Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Pope Francis and the Korean Catholic Church

Pope Francis is going to South Korea in August where he will beatify 124 Korean martyrs. These Koreans "founded the Catholic Church with their blood." What's unique about the formation of the Catholic Church in Korea is that there were no missionaries that brought Catholicism to the country. Rather, it started with Yi Seung-Hun, a member of the ruling class, who learned about Catholicism in China and returned home with many books on the faith and evangelized his countrymen. He was also the first martyr in Korea.