On Aug. 16, 2014, Pope Francis receives a letter from Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter in the sinking of the Sewol ferry, ahead of a mass held in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun to beatify Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 others who were martyred in the Joseon era. (Hankyoreh file photo)
“When I heard of his passing, I burst into tears. Throughout the past 11 years of fighting for the truth about the Sewol ferry, he was the person I trusted most. He was my greatest source of comfort and strength.”
Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter Kim Yu-min in the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, cried as he recalled meeting Pope Francis in August 2014, when speaking to the Hankyoreh over the phone on Monday.
When Kim saw him, the pope had been wearing a yellow ribbon badge, a symbol of the fight for truth of the Sewol disaster and the pledge to remember those lost. Four months after the tragedy, when Kim was in the depths of despair and on the 34th day of his hunger strike demanding the truth about the Sewol’s sinking, Pope Francis appeared at Kim’s side.
Throughout his five-day visit to Korea that lasted from Aug. 14 to 18, 2014, Pope Francis wore the yellow ribbon memorializing the Sewol victims near his heart.
After hearing of the passing of Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday, many of the marginalized groups who he had met and offered comfort to — those who lost their loved ones in the sinking of the Sewol, the families of those killed in the Yongsan disaster while protesting eviction, Ssangyong Motor workers who were laid off — lamented that there was still much work left for him to do, unable to hide their grief.
Throughout his visit, Pope Francis extended a neighborly hand to Korea’s most vulnerable. Instead of being ushered around in an imposing armored vehicle, he made his way around in a modest Kia Soul. Before a mass in Daejeon on Aug. 15, 2014, he set aside time to meet with the families of Sewol victims and pinned a yellow ribbon to his chest.
Ahead of a beatification mass at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square on Aug. 16, he got out of his car when he saw more family members of Sewol victims. That was when he took the hand of Kim Young-ho who was on a hunger strike into his own.
On Aug. 18, he officiated a “mass for peace and reconciliation” at the Myeongdong Cathedral with Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japan, workers laid off by Ssangyong Motor, residents of Jeju’s Gangjeong Village who protested the construction of a naval base, those affected by the Yongsan disaster, and those from Gyeongsang’s Miryang area where locals fought the erection of transmission towers.
“In 2014, when my comrades and I were in the midst of a long fight from where we couldn’t find an exit, Pope Francis raised the alarm about the savage order about us,” said Han Sang-gyun, the former leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who was one of the workers axed in the Ssangyong layoffs.
“The pope’s precious few words gave me the strength to get back up.”
“As the savage world still expands, I wish he were here to reach out to the people who are struggling in lower places,” Han added.
Yu Yeong-suk, who lost a loved one in the Yongsan disaster, recalled the Myeongdong Cathedral mass where Pope Francis consoled all of South Korea’s marginalized peoples.
“The mass itself was a great comfort. It’s such a good memory, I can’t forget it. It’s all very sad,” he said.
After consoling South Korean society’s marginalized and alienated communities, a reporter on the flight back to the Vatican asked him if he was worried about his efforts to console the Sewol victims being politically misunderstood. Pope Francis replied, “Whenever you find yourself facing human suffering, you have to do what your heart tells you to.”
“Where human suffering is involved, you can’t be neutral,” he said.
By Lim Jae-hee, staff reporter; Kim Ga-yoon, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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