Catholic priests organization gives national recognition to calls for Pres. to resign

Posted on : 2013-12-06 16:16 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Religious figures digging in for long battle to expose the truth of the president’s unfair election
 Nov. 22. (by Kim Bong-gyu
Nov. 22. (by Kim Bong-gyu

By Cho Hyun-yeon, religion correspondent

On Dec. 4, the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice (CPAJ) called on Korean President Park Geun-hye to resign. The priests stated that they were prepared to resist with the spirit of martyrs in order to achieve this end.

The CPAJ expressed its position 12 days after the Jeonju diocese of the association held a special mass on Nov. 22 in which they demanded Park’s resignation. The Nov. 22 mass was held just by CPAJ’s Jeonju diocese, but yesterday’s statements is a national level statement against the state institutions’ political interference and the news media’s faulty coverage.

“Protestants, Buddhists, and Won Buddhists are joining Catholics to urge the president to confess the government’s attempts to rig the election and to take responsibility for these attempts,” the CPAJ said in a statement expressing its position. “Despite this, the government adheres to its politics of terror, which is characterized by a failure to communicate, self-righteousness, and repression of opposing forces. Such a government cannot endure for long.”

“Even now, the honorable course of action is for Park to take responsibility for all of these things and to voluntarily step down,” the statement said.

“The President obstructed the investigation and forced out the prosecutor-general and the head investigator, who were only following their conscience. Even when it was discovered that the National Intelligence Service had posted millions of comments and Twitter messages interfering with the election, the President kept feigning ignorance. In fact, she tried to neutralize anyone who talked about the rigged election by labeling them as a North Korean sympathizer,” the organization said.

“The Jeonju diocese’s special mass was attacked on ideological grounds, which was severely insulting and greatly offensive to Catholics in Korea. These priests were obeying the dictate of their conscience, but the government tried to portray their message as Communist propaganda. This is the crisis management method that has been repeatedly used by corrupt governments of the past,” the priests said.

The statement also singled out the media for criticism. “Another contributing factor was the malicious way that some conservative newspapers and TV networks blindly followed the government’s lead. There is no doubt that this will leave a black mark on the history of Korean journalism,” the statement said.

“Each time in history that the church has resisted organized power, there has been a heavy price to pay. This is demonstrated by the blood-stained records of the martyrs,” said the CPAJ. “But fighting injustice is at the heart of our belief. Trials purify the soul and refine the spirit of the church. As we have always done, we will not refuse to walk the path of thorns. For priests such as us whose lives are spent dreaming of the kingdom of heaven, this is both our duty and our joy.”

“Asking that those involved with the election rigging be held accountable may result in us facing hardship. But even so, we will not refuse the cross we have to bear. If we remained silent even as we witnessed injustice in our time, it would be both dereliction of our duty and a denial of our identity as priests. As was emphasized over and over again in Pope Francis’s first papal exhortation ‘The Joy of the Gospel,’ which was released recently, the mission of the church is to share the pain of people who are suffering. Priests are the offering that is made in that work.”

“The tragic end of the Yushin dictatorship [the assassination of former president Park Chung-hee] is a chilling message to everyone in power,” the priests said, urging the president, the government, and the ruling party to repent.

“We will never stop standing up to injustice. We ask all priests, monks, nuns, and laypeople to pray that the darkness we see today will be rolled bacjk,” the priests said.

The CPAJ is planning to organize a “relay mass” that will be held in each Catholic diocese. One priest in the organization who declined to be identified said, “The first special mass will be held just before Christmas.”

 

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