Pope Leo XIV holds up Korean martyrs as an example for World Youth Day 2027
The pope received Korean priests, religious sisters and brothers living in Rome a year before World Youth Day in Seoul, and asked them to work for reconciliation and peace
A year before World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, South Korea, Pope Leo XIV praised Korea's martyrdom and its missionary history in a meeting with Korean priests, religious sisters and brothers living in Rome. He received them in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. The pope held the meeting to mark World Youth Day and the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Pontifical Korean College's headquarters in Rome. He stressed the "extraordinary strength of spirit" of the Korean people and asked them to work for reconciliation and peace.
A faith that took root on its own
Leo XIV, who addressed those present with a few words in Korean, noted the unique history of the Church in Korea, where the faith sprang up "spontaneously" and grew "through the sincere search for the truth" about Jesus Christ, from which "came the desire for baptism and, from baptism, a community."
"The Church in Korea grew thanks to the witness of the martyrs," the pope said, and to the extraordinary strength of spirit of the Korean people. Koreans had endured "persecution, war, poverty and division, knowing how to rise again and look to the future," he said, with a tenacity that "became a Christian strength" allowing them to "endure trials without losing hope and without letting suffering harden their hearts."
The hidden martyrdom of each day
"Preserving the memory of the martyrs means allowing their faith to remain alive in our decisions, in service, in forgiveness and in the gift of ourselves," the pope said. He then cited Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, the second Korean priest, known as the "martyr of sweat" for his tireless travels around the country "until his life was spent."
Drawing on Choe's example, Leo XIV said "there is the martyrdom of those who offer their life in an instant and the more hidden martyrdom of those who give it day by day." He added that "our time needs precisely this: men and women who have the courage to do good even when it is difficult."
"The strength to live this way comes from friendship with Jesus Christ," the pope said. He encouraged them to cultivate that friendship, to nourish it in the Eucharist, to listen to his Word and to remain "in prayer, in silence before the Lord."
Reconciliation and preparing for World Youth Day
"Friendship with Christ opens us to fraternity," the pope said. He encouraged them to make diversity a resource for synodality in the Church, recognizing others as companions on the journey and never as rivals. Given the history of division that has marked the Korean people, he urged them to be men and women of reconciliation and reminded them that peace begins in the heart.
Turning to World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, Leo XIV said the gathering will make visible that "Korea, once a land of missions, has today become a homeland of missionaries," a fruit that comes "from the faith and the sacrifice" of many who went before. He said he hoped the event would be "a great meeting between memory and the future: the martyrs pass the faith on to the new generations and young people receive it to carry it along the roads of the world."
"Prepare, then, for World Youth Day with passion, as you are already doing, keeping these words in your hearts: 'Take courage. I have overcome the world.' Your martyrs understood this: their hope did not depend on favorable circumstances, but on the certainty that Christ had already won," he said.
