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 Holy See |  South Korea |
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Holy See–South Korea relations are the relations between theHoly See and theRepublic of Korea. The Catholic Church in South Korea is the fastest growing Church inEast Asia. According to statistics, as of December 31, 2017, the number of Catholics in Korea was 5,813,770. It amounted to 11.0% of the total population of South Korea (52 million). The total number of Catholics in Korea has slightly and consistently been increasing since the 1950s.[1]
Historical ties between the Vatican and South Korea can be traced back to 1946 when 1947 when BishopPatrick Byrne served as an Apostolic Visitor to Korea from 1947 onward. The South Korean government sent a delegation to the Paris conference in 1948 to be recognized as the only government of theKorean Peninsula. At that time, the Holy See and the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris (then Angelo Roncalli, laterPope John XXIII) greatly helped the South Korean delegation to obtain recognition from many delegations of Catholic countries.[2]
In 1980, PresidentChun Doo-hwan's military regime accused pro-democracy activistKim Dae-jung of inciting theGwangju uprising; a military tribunal sentenced Kim to death. In the subsequent week, PopeJohn Paul II wrote to Chun requesting clemency for Kim (a Catholic) on humanitarian grounds. Although initially rejecting his request, Chun commuted his sentence the following month. Kim would later be elected president; the first opposition candidate to win in Korean history.[3]
In 2021, President Moon Jae-in encouragedPope Francis to visitNorth Korea as a way to further the dialogue between the two countries and theUnited States. Francis never visited North Korea. It is unclear if such dialogue will continue, as former President Yoon Suk-yeol was highly critical of Moon's pro-reconciliation policies.[4]
In 1984, Pope John Paul II visited South Korea for the first time to attend a ceremony commemorating 200th anniversary of Korean Catholicism, celebrating mass in the city ofGwangju, where a pro-democracy uprising took place four years prior.[5] The pontiff made a second papal visit in 1989 to attend the 44th Eucharistic Congress.[2] He wished to also visit North Korea, but the trip never materialized.[5] Pope Francis also made a papal visit to South Korea in 2014 for the beatification of the 124Korean martyrs and for the sixth Asian Youth Day.[6]
Then Korean President Kim Dae-jung visited the Vatican in 2000, becoming the first Korean head of state to do so. He reportedly told John Paul "you saved my life, I am grateful."[3] PresidentsRoh Moo-hyun,Lee Myung-bak,Park Geun-hye andMoon Jae-in also made their visits to the city-state.[2] During his visit, Moon, also a Catholic, declared that peace on the Korean peninsula was "certain".[7]
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