Third priest shot and killed in Philippines in six months

Gwangju, South Korea, Feb 27, 2019 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- As U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meet in Vietnam this week, a South Korean archbishop sees the host country as a model for the development of economic and religious freedoms in the isolated country.

Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jung of Gwangju expressed hope for the Feb. 27-28 meeting between Kim and Trump, which kicked off Wednesday night with a dinner in Hanoi and will continue Thursday to negotatiate the potential denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

“The Vietnam-style reform and open model of ‘doi moi’ in North Korea, which itself has declared economic development to be a top priority, is the optimal way to pursue economic growth,” Archbishop Kim has said.

“Doi moi” refers to Vietnam’s process of economic liberalization that began in 1986.

When Trump first greeted Kim Feb. 27, he said: “I think your country has tremendous economic potential.”

Vietnam and North Korea share a common history in that both fought bloody wars with the United States to defend their communist rule.

Vietnam, however, went on to normalize relations with United States in 1995 after suffering under economic sanctions and a U.S. trade embargo, and in turn experienced tremendous economic growth.

“Kim Jong-un will be able to refer to the Vietnamese model not only as a model of reform and opening up, but also in terms of diplomatic relations with the papacy,” Archbishop Kim said.

The Holy See appointed a diplomatic envoy to Vietnam in 2011 in the form of a “non-resident representative” after a series of bilateral talks during Benedict XVI’s papacy.

Archbishop Kim has been an advocate for increasing the Holy See’s diplomatic involvement in the Korean peninsula, remarking that he thinks a papal trip to Pyongyang would be a tremendous encouragement to North Korea’s persecuted Christians.

North Korea has consistently been ranked the worst country for persecution of Christians by Open Doors. Christians within the atheist state have faced arrest, re-education in labor camps, or, in some cases, execution for their faith.

“I do not know how many of them are, but there are a lot of believers in North Korea,” Archbishop Kim said.

“I think the pope could go to North Korea in order to encourage even a few believers and save the fires of faith, just as Jesus has left 99 lambs to find a lost sheep,” he added.

Pope Francis has said that he will travel to Japan in November.

“This year is likely to be an important year in Catholicism in East Asia,” Archbishop Kim said.

Archbishop Kim, president of the Korean bishops’ conference, traveled to North Korea earlier this month. The delegation visited Mount Kumgang to discuss increasing inter-Korean cultural exchanges within the tourism, education, sports, art, and media sectors.

“The reconciliation and peace of the Korean peninsula are the irreversible flow of history,” Archbishop Kim said in a Korean interview with Yonhap News Agency in Rome during the Vatican’s sex abuse summit.

“It is important to build mutual trusting relationships to prepare for peace through exchanges and cooperation,” he added.

[…]

Yangon, Burma, Nov 28, 2017 / 03:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an impromptu meeting on Tuesday morning, Pope Francis urged religious leaders in Burma to work toward peace, each according to the gifts and traditions of their faith.

“Each one of you has their values, their wealth, and also their shortcomings. And each confession has its richness, its tradition, its wealth to give. And this can only be if we live in peace,” the Pope said Nov. 28.

Peace itself is built “in the chorus of differences,” he said.

On the morning of the first full day of his visit to Burma – also known as Myanmar – Nov. 27-30, Pope Francis met with religious leaders at the residence of Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, in what was an unscheduled meeting.

The meeting included 17 interreligious leaders from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Anglican, Baptist and Catholic faiths. After a short introduction from Catholic bishop John Hsane Hgyi, a leader from each faith gave a short speech, followed by the off-the-cuff address of Pope Francis.

The Pope’s visit comes amid an uptick in state-supported violence against the Rohingya, a largely Muslim ethnic group who reside in Burma’s Rakhine State. In recent months, the violence has reached staggering levels, causing the United Nations to declare the situation “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

In May, a senior United Nations envoy warned that the country was failing to stop the spread of religious violence.

In his discourse, Francis said that when the leaders were speaking, it brought to his mind a prayer from the Book of Psalms that says “how beautiful it is to see brothers united.”

He stressed, however, that to be united does not require uniformity, but rather that we must “understand the richness of our ethnic religious and popular differences…and from these differences” create a dialogue.

Pointing to the great geographical and natural wealth of Burma, he said they can learn from each other “as brothers,” in what ways each faith is helping to build the country.

He then thanked the leaders for coming to meet him at the place he was staying, since he was the one who had come to Burma to meet them. He also recited a few verses of the well-known prayer from the Book of Numbers, which he called “an old blessing that includes everyone.”

“May the Lord bless you and protect you. May his face shine upon you and show you his grace. May you discover his face and may he grant you peace,” he prayed.

After the meeting, Pope Francis also met briefly with the Buddhist leader Sitagou Sayadaw before celebrating Mass in private and then continuing on to his meeting with the president.

[…]

Nagasaki, Japan, Nov 23, 2019 / 06:48 pm (CNA).- At the ground zero site of the 1945 nuclear attack on Nagasaki, Pope Francis said the threat of using nuclear weapons is not the way to build peace and shared responsibility in the human family, reiterat… […]