This morning, in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience a group of Korean priests and men and women religious resident in Rome.
The following is the address delivered by the Pope to those present during the meeting:
Address of the Holy Father
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you!
Good morning, everyone. Welcome!
joh-eun achim-ieyo (good morning).
Your Eminence,
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is a joy to welcome you here today: Korean priests and men and women religious in Rome. Here, at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the faith you received in Korea finds its roots and can gain new missionary impetus. You have come from afar, it is true, but here you are at home.
I greet in particular those who are involved in the preparations for World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027. We are also marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the Pontifical Korean College: I offer my best wishes to the College community and my thanks for the service rendered to the Church in Korea and to the universal Church.
The history of your Church is truly unique. The faith root in Korea spontaneously and developed also through the sincere search for truth by men who came to know the Christian texts and wished to learn more about Jesus Christ. From that search arose the desire for Baptism, and from Baptism a community that recalled the early Church (cf. Acts 4:32).
This history offers us two words: memory and hope. Christian memory is not nostalgia, but gratitude for what God has accomplished and responsibility for what He entrusts to our hand today. Hope is not mere optimism, but rather the certainty that Christ is risen and no darkness can have the final word.
The Church in Korea has grown on the witness of the martyrs. Throughout its history, the Korean people have shown extraordinary fortitude: they have endured persecution, wars, poverty and divisions, yet have always managed to rise again and look ahead. Enlightened by the Gospel, this tenacity has become Christian fortitude: the ability to endure trials without losing hope and without allowing suffering to harden the heart.
Preserving the memory of the martyrs means allowing their faith to continue to live on in our choices, in our service, in forgiveness and in the gift of ourselves. I am thinking, in particular, of the Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, the second priest in Korean history, remembered as the “martyr of sweat”. For eleven years he tirelessly travelled the roads of Korea to reach distant and hidden Christian communities, bringing them the Word of God and the Sacraments, until he gave his life in service. His witness reminds us that there is the martyrdom of those who offer their lives in a single moment, and the more hidden martyrdom of those who give it day after day. Yes, this is what all Christians are called to do: to give their lives in love, every day.
Our times need precisely this: men and women who have the courage to do good even when it comes at a cost. Be a neighbour to those who are alone, support those who are weary, seek out those who have strayed. Have the courage to forgive, to start afresh, to engage in dialogue. Goodness is not always acknowledged and often requires effort, but it is this daily courage of charity that lends credibility to our proclamation of the Gospel.
The strength to live in this way comes from friendship with Jesus Christ, who said to His disciples: “I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). Dear priests, men and women religious, cherish this friendship. Nourish it in the Eucharist, in listening to the Word, in prayer and in silence before the Lord. It is in being with Him that we rediscover the joy of our vocation and learn to love as He does.
And friendship with Christ opens us up to fraternity. You come from different dioceses, institutes, congregations and backgrounds: make this diversity a resource for synodality. A synodal Church is a Church that walks together in the footsteps of the same Lord, listening, welcoming and recognizing in the other a brother or sister and a fellow traveller, never a rival.
This takes on a particular significance when we think of your homeland. The Korean Peninsula still bears the painful wound of division. For this reason, I ask you always to be men and women of reconciliation. Peace begins in the heart and in our daily relationships, when we listen rather than judge, forgive rather than harbour resentment, and choose communion rather than confrontation. Be united and be peacemakers. Let us continue to work and pray so that new paths of encounter may open up and so that the Gospel of peace may be proclaimed freely throughout the Korean Peninsula and the world.
Korea, once a mission field, has now become a homeland for missionaries. It is a precious fruit of the faith and sacrifice of those who went before you: remembrance gives rise to mission, and mission opens the way to hope. The upcoming World Youth Day will bring all this to light. Young people from every corner of the world will arrive in a land where the Gospel has flourished through the witness of the martyrs. I would like this to be a great encounter between memory and the future: the martyrs pass on the faith to the new generations, and young people receive it to carry it out onto the streets of the world.
Listen to the young, walk with them, and help them to discover that following Christ does not reduce their freedom, but rather makes it full; that faith does not restrict life, but opens up a broader horizon. Prepare, then, for World Youth Day with passion – as you are already doing – keeping these words in your hearts: “Take heart: I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16:33). Your martyrs had understood this: their hope did not depend on favourable circumstances, but on the certainty that Christ had already triumphed.
Dear brothers and sisters, you have received a great legacy. Be strong in faith, generous in charity, and steadfast in hope. Never grow weary of doing good, even when it costs you something and even when no one sees it: no act done out of love is lost before God.
In this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, I entrust you and the journey towards World Youth Day to Mary Immaculate, Patroness of Korea. I ask Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Saint Paul Chong Ha-sang and all the Korean saints and blessed martyrs to accompany you and to make you custodians of memory, witnesses of hope and peacemakers.
To you, your families, to your brothers and sisters in the faith, and to all the People of God in Korea, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing. Thank you!
