Seoul (AsiaNews) – Pain caused by policies on abortion and embryonic research but hope for a better future, guaranteed by our faith in Christ’s resurrection.  This is the common denominator of the various messages sent out by Korean bishops to their dioceses this Easter.  

Card. Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, Archbishop of Seoul expressed: “our great disappointment for the National Bioethics Inquiry Commission, which decided to allow the limited embryonic research with the cloning of somatic cells, we urge the government and the academic circles to have more concern and support for the ethically correct adult stem cells research, instead of the embryonic stem cells research”.

The same them is underlined by Msgr. Andreas Choi Chang-mou, Archbishop of Kwangju, who writes “All crimes against the dignity of life and the life itself must be regarded as the infringement on the peace of human beings, and therefore we must counter them”.

This is increasingly apparent, as Msgr. John Choi Young-soo, Archbishop of Daegu, explains that, "We should not forget the fact that both an embryo and a foetus possess life in regard to the respect for life. I invite the faithful to initiate a beautiful and dignified culture of life”.

The bishops of Suwon and Incheon write, that if we do not celebrate this beauty “we risk defeat at the hands of that culture of death, which thanks to the nationwide practice of abortion, has resulted in the highest rate of suicide and the lowest birth-rate of the world”.

In order to counter this phenomenon writes the bishop of Pusan Msgr. Augustine Cheong Myeng-cho, “In the belief of the resurrection, it is a duty of the faithful to choose a leader who can give us a true hope”.