Catholic Church establishes reunification committees in South Korea

Jardine Malado Monday, August 29, 2016

Dapdong Cathedral, Incheon, South Korea | Wikimedia Commons/Dalgial

The Catholic Church in South Korea is establishing committees dedicated to the reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula.

Last March, the Korean Bishops Conference made a recommendation for every parish to set up its own reunification panel. The Dowon Church in Daegu Archdiocese, which established its own group on Aug. 17, was the latest church to do so.

James Byeon Jin-heung, a researcher at Uijeongbu Institute for Peace in Northeast Asia, believes that the parishes should be the starting point for the unification ministry. "The parish-level committees will arouse people's interest in national reconciliation and become the base for peace education and supporting [the people in] North Korea," Byeon told UCAnews.

Father Pius Yi Ki-soo, president of the Daegu Archdiocese's committee for national reconciliation, hopes his parish will become the center of care and support for North Koreans. "We encounter many North Korean refugees around us but we are short of concern for them," he said to UCAnews.

Meanwhile, the Incheon Diocese is the most active in organizing reunification programs in the country. It held a national reconciliation committee meeting on July with 29 parish-level groups that had already been established.

Dioceses near the border of North Korea are already working on reunification committees. Bishop Peter Lee Ki-heon of the Uijeongbu Diocese already told his parishioners to set up such a body and issue guidelines. The Chunchon Diocese will create its own program in 2017.

UCAnews reported last week that Catholic youths headed to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to pray for peace and reconciliation in the peninsula. The Korean youths were joined by other young people from all over the world for the DMZ Peace Pilgrimage of Youth from Aug. 13 to Aug. 19.

Political tension between the North and the South remains high due to the recent test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile by Pyongyang. South Korea, Japan and the U.S. requested an emergency meeting with the U.N. Security Council following the test launch.