Milan (AsiaNews) – In exactly ten months, young people from around the world will head to Seoul for World Youth Day, scheduled for 3–8 August 2027, a pivotal moment for the Churches of Asia. Some 32 years after the Manila WYD, the region will once again host this special occasion to meet the pope.
AsiaNews wants to help prepare for this event. For this reason, it is launching a new weekly column today titled Destination Seoul, which will run every Monday leading up to the major event in August.
Beyond the location
What does this new section in AsiaNews seek to convey? Provide the latest news on the preparations, including updates from the organising committee regarding the days centred on the theme, “take courage, I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33).
However, Destination Seoul was not created solely for that purpose. It stems, rather, from a different idea: helping young people preparing to travel to Korea, as well as those watching from afar with interest, to gradually discover this great country, which, through its Church and society, has much to offer the world today.
Destination Seoul seeks to avoid a risk inherent in every World Youth Day: that of reducing the host site to a mere location, a backdrop for an event that simply repeats itself in the same way every time.
It would be a great shame if this were to happen with Seoul, as the event offers Catholics worldwide a unique opportunity to meet today’s Asia, its history and aspirations for the future, its highlights and its contradictions, and to look beyond the many stereotypes.
Yet such a meeting cannot be improvised; it requires preparation. This is precisely what we aim to do, week by week, drawing on a variety of voices. We begin today with the voice of Pope Leo XIV, who, alongside young people, will be a central figure during those days in August.
Indeed, this morning, while meeting with a group of Korean priests and religious men and women serving in Rome during an audience at the Vatican, he offered some insights regarding Korea that may also be relevant to our own journey.
Memory and hope
In his address, the pontiff began by reflecting on the unique history of the Korean Church, a story that, as many have already said and as we too will have the opportunity to explore further, arose spontaneously from the desire of laypeople who had met Christian texts in China and wished to learn more about Jesus.
“This history,” Leo XIV said, “offers us two words: memory and hope.”
First of all, memory reminds of the witness of the martyrs of this Church. Indeed, “the Korean people have shown extraordinary fortitude: they have endured persecution, wars, poverty and divisions, yet have always managed to rise again and look ahead.”
Indeed, “Enlightened by the Gospel, this tenacity has become Christian fortitude: the ability to endure trials without losing hope and without allowing suffering to harden the heart.” And it is precisely such resilience by the Korean people that we want to help discover, week after week, through the articles we will publish in this section.
“Preserving the memory of the martyrs means allowing their faith to continue to live on in our choices, in our service, in forgiveness and in the gift of ourselves,” the pontiff said, specifically citing the Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-Eop (1821–1861), the second priest in the history of the Catholic Church in Korea, whose heroic virtues were recognised by Pope Francis in 2016.
He is remembered as the “martyr of sweat” because, unlike Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (1821–1846), a fellow priest, he did not die a violent death at the hands of his persecutors; instead, he wore himself out in service and toil to reach the Christian communities living in hiding during difficult times.
“His witness reminds us,” the pope said, “that there is the martyrdom of those who offer their lives in a single moment, and the more hidden martyrdom of those who give it day after day. Yes, this is what all Christians are called to do: to give their lives in love, every day.”
“Our times,” he added, “need precisely this: men and women who have the courage to do good even when it comes at a cost. Be a neighbour to those who are alone, support those who are weary, seek out those who have strayed. Have the courage to forgive, to start afresh, to engage in dialogue.”
This is another side of today’s Korea that we aim to explore in the Monday instalments: the corners of Seoul that lack the glitz of the K-pop scene, and the city’s contradictions; but also the stories of those who, through daily service and by upholding the dignity of every individual, demonstrate to everyone that, even amid the futuristic promises of modern Asia, the truest novelty is that proclaimed by the Gospel of Jesus.
Peace and mission
Today, Leo also took the opportunity to note that South Korea remains a land scarred by division along the 38th parallel, the legacy of a war that inflicted deep wounds more than 70 years ago.
“For this reason, I ask you always to be men and women of reconciliation,” he said to the Korean priests and women religious. “Peace begins in the heart and in our daily relationships, when we listen rather than judge, forgive rather than harbour resentment, and choose communion rather than confrontation. Be united and be peacemakers.”
“Let us continue to work and pray so that new paths of encounter may open up and so that the Gospel of peace may be proclaimed freely throughout the Korean Peninsula and the world.”
Finally, the pontiff spoke about the missionaries the Korean Church gives to the world, whom he defines as “a precious fruit of the faith and sacrifice of those who went before you: remembrance gives rise to mission, and mission opens the way to hope.”
World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027 is thus, in the pope’s view, a major missionary event.
“I would like this to be a great encounter between memory and the future: the martyrs pass on the faith to the new generations, and young people receive it to carry it out onto the streets of the world,” he said.
“Listen to the young, walk with them, and help them to discover that following Christ does not reduce their freedom, but rather makes it full; that faith does not restrict life, but opens up a broader horizon.”
This calls for honouring the martyrs, maintaining an active presence in a society looking towards the future, bearing witness to peace in times of conflict, and embodying a Gospel of hope for the Asia of today, are four essential guideposts for preparing for next August’s World Youth Day.
It is precisely within this major undertaking that AsiaNews seeks to play a part with its Destination Seoul initiative. Through stories, collected voices, and in-depth analyses, the project can help us fully engage with a moment of such significance in the history of the Churches in Asia. So, join us next Monday as we continue this journey together.
