News Item: : Pope Francis Prayed for Victims of Abortion in Korea
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Tuesday 19 August 2014 - 15:22:27

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Many pro-lifers have been encouraged to see that Pope Francis prayed in a memorial for the victims of abortion, during his recent visit to South Korea. This is the first time that a reigning pontiff has prayed in such a place of memorial for aborted babies.

Health authorities in South Korea estimate that around 340,000 babies are killed by abortion each year. This represents almost half of the known number of conceptions of new babies in that nation. In reality, the figure may be even higher because this number does not include the abortions being carried out on unmarried women. With 1.25 births for every woman, South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates in the whole world.

The memorial which the Holy Father visited is in the grounds of the House of Hope. This was established in 1976 by Fr. John Oh, as a place of care and refuge for disabled people and orphans. The prayer garden was established by the priests who serve there. It includes a statue of the Holy Family and hundreds of white crosses to symbolise those killed in the womb.

Even though so many babies are killed all over the world by abortion, it is sadly only too rare to see such memorials. This makes the visit of the Holy Father such an important occasion.

When we were at Franciscan University of Steubenville, the campus had a Tomb of the Unborn next to a replica of St. Francis' Portiuncula chapel. Whilst 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration continues in the chapel, a permanent flame burns by the tomb to honour the victims of abortion. The tomb itself contains the mortal remains of Clare, Francis, Agnes, Jeremiah and Michael, who were all victims of abortion.

A couple of miles away is the parish of Holy Family. The parish has also dedicated a memorial in its grounds to remember all the babies who are killed by abortion. The memorial describes this as 'The SIN of our nation...'
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We also know that, in 2008, Fr. Morty O'Shea had such a memorial installed and blessed in the churchyard of his parish of St. Mary's in Carmarthen. At the time, Fr. Morty described the memorial as 'a solitary and prophetic witness to the abortion holocaust that continues in our midst... There is no reason why such a memorial could not be erected outside the front of any church.' As far as we know, this was the first such memorial in the whole of the UK.

In October 2008, we reflected that such memorials in parishes would not only honour the dead, but could also reinvigorate pro-life outreach and, if sensitively placed and constructed, could also provide an important place of reference and prayer to any women seeking reconciliation and healing from abortion.  



This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.755 )