Andrew Yeom Soo-jung (; born 5 December 1943) is a
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
prelate of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
who was the
Archbishop of Seoul
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seoul (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Metropolitae Seulensis'', ko, 서울대교구) is a Metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church comprising the metropolitan area of Seoul, So ...
from 2012 to 2021, while also holding the title of Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
in
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
made him a
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
in 2014. He was also the chairman of Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC).
Early life
Yeom Soo-jung was born in
Ansong
Anseong () is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, south of Seoul. Its geographical location is .
Anseong promotes itself as "The City of Masters". It is known for producing brassware and arts and crafts. From late spring to fall, Anseong h ...
, Gyeonggi Province, to devout Catholic parents, Yeom Han-jin (Calixto) and Baek Geum-wol (Susanna) descendants of Joseph Yeom Deok-sun, who was among the first Koreans to convert to Christianity in the 1700s and Peter Yeom Seok-tae who was arrested and executed in 1850 for his Catholic faith. His ancestors were among the lay people who brought Christianity to the Korean peninsula in the 19th century, and his great-great grandfather and his wife were executed as part of the Joseon Dynasty's persecution of Christians.
The Yeom family has kept their religious belief for generations through persecution, leading Archbishop Yeom, the fifth generation Catholic, to enter the priesthood. The third of six children, Yeom loves explaining how he discovered and cultivated his priestly vocation thanks to family prayer: his grandmother Magdalena Park and his mother, went to Mass every day for 30 years to pray for their children to become priests. His two brothers Yeom Soo-wan and Yeom Soo-eui have also followed him, currently leading two dioceses in Seoul.
At the age of 15, Yeom decided to become a priest and entered the seminary. He graduated from the Catholic University of Korea in 1970.
Priest
He was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
a priest of the Archdiocese of Seoul by Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan on 8 December 1970. He then obtained a Master of Education in Counseling Psychology from Korea University. He has also studied at the East Asian Pastoral Institute in the Philippines, while serving in various parishes.
After ordination he served as a curate from 1971 to 1973, then as President of the Minor
Seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
,
Songshin High School, from 1973 to 1977, and then as a pastor from 1977 until 1978. From 1987 until 1992, he was rector of the major seminary and then chancellor of the
diocesan curia serving in that role until 1998.
In 1998 he was appointed one of the Seoul's
Vicar Forane
A dean, in an ecclesiastical context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and many Lutheran denominations. A dean's assist ...
s, serving as a pastor as well until 2001. He was also a member of the
Presbyteral Council A presbyteral council or council of priests is a group of priests chosen to assist the local ordinary in an advisory capacity in the governance of a Roman Catholic diocese. Canon 495 of the Code of Canon Law lays down that every diocese must have ...
.
Bishop
On 12 December 2001,
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
appointed him an
Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul and
titular bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.
By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...
of Thibiuca. He was consecrated on 25 January 2002 in the Changcheon-dong Stadium, Seoul, by Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, Archbishop of Seoul, assisted by Andrew Choi Chang-mou,
Archbishop of Gwangju, and John Chang-yik,
Bishop of Chunchon. He then became the
Vicar General
A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...
of the Archdiocese of Seoul and episcopal vicar for the pastoral and the apostolate of the mass media, member of the Permanent Council and of the Commission for Missions, and for the Commission for the Pastoral of Health of the Korean Episcopal Conference, as well as president of the Committee for the Apostolate of the Laity.
Archbishop of Seoul
On 10 May 2012,
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Seoul to succeed Cardinal
Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk
Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk (; 7 December 1931 – 27 April 2021) was a South Korean Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Seoul from 1998 until he retired in 2012. He was previously Bishop of Cheongju from 1970 to ...
.
At the installation ceremony he said "We need to keep the dignity of human life in a society that takes life lightly. The Church will fight for that". As a symbolic gesture, the ceremony was held on the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, praying especially for the reconciliation and reunification of the two Koreas. His ministry has also been marked by constant references to the precious faith of martyrs which is seen an example of authentic testimony all Christians should follow no matter what their life condition or state. He also expressed a strong eagerness for dialogue, reconciliation and peace between the two Koreas to calm the tensions that are circling the peninsula, introducing the risk of a new conflict. The inaugural Mass was attended by Cardinal Cheong, Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop
Osvaldo Padilla, political leaders including former opposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu, Rep. Kang Ki-gap and Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo. As Archbishop of Seoul, Yeom heads the largest local Church in the Koreas and is also the apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Yeom received the
pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolit ...
from
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
on 29 June 2012.
Cardinal
Pope Francis named Yeom to the
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...
on 22 February 2014. As a cardinal priest, he was assigned the
titular church
In the Catholic Church, a titular church is a church in Rome that is assigned to a member of the clergy who is created a cardinal. These are Catholic churches in the city, within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Rome, that serve as honorary de ...
of
San Crisogono
San Crisogono is a church in Rome (rione Trastevere) dedicated to the martyr Saint Chrysogonus. It was one of the tituli, the first parish churches of Rome, and was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Sylvester I (314–335).
