Seoul, April 21 (IANS) The death of Pope Francis, who had long yearned for peace on the divided Korean Peninsula, triggered deep mourning among South Koreans on Monday.
The pontiff was regarded by the country’s Catholics and non-believers alike as a spiritual leader who showed deep compassion and a special affection for the country.
He chose South Korea as his first destination in Asia after becoming Pope in 2013 and appointed two of the four Korean cardinals to date. Under his leadership, Seoul was selected to hold the 2027 World Youth Day, making the country the second Asian country to hold the global event after the Philippines in 1995.
He also maintained close communication with South Korean Presidents, consistently showing a strong interest in peace on the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean relations.
During his five-day visit to South Korea in 2014, he met with those who were suffering or marginalised, including victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery — euphemistically referred to as “comfort women” — as well as people with disabilities.
He comforted them and brought hope to Korean society, with his humble and modest demeanor, leaving a lasting impression on many.
“I wanted to meet him again and thank him in person,” Kim Young-oh, the bereaved father of a Sewol ferry disaster victim, told Yonhap News Agency on Monday regarding the pontiff’s death.
He met the Pope in August 2014 on the 34th day of his hunger strike to seek the truth behind the deadly sinking that left 304 people dead in April that year.
“When I thought no one would hold our hands, the Pope was the person who gave us the most strength,” he recalled, adding that the encounter helped trigger wider attention from media around the world.
The death brought Lee Young-su, an activist and one of the comfort women, to tears.
“He must have gone to a good place,” she said.
The pontiff invited seven comfort women to the front row of his Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral, the final event of his visit to South Korea.
“Meeting him brought me great peace of mind, but I am sad I couldn’t meet him again after that,” she said, adding: “He was someone who only did good things. I will pray for him.”
Ven. Jinwoo, leader of South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, joined in mourning the death of Pope Francis, offering his “deepest condolences” to Catholics around the world.
“The Pope was someone who transcended religious boundaries and shared in the suffering of humanity with humility and compassion,” he said.
As early as September last year, Pope Francis expressed concern over the ongoing division of the Korean Peninsula during a meeting with South Korean bishops at the Vatican.
At that time, he turned his attention to the upcoming World Youth Day, an international Catholic youth gathering set to take place in Seoul in 2027. He urged the Korean bishops to actively engage with young people and to listen closely to their voices, noting that there is much to learn from them.
The Pope also voiced concern over the treatment of rural communities and the elderly in South Korea while calling on individuals to take practical steps in their daily lives to protect the environment.
Whenever the country faced major tragedies — such as the crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon in 2022 that killed 159 people and the plane crash in Muan in December that claimed 179 lives — the pope never failed to offer words of comfort and prayers.
As recently as last month, the Pope expressed concerns over the wildfires that devastated the country’s southeastern regions and sent his condolences to those mourning the loss of loved ones, Yonhap news agency reported.
Pope Francis expressed his willingness to visit North Korea on multiple occasions, saying he would go if invited by the North. Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a Catholic, met him twice, in 2018 and 2021, during which they discussed the possibility of a papal visit to Pyongyang.
–IANS
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