Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Paris (Fides Service) –French missionaries martyred in Korea have been commemorated with a new monument placed in Rue de Bac in Paris. The memorial was officially inaugurated by the Paris Foreign Missions Society MEP in memory of those Fathers who gave their lives to carry the Gospel to the people of Korea. The monument, a gift of the Catholic community of Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul, was delivered in January and has now been placed in a public street thanks to the endeavours of the MEP Fathers in Parish and about 200 Korean Catholics living in the French capital. A few members of the local Korean Catholic community obtained the necessary papers and licences to place the monument.
More than 200 people were present for the inauguration ceremony, during which the Church in Paris proudly recalled the generous service of its missionaries who set out to spread the Gospel in Korean more than 150 years ago. The MEP fathers thanked the Catholics of Korea for this act of gratitude. Everyone was deeply moved. Superior General Father Etcharren said “this monument demonstrates the vitality of the Catholic Church in Korea which today makes an important contribution to the universal Church sending numerous missionaries to many different parts of the world”. Replying to the MEP Superior, Father Teofilo Choi Seung-ryong, representing the History of the Korean Church Research Foundation said: “It is for us a great honour to express with this small act our deep gratitude to the Church which offered the lives of its missionaries to spread the Gospel in our land of Korea” PA (Fides Service 7/7/2003 EM lines 23 Words: 244)
