ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - Church and government collaborate for new shrine-burial place for Korean martyrs in diocese of Jeonju

Seoul (Fides Service) - To honour and pay homage to the memory of the Korean martyrs the Church in Korea and the government will build a new shrine-burial place on what is now called Martyr Mount in the diocese Jeonji, where in 1801 Yu Hang-geom and six members of his family were brutally put to death in a ruthless persecution of Christians.
The shrine will become a place of national pilgrimage in memory of Koreans killed for faith in Christ. The government is helping to build the shrine as a sign of full solidarity and closeness to the Church in memory of the martyrs and as a mark of appreciation for the social and moral contribution which the Catholic Church offers Korean society.
Bishop Vincent Ri Pyung-ho of Jeonju expressed his approval of the project and added “if these martyrs are ever beatified the place would acquire ever great symbolic and religious importance”.
Korea has over 10,000 martyrs killed in successive waves of persecution in different centuries. Korean Catholics already venerate 103 martyrs proclaimed saints in 1984 in Seoul by Pope John Paul II during the first canonisation held outside of Rome: a memorable event for Korean Catholics. On 16 September the universal Church celebrates the memory of martyr Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (1821-1846), the first Korean priest and patron of Korean clergy.
In 2004 Seoul archdiocese started the diocesan session of a cause for the beatification of Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions, tortured and killed for the faith in 1791, when Christianity was first introduced in Korea. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/3/2006 righe 33 parole 345)