Youth pilgrimage of peace to the DMZ ends (photos)

by Thomas Han

About 100 young people from Asia, Africa, Europe and South Korea saw with their own eyes the first frontline of military and ideological confrontation. This led them to renew their feelings for true peace. A letter addressed to Pope Francis pledge a commitment to be peace workers and advocates.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – The World Youth Pilgrimage to DMZ – Wind of Peace ended on Thursday at Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul with the Eucharist concelebrated by Fr Achilleo Chung and Fr Lee, respectively organizer and vice organizer.

About a hundred young people from 14 countries in Asia, Africa, North America and Europe, as well as Korea, participated in the pilgrimage from 16 to 22 August in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

This is the fifth edition of the ‘Wind of Peace’ pilgrimage, which began in 2012. After a break, it was held again in 2016, inspired by Pope Francis’s homily at the Holy Mass he celebrated at the end of his historic visit to Korea on 18 August 2014.

The goal of the event is to teach peace to young people by putting into practice Pope Francis’s advice on promoting peace in the world and the Korean peninsula.

The young participants visited the Demilitarised Zone that divides South Korea from North Korea, including some the bloodiest battlefields of the Korean war (1950-1953).

During the pilgrimage they also listened to a lesson on peace and discussed it in groups set up at the end of the meeting.

"Through the eyes of a German who shares the experience of the division, the 70-year long division of a single people is very sad,” said a young student from the Kassel Academy of Music in Germany. “I hope that as Germany managed to unify 30 years ago, Korea will also unify as soon as possible."

Like her, all the participants expressed their hope to see the reconciliation and unity of the Korean people, and prayed for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world.

The experiences of pilgrimage at the first frontline of military and ideological confrontation led the young participants to renew their feelings for true peace.

For this reason, they wrote and signed a letter to Pope Francis (picture 2), in which they offer their determination to be peace workers and advocates in their life, now and in the future.

In this letter they also thank the pontiff for his post-synodal exhortation Christus vivit, noting that it is a guiding compass to “make peace for the benefit of all” (Christus vivit, 169), for Christ, with Christ, and in Christ who "is our hope and in a wonderful way [. . .] brings youth to our world” Christus vivit, 1).

Card Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, attended part of the pilgrimage, as did Mgr Alfred Xuereb, apostolic nuncio to Korea and Mongolia, as well as Mgr Peter Chung Soon-taek and Mgr Job Koo Yobi, auxiliary bishops of Seoul.

"Peace is a gift of the Holy Spirit and if I do not live in peace, nor can the world,” said Card Yeom speaking to participants. “This pilgrimage should help each participant to live in peace, reflect on themselves, and become peacemakers in families, communities and their country."

Bishop Xuereb encouraged them to become peacemakers who believe in the power of prayer, telling them that "prayers open the heart".

At the beginning of the pilgrimage, Fr Achilleo Chung, the organiser, pointed out that "only those who loves peace, those who want it, those who sacrifices themselves for peace, can experience peace."

"This pilgrimage was God's invitation to us to lead a new life, a life of peacemakers wherever we are,” said Fr Luke Lee, deputy organiser, in his homily, at the end of the pilgrimage. “We accept this invitation with a grateful heart."