North Korea Consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima

Source: FSSPX News

Le cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung

As tension rose in June on the Korean peninsula, raising fears of a military escalation, the cardinal-archbishop of Seoul decided to consecrate North Korea—in the hands of a communist dictatorship—to Our Lady of Fatima, calling for spiritual renewal in the whole region.

On June 25, 2020, in Seoul Cathedral (South Korea), Cardinal Andrea Soo-jung Yeom, Archbishop of Seoul and Apostolic Administrator of Pyongyang (North Korea), celebrated Mass on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

At the end of the celebration, the high Korean prelate consecrated North Korea, of which he is the apostolic administrator, to the Virgin of Fatima, because of the “silent persecutions” suffered by Christians in this Far East land.

By this Marian consecration, the archbishop has called for spiritual renewal and a new evangelization of the peninsula, the only condition for true peace in the Land of the Morning Calm.

Cardinal Yeom then spoke of his own memories of the Korean War—he was six years old when the Communist forces invaded the South—in which more than two million soldiers and civilians died.

This initiative comes after a period of tension between the two Koreas. On June 16, Pyongyang dynamited the North-South Liaison Office building in the city of Kaesong.

According to data—not independent—provided by the United States Department of State, between 10% and 45% of those imprisoned for religious reasons in Korea are Christians.