Pope's visit to Korea highlights religious hope for reunification

During his visit to Korea, Pope Francis addressed a meeting of young Catholics from many Asian countries and told them that their best hope for reunification of the divided Korean peninsula lay in love and forgiveness.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "You are brothers who speak the same language," the Pope said on August 15. "When you speak the same language in a family, there is also a human hope."

You can be a light in the darkness with "prayer and action."

This remark was a response to a question by a young Korean woman, who asked how South Korean Catholics should view the communist North?

"Are there two Koreas?" Pope Francis asked in response. "No, there is one, but it is divided, the family is divided."

"My advice is to pray, pray for our brothers in the North," he said, "that there might not be victors and defeated, only one family." Francis then led the audience of roughly 6,000 in silent prayer for reunification.

The Pope appeared at this event in Solmoe following a lunch with Asian Youth Day participants from numerous Asian countries and a visit to the reconstructed birthplace of Saint Andrew Kim, Korea's first, native-born priest, who was martyred in 1846.

On the way to the tent which was set up for the Pope's meeting with young people, Francis was greeted with cheers and outstretched hands. Many in the crowd were holding tablets and cell phones in an attempt to get a picture of the Pope. This is the first time a Pope has visited Asia in more than a decade.

Before entering the tent, Francis allowed an audience member to attach a yellow-ribbon pin to his cassock. The pin has been adopted by family members of those killed in the April sinking of the Sewol ferry, some of whom had previously met with the Pope, and are pressing the South Korean government to investigate the disaster.

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