Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - The diocesan stage of the Beatification process of John Song Hae-bung a lay missionary martyred during the Korea War (1950-1953) has been officially opened in the diocese of Incheon. This is the first Beatification cause for a lay Catholic in the period successive to the era of Japanese colonialism. A special diocesan Commission has been charged with the task of collecting the necessary testimony and documentation. The Commission is headed by diocesan vicar general Mgr Joseph Lee Hak-roh, the Postulator is diocesan administrator Joseph Jeng Gwang-woong.
A biography of John Song will be published shortly. Song was the first child born to Catholic parents. In 1944 he felt God was calling him and entered a seminary. However, after Korea was liberated from Japanese occupation he left his theological studies to begin active missionary work, moving around in the area of in Incheon, starting schools and homes for orphans and poor children. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was falsely reported for being a Communist. He was tracked down and murdered in cold blood by death squads which practiced summary justice.
Korea has over 10,000 Christian martyrs killed in various persecutions in the past. In 1984 103 Catholic martyrs were canonised in Seoul by Pope John Paul II, during the first canonisation not held in Rome. Moreover in 2004, Seoul opened the diocesan stage of another cause for Beatification, that of the Servant of God Paul Yun Ji-chung and his 123 companions, tortured and killed for the faith in 1791 at the dawn of Christianity in Korea. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 18/1/2007 righe 28 parole 281)
