The Seoul municipal government has chosen a downtown area as the venue for a beatification ceremony for more than 100 Korean Catholic martyrs to be held here during Pope Francis’ visit in mid-August, officials said Friday.
A local preparation committee has recently made the decision to host the Catholic canonization ceremony in the central Seoul area linking Gwanghwamun Plaza to Seoul Plaza, located in front of Seoul City Hall.
Pope Francis plans to make a five-day trip to the country from Aug. 14 to participate in a Catholic youth festival and to preside over the beatification ceremony, set for Aug. 16.
With the canonization, 124 Catholic martyrs, including Paul Yun Ji-chung, a first-generation Korean Catholic persecuted under the Confucian Joseon Dynasty in the early 19th century, will receive the Catholic Church’s recognition as “blessed.” It is the third of the four steps in the Catholic canonization process.
It will be the pope’s first trip to Asia since being elected last year. The late Pope John Paul II came here twice, most recently in 1989.
The Seoul city government estimates that as many as 1 million people, including 200,000 Catholic believers, may gather to attend or watch the rare Catholic event in the country.
The city will close the roads around the Gwanghwamun area on the day of the ceremony while subway trains will not stop at the Gwanghwamun, City Hall and Gyeongbokgung Palace stations.
The South Korean government is also preparing security, anti-terrorism and traffic control measures for the successful hosting of the event.
The ceremony is to run for two hours and 20 minutes from 10 a.m., mainly featuring the pope’s parade and a Mass that he will preside over. (Yonhap)
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