75th anniversary of Korean War: Korean Catholics pray for reconciliation and unity

Rome Newsroom, Jun 25, 2025 / 12:54 pm (CNA).

Korean Catholics marked the 75th anniversary of the start of the Korean War with a novena of prayers and Masses offered for peace and reconciliation on the divided peninsula — where the war never formally ended. 

More than 1,000 Catholics gathered for a special Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul on the Sunday before the June 25 anniversary. The liturgy was led by Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick, the archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang.

“Living in a state of division, the North and South have nurtured hatred and animosity amid constant tension and confrontation,” Chung said in his homily. 

“Every single member of our Church must remember and pray for our brothers and sisters in North Korea and stop turning blind eyes to efforts for reconciliation and unity in God by reinventing our sense of solidarity based on brotherhood,” he added during a keynote address at a symposium later that day.

The Korean War claimed the lives of an estimated 3 million people, or 10% of the population, in Korea between 1950 and 1953. The United States suffered more than 33,000 battle deaths and nearly 3,000 non-battle deaths. An armistice signed in 1953 ended active fighting but did not result in a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.

Catholics in South Korea prayed a novena leading up to the June 25 anniversary, which has been marked by the local Church for decades as an annual “Day of Prayer for the Reconciliation and Unity of the Korean People.” Weekly Masses for Korean reconciliation are also offered at Seoul’s cathedral every Tuesday night throughout the year with the 1,468th Mass celebrated this week.

A divided peninsula 

The division of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel after World War II created two vastly different nations. The north, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is ruled by a repressive regime that has been accused by the United Nations of committing crimes against humanity, including executions, torture, forced abortions, and mass starvation.

Human Rights Watch reported in 2024 that North Korea has intensified restrictions since 2020, using COVID-19 as a pretext to seal its borders, halt trade and humanitarian aid, and block defectors from escaping. Today, North Korea remains one of the poorest and most isolated nations in the world.

South Korea, meanwhile, has experienced rapid development, transforming into a major global economy. The so-called “miracle on the Han River” saw the south’s economy grow by nearly 9% annually for three decades following the war.

The Catholic Church in South Korea has also grown significantly, from fewer than 500,000 members in the 1960s to nearly 6 million today, according to data released by the Korean Bishops’ Conference earlier this year.

Bishop Simon Kim Joo-young of Chuncheon serves as president of the Korean bishops’ conference’s Committee for the Reconciliation of the Korean People.

“After 80 years of division on the Korean Peninsula, we must overcome conflicts with faith in the resurrection of Christ,” Kim said, according to Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

North Korea’s Christian past 

Before the Korean War, Pyongyang was known as the “Jerusalem of the East,” with a vibrant minority Christian population. In 1945, approximately 50,000 Catholics and more than twice as many Protestants were registered in parishes and churches in what is now North Korea, according to the Korean bishops.

Most Catholic clergy in the north were arrested, killed, or disappeared around the time the war broke out in 1950. The Church has opened a beatification cause for 40 monks and nuns from Tokwon Benedictine Abbey who were martyred by communist forces.

In 1988, the communist government established the “Korean Catholic Association,” which is not recognized by the Vatican and operates under strict state oversight. It reportedly had 800 members at its founding. No Catholic clergy currently reside in North Korea.

Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, now prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy, visited Pyongyang in 2005 during a humanitarian mission for Caritas Korea.

Despite the lack of religious freedom, some defectors from the north have discovered the Catholic faith after resettling in South Korea.

Fragile inter-Korean relations 

Inter-Korean relations have deteriorated significantly in recent years. 

In January 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an end to the regime’s long-standing policy of peaceful reunification and began removing related language from monuments and official rhetoric, labeling South Korea as a “principal enemy.” 

Later that year, Pyongyang sent balloons filled with trash across the border in retaliation for leaflet campaigns by South Korean activists. Bishop Kim described the deepening division as “a crisis.” 

“This situation is the result of ideological conflicts accumulated over a long period of division, which could be described as an emotional civil war,” Kim said.

Yet Archbishop Chung pointed out that “a small but meaningful change has begun in inter-Korean relations” this month.

President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June, suspended propaganda broadcasts along the Demilitarized Zone and called on activists to cease sending balloons into the north.

“As soon as our government stopped loudspeaker messages to North Korea, North Korea immediately ceased to broadcast its loudspeaker messages,” Chung said. “The tension that had been unrelenting between the two nations suddenly eased, creating a small but remarkable change that allowed us to seek a new relationship.”

Father Chung Soo-yang, vice chair of the bishops’ reconciliation committee, expressed hope that the younger generation will take the lead in promoting peace, especially ahead of World Youth Day 2027, which will be hosted in Seoul.

“Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Iran wars, it is globally important for the Korean Peninsula that has stood divided for more than a half-century to lay the foundation for peace,” he said.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264995/75th-anniversary-of-korean-war-korean-catholics-pray-for-reconciliation-and-unity