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936 signatures calling for an investigation into the disaster at the sit-in site at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul

A Catholic group held a press conference in Seoul on Nov. 10 to give family members of victims in April’s Sewol ferry sinking a list of 130,936 signatures calling for an investigation into the disaster.

The signatures, which were handed over by the group Catholic Council for Investigating the Sewol at the site of an ongoing protest in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, were collected from priests, monks, nuns, and congregants over the past three weeks.

“The Old Testament teaches that the public loses everything when it forgets God. We stand to lose everything from the disaster that awaits us if we forget the Sewol,” said Father Na Sun-gu of the Catholic Priests‘ Association for Justice (CPAJ).

Representing the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) justice and peace committee, Father Jang Dong-hoon said, “There are more than four million Catholics [in South Korea], but only around a million of them attend mass. About a tenth of those gave their signatures.”

“It’s the first time we’ve had regular believers, priests, and monks all putting their names down for a single issue since the battle to abolish the National Security Law,” Jang added.

The declaration the signatures were collected for reads, “The true goals of democracy are dignity for all human beings, respect for human rights, and promotion of the public good. A state that ignores human suffering is merely a means of defying these goals.”

It goes on to call for “not only an investigation into the Sewol tragedy and punishment of those responsible, but also a new national community, the rebuilding of a collapsed human society, and the rebirth of a true church.”

The Catholic Council for Investigating the Sewol is a collection of religious worker and lay groups, including the CBCK justice and peace committee, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Korean Conference of Men’s Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, and CPAJ. The signatures include 123,081 from laypeople, 1,936 from priests, and 5,919 from monks and nuns.

By Park Ki-yong, staff reporter and Cho Yeon-hyun, religion correspondent

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