Let us entrust to our martyrs peace and the reunification of Korea

“The wounds of the Korean war are still painful. We will pray intensely for reconciliation, peace and the reunification of the Korean peninsula. And we will entrust Korea to the intercession of our martyrs”. These are the thoughts shared by Archbishop Lazarus You Heung-sik, Bishop emeritus of Daejeon — whom Pope Francis has appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy — in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano. While preparing for his late July arrival in Rome, he described the spirit with which the Korean Church was experiencing the “National Day of Prayer for Reconciliation”, which was celebrated on 25 June. The event, instituted by the Korean Episcopal Conference in 1965, commemorates 25 June 1950, the date the war began between North and South Korea, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, concluding with an armistice that ...