SEOUL (UCAN): “A nation has a responsibility to protect its people’s lives and safety under any circumstances. Every life, from the moment of conception, should be protected as a human being and secured with its dignity,” Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung, the archbishop of Seoul, said after South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s current abortion ban is incompatible with the constitution on April 11.
 
The court called for a legislative change to partially allow early stage termination of pregnancy.

Seoul (UCAN):  With a special Mass in Myeongdong Cathedral, Seoul, South Korea, celebrated by Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung, auxiliary bishops and priests on February 22, five priests from the Archdiocese of Seoul were commissioned as missionaries. They will be sent to Mexico, Japan, Spain and the United States .
 

SEOUL (SE): Some 3,000 people gathered in Myeongdong Cathedral to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of South Korea’s first cardinal and most respected spiritual leader, Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, the Committee for Communications of Archdiocese of Seoul, reported on February 16.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): As the #MeToo movement sweeps the globe, some South Koreans have been inspired to expose the mistreatment of women and girls who, nearly four decades ago, demonstrated against military regime of strongman, Chun Doo-hwan, in the southern city of Gwangju.
 
In what was to become known as the Gwangju Incident of May 1980, students and citizens protested against ongoing military rule. The government sent in troops who opened fire. The death toll has been estimated at more than 600 during 10-days of clashes.
 

SEOUL (UCAN): The Jeoldusan Martyrs’ Shrine Justice was illuminated in yellow, blue and green during a lighting ceremony attended by civil and religious groups on November 30. The Justice and Peace Commission of the South Korean Bishops’ Conference spearheaded the push for a martyrs’ shrine at what was once an execution site where scores of Korean Catholics were decapitated to highlight the Catholic community’s opposition to the continued use of the death penalty in the country.
 

SEOUL (UCAN): The communications department of the Archdiocese of Seoul, South Korea, started an Online Bible Channel on November 24 following the pastoral direction of Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung, as more people watch video content through their smartphones.
 
Father Mattias Hur Young-yup, communications director, will address Custom in the Bible; vice-director, Father Peter Hwang Joong-ho will teach the Book of Exodus; and Father Thomas Lee Do-heang, undersecretary of the archdiocesan communications committee, will give talks on the gospel of Mark.

SEOUL (UCAN): In letters sent to Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul, South Korea, and to 100 young pilgrims from Laos, Mexico, Malta, the United States, India, China, Pakistan and South Korea, who wrote to Pope Francis expressing their desire to become workers for peace after joining the 2018 Wind of Peace pilgrimage along the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas in August.
 

SEOUL (UCAN): In letters sent to Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul, South Korea, and to 100 young pilgrims from Laos, Mexico, Malta, the United States, India, China, Pakistan and South Korea, who wrote to Pope Francis expressing their desire to become workers for peace after joining the 2018 Wind of Peace pilgrimage along the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas in August.
 

MOSCOW (AsiaNews):  Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the second most important cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church after Patriarch Kirill, visited Beijing, China, from November 23 to 24 before travelling to North and South Korea. 
 

SEOUL (UCAN): An Iranian student, who converted to Catholicism in South Korea, has now obtained refugee status thanks to the efforts of Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul and his classmates.
 
The Ministry of Justice announced on October 19 that the Korea Immigration Service had accepted the application of the student—referred to as Anthony as his name was withheld to protect his identity and safety.