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| Korean Madonna & Child- Jang Woo Seong 1949 |
In a
message sent to AsiaNews to be made public in South Korea on the occasion of the feast day of
the ASSUMPTION, which is also Korea ’s
Independence Day, the bishops slam Pyongyang
The
statement is signed by Mgr Peter Lee Ki-heon, bishop of Uijeongbu and president
of the Commission for the Reconciliation of the Korean People of the Catholic
Bishops' Conference of Korea (CBCK), and Mgr Lazarus You Heung-sik, bishop of
Daejeon and president of the CBCK’s Justice and Peace Commission.
In their
statement the bishops ask "neighboring countries" (China, Japan,
Russia, United States) to avoid a military escalation, or "unrestrained
action," which could only cause the "death of innumerable people, the
fatal devastation of both sides, the regression of human history, and
deep wounds for the whole of humanity.” Everyone is called to
engage in "dialogue for peace" and work for the "coexistence of
humanity, which is, in fact, the main purpose of diplomacy and politics".
The
statement makes a special exhortation to the bishops’ "fellow
Koreans" in the North and South to stop using economic resources in
“astronomical" military budgets, and use instead at least some of those
resources for the "human and cultural development" of the Korean
peninsula.
The bishops
call on Christians and the peoples of the world to be "peacemakers".
Establishing peace in the Korean peninsula could be the "U-turn" that
brings peace to the world.
"Let
us walk in the light of the Lord" (Is 2,5)
Finally, we
urge all brothers and sisters in the world to be attentive, to pray, to respond
with good discernment, and to work together cordially to resolve the crisis of
our Peninsula . The Church in Korea
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