“Christ does not destroy cultures”, but “fights and defeats the Devil, who sows discord between man and man, population and population”. Pope Francis has devoted his words during the weekly general audience in the Vatican to his recent trip to Korea (13-18 August), praying again for reconciliation in the Asian peninsula.
Pope Francis prayed for a long time for the “beautiful and noble Chinese people, a wise people”, while the airplane that took him to Seoul flew over China. He said so himself in his conversation with journalists during the return flight to Rome, after the positive and intense days he spent in Korea, when he was asked about the relationship with the People’s Republic of China and his willingness to visit the country.
The US army left Iraq in 2011 with no clear strategy or solid security measurements that were likely to safeguard the “Democratic gains” that Iraqis aspired to achieve as a result of toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime. Evidently, Shite-led Iraqi former government did not learn from the sectarian strife that marginalized one sect at the expense of other.
The Italian journal, Corriere della Sera, published August 9 the statement of the exiled Chaldean Archeparch of Mosul, Amel Nona. The statement is brief and exceedingly powerful. Christians have been in Mosul for 1700 years. They are driven out or killed by the new Islamic State following the principles of its own founding.
All over the world, millions of innocent people are facing persecution, imprisonment, and even death because of their religious beliefs.
In 2013, the world witnessed the largest displacement of religious communities in recent memory, according to the State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. And the trend in 2014 is only getting worse.
“Today we are in a world at war, everywhere! Someone told me: you know, Father, that we are witnessing the Third World War - but waged in chunks, in different chapters”. Francis’ words on war, and on the bombs that kill both guilty and innocent alike, hitting women and children, describe the grim reality of today, rather than display a fear for a new imminent world war.
The plight of religious minorities who are forced to leave Iraq, ISIS’ violence, the US bombings. The Gaza war straight after the prayer for peace. The Holy See’s relations with China, Francis’ upcoming visits, his new encyclical and the holidays the Pope spent at home. This is what Francis talked about on the flight back from Seoul to Rome, answering 15 questions put to him by the journalists travelling with him.
He already sent a message on his way to Korea but Francis didn’t want to miss out on another chance to show his willingness for dialogue with the People’s Republic of China. On the return flight back to Rome, the Pope composed another telegram to the country's president, Xi Jinping: “Returning to Rome after my visit to Korea, I wish to renew to your Excellency and your fellow citizens the assurance of my best wishes, as I invoke divine blessings upon your land,” the Pope wrote, as he flew through Chinese airspace.
On the final day of his visit to Korea Francis prayed for an ever greater recognition of Koreans as members of one family. As the mass he celebrated in Seoul’s Myeong-dong cathedral, Francis said there are not two Koreas, but one family of brothers and sisters that “speak the same language”. “My visit now culminates in this celebration of Mass, in which we implore from God the grace of peace and reconciliation. This prayer has a particular resonance on the Korean peninsula,” marked by “division and conflict which has lasted for well over sixty years.”
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the ancient Castle of Haemi was used a jail for Christians who were locked up and tortured here, hung to trees by their hair and killed in the most gruesome of manners. Today all that tormented the droves of young people that came from all over Asia to meet Pope Francis, were some clouds and the rain that wouldn’t stop pouring down on the fortress, a key location in Korean martyrology.