The ...
. Yeom is the third
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
national to be made cardinal, following Cardinals
Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk
Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk (; 7 December 1931 – 27 April 2021) was a South Korean Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Seoul from 1998 until he retired in 2012. He was previously Bishop of Cheongju from 1970 to ...
and
Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. On 23 February, a celebratory ceremony was held at Seoul's
Myeongdong Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception ( la, Ecclesia Cathedralis Nostrae Dominae Immaculatae Conceptionis; ), informally known as Myeongdong Cathedral, is the national cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of ...
, where he said, "I will make efforts to realize Pope Francis' vision of a Church toiling for the poor and those on the margins of society and to make it a Church serving the community. ... I respect efforts made by late Cardinal Kim and Cardinal Cheong, and will add mine to them." His appointment as cardinal was welcomed by many Koreans, though only 11 percent of the country is Catholic.
[ On 22 May 2014, he was named member of the ]Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship.
Congregation may also refer to:
* Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship
*Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...
and the Congregation for the Clergy
The Dicastery for the Clergy, formerly named Congregation for the Clergy (; formerly the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy and Sacred Congregation of the Council), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia responsible for overseeing matters regardin ...
. On 4 October 2014, he took possession of the title of San Crisogono. By papal appointment, he participated in Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
The Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the first of two synods popularly referred to as the Synod on the Family, was held in Vatican City on 5–19 October 2014 on the topic of Pastoral Challenges of the Family in th ...
from 5 to 19 October 2014 on the theme "The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization".
Pope Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop of Seoul on 28 October 2021.
Coat of arms
The Coat of Arms of Archbishop Yeom features the Traditional Red Hat, or the galero
A (plural: ; from la, galērum, originally connotating a helmet made of skins; cf. '' galea'') is a broad-brimmed hat with tasselated strings which was worn by clergy in the Catholic Church. Over the centuries, the red ''galero'' was restricte ...
, replaces the Green one with its 15 tassels dangling in two five-tiered formations from either side. Below the Red Hat is the Crucifix symbolizes the Holy Martyrs of Korea who were the victims of religious persecution against the Catholic Church during the Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
in the 19th century.
The shield is a symbol of God's salvation, and the three Rainbow colors: Purple (Love), Blue (Hope) and Green (Faith). The Herald of a new life, Dove, symbol of peace as a messenger came in the past, and will come in the present and future, and the spirit of the Lord brings into the presence among us even today and revealed that symbolizes the Holy Spirit. The Big Star in the center represents the Virgin Mary as she protects the two shining stars below symbolizing the peaceful reunification between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
and Republic of Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...
. An anchor cross and the two Greek letters "''A''" (Alpha) and "''Ω''" (Omega) that all the hopes and aspirations of the Korean People will be in the God's plan. The background's color Blue, Yellow, and Red symbolize Peace, Sharing, and Sacrifice.
Archbishop Yeom's Latin motto is taken from the Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...
22:20, ''Amen. Veni, Domine Jesu!'' meaning "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"
Views
Yeom's pastoral approach is also characterised by a respect for life and the mission. Respect for life is an aspect that is especially important to the Korean Church. The Church has focused its missionary work primarily on Asia.
Reconciliation between North and South Korea
On 21 May 2014 Yeom became the first Korean Roman Catholic leader to cross the inter-Korean border into the North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
. Accompanied by South Korean priests, he traveled to a joint north–south industrial park in Kaesong
Kaesong (, ) is a special city in the southern part of North Korea (formerly in North Hwanghae Province), and the capital of Korea during the Taebong kingdom and subsequent Goryeo dynasty. The city is near the Kaesong Industrial Region close t ...
, North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
, to tour the complex and meet South Koreans working there. Yeom told reporters after his return from the one-day visit that seeing South and North Koreans working in harmony gave him hope that the two countries can "overcome their pain and sorrow." The joint industrial park, located just north of the heavily armed border, is the last remaining cross-border rapprochement project between the rival Koreas.
See also
* Stephen Kim Sou-hwan
*Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk
Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk (; 7 December 1931 – 27 April 2021) was a South Korean Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Seoul from 1998 until he retired in 2012. He was previously Bishop of Cheongju from 1970 to ...
*Roman Catholicism in South Korea
, native_name_lang =
, image = File:Seoul_Cathedral.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral Church of Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception
, abbreviation =
, type ...
*Cardinals created by Francis
Pope Francis () has created cardinals at eight consistories held at roughly annual intervals beginning in 2014, most recently on 27 August 2022. He has created 121 cardinals from 66 countries, 23 of which had never been represented in the Col ...
References
External links
*
Andrew Yeom Soo-jung
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeom, Andrew Soo-jung
1943 births
Living people
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in South Korea
Roman Catholic archbishops of Seoul
Cardinals created by Pope Francis
Members of the Congregation for the Clergy
Members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
Paju Yeom clan
People from Anseong
People from Gyeonggi Province
South Korean cardinals
Roman Catholic bishops of Pyongyang
South Korean Roman Catholic archbishops