priest, known as the "Martyr of Sweat," is expected to move forward after a recent Vatican clearance, a Church official says.
According to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop walked an average of 2,800 kilometers a year to visit Catholics in remote villages where foreign missioners could not visit and heard 4,000 confessions. He died of typhoid in 1861, at the age of 40, after a 12-year itinerant mission.
The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints on March 5 sent Bishop Francis Xavier Ahn Myong-ok of Masan a letter declaring the Holy See has no objection to the cause for the beatification and canonization of Father Choe.
Since the Church procedures require the head of a dioceses to initiate a canonization cause, Bishop Ahn, who is the newly appointed Bishop of Masan, took over responsibility for this, with the cooperation of the Korean bishops' Special Commission for Beatification and Canonization".
Father Peter Yoo Han-young, secretary of the Catholic bishops' Episcopal Special Commission for Beatification and Canonization, said the process for Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop is going faster than he thought and added that "with the reverence that Catholics in the country have for him, it might be quickened further."
Father Yoo noted that historical materials about and documents of Father Choe are well prepared. Nonetheless, he admitted the beatification requirement of a verified miracle through the candidate's intercession could prove "quite difficult." Following beatification, a second miracle is required for a blessed to be declared a saint.
Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon, the first Korean priest, is called the "Martyr of Blood." He was executed in 1846, one year after his ordination.
Father Choe was born in 1821 in what is now Chungcheongbuk, a province 130 kilometers southeast of Seoul. In 1836 he left for Macau to study theology with Saint Andrew Kim.
Ordained in 1849 as the second Korean priest by Bishop Maresca of Jiangnan diocese in China, Father Choe returned to Korea the same year and started pastoral work by visiting mission stations in the country.
The campaign to promote the canonization of Father Choe started in 1996, the 175th anniversary of his birth in what is now Cheongju diocese, which covers Chungcheongbuk.
Pope John Paul II canonized 103 martyrs of Korea when he visited Seoul in 1984 for the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean Church, by lay people.
In June 2003 the Korean commission for beatification and canonization appealed to the Vatican to promote the cause of another 124 martyrs and the congregation responded with a nihil obstat.
Catholicism came to Korea in the 17th century during the Confucian-oriented Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The Church's banning of Confucian ancestral rites triggered the first big persecution of Korean Catholics, in 1801.
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