Yesterday, Pope Francis spoke at a Mass before 50,000 South Korean Catholics at the World Cup Stadium in Daejeon. He warned his congregation that as the nation's economy grows even larger, the danger of materialism also becomes far more imminent. He urged the Korean believers to hold fast to the spirit of evangelism and reject "inhumane economic models".
The pontiff warned the huge congregation that materialism can "create new forms of poverty and marginalize workers, and the culture of death which devalues the image of God, the God of life, and violates the dignity of every man, woman and child."
Francis also called for peace, democracy and social justice in Korea, bringing the crowd to the topic of tension on the Korean peninsula since the signing of the armistice agreement in 1953. "Peace is not simply the absence of war, but the work of justice," the pope said on Thursday before 200 government officials at Seoul's Blue House, the official presidential residence of Korea.
He added that, "Korea's quest for peace is a cause close to our hearts, for it affects the stability of the entire area and indeed of our whole war-weary world."
Francis moved on to talk about the Korean church and its growth through the deaths of 10,000 martyrs. He praised the earliest Korean Christians who were nobles who found Christ through reading Catholic texts that were imported from China. The Pope noted that this was an example of hope to a "world that, for all its material prosperity, is seeking something more, something greater, something authentic and fulfilling."
Today, the Pope spoke at Mass that was held at the Gwang-hwa-moon Square in Seoul, right outside the royal palace where tens of thousands of Korean Catholics came to hear him speak.
