South Korea mourns the father of democracy

South Korea paused to mourn the former archbishop of Seoul, Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, who died quietly of old age on February 13, 2009. As the body of the 86-year-old cardinal lay in state in the church, over 400,000 people filed past to bid their last farewell.

Widely revered as the custodian of human rights in South Korea, Cardinal Kim had a further vision, democracy. “The will of the people is the will of God, and the will of the people is for democracy,” become his mantra.

Born in Taegu in May 1922, while Korea was under Japanese rule, Cardinal Kim was conscripted into military service by the occupying power during WWII but went to the seminary immediately upon discharge and was later ordained a priest in 1951. He ministered during the Korean War and then watched as his country’s newly-won national freedom was squandered by a series of corrupt and incompetent governments, culminating in the ousting of Rhee Syngman as president in April 1960.

Worldwide fame never sat easily with Cardinal Kim. In is autobiography, he reveals a humble man of doubt. He denies that he was at the forefront of the democracy movement and writes, “I tended to tell the younger priests not to keep holding the emergency prayer meetings.” He then adds, “Rumours that I was the godfather of the Catholic Priests Association for Justice were mistaken.”

Credited as a key influence in bringing an end to the violent government crackdown on the Democratization Movement in Kwanju in May 1980, Cardinal Kim writes, “When someone asks me if I did all I could at that time, I don’t have the confidence to say I did. If I’m then asked if I did nothing, I want to say I worked in my own way to stop what happened.”

Following his retirement in 1998, Cardinal Kim could be found at the Demilitarized Zone, offering Mass for reunification of a people separated by the concrete symbol of a divided country. His concern for the people of North Korea was life-long, constantly saying, “We need to be ready to help North Korea’s people, in any form and in any way, to realize our national aspiration, reunification.”

Priests working in the archdiocese of Seoul say that the Church did indeed grow prolifically under his care. The quiet leadership of what they describe as a gracious and graced man injected a spirit among the people which saw the aspirations of the council take root.

May he rest in peace.

Fr. Jim Mulroney, Hong Kong