The historic visit is also a nod to Catholicism’s shifting demographics as an increasing number of believers come from Latin America, Africa and Asia instead of its historic stronghold in Europe.
“I came here thinking of peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula,” the pope told President Park Geun-hye, who greeted him Thursday morning at a military airport south of Seoul, the capital, often used by visiting heads of state.
The pope’s trip is widely seen as indicative of the Vatican’s growing interest in Asia, where Roman Catholicism is a minority religion in most countries but is growing quickly, reflecting a shift away from the church’s traditional geographic base. While Europe and North America accounted for most of the world’s Catholics a century ago, a comparable percentage now lives in Latin America, Africa and Asia, according to Msgr. Robert J. Wister, professor of church history at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.
“The Pope’s visit to South Korea is the first part of a very intelligent opening to Asia,” said Lionel Jensen, associate professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame. “The Pope’s presence is a powerful symbol of the Vatican’s recognition that it is in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa that the church is growing most prominently.”
During his packed, five-day visit to South Korea, the Pope will beatify 124 Korean martyrs, help celebrate the 6th Asian Youth Day, which is a gathering of Asian Catholic youth, and hold Holy Mass for Peace and Reconciliation, expected to be aimed at prayers for peace, including South and North Korean relations.
Underscoring the military tensions on the peninsula, North Korea fired three short-range rockets off its east coast shortly before the pope’s arrival. The North has conducted such launchings frequently in recent months.
Nearly 11 percent of South Korea’s population identified as Catholic in 2005, the last time a nationwide census on religious affiliation was conducted.
Pope Francis is expected to meet South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, as well as hold Mass with family members of the victims of the sunken Sewol ferry and comfort women, who were forced to sexual slavery by the Japanese in World War II, in attendance.
Source: aitonline.tv
