{UAH} Millions of South Koreans get ready to welcome Pope Francis!

From August 13 to August 18, 2014 Pope Francis will be visiting a country where he is
so much admired and almost adored for his simplicity and love for the poor and marginalized: South Korea
where the entire population of 53 million sould is waiting for the roman Pontiff with unprecedented joy and eagerness.
South Korea has a flourishing population of 18 million Christians out of whom close to 6 million are Catholics.
The Catholic Church is very dynamic in the country where it has 7 great universities run by Jesuits, and the number of
priests is 4,500 and it has its 1,000 missionaries spread all over the world.Furthermore the country counts 103 saints.
And in addition to those the Pope is going to beatify 124 Korean martyrs on August 16 in a ceremony expected to be
attended by over one million people.
The Pope is being now seen in that place as the only person who will correctly talk reconciliation between the two
Koreas and there is evidence that North Korea will lend ears to the Pope's message of mutual understanding between the
two peoples.
The Pope's visit also coincides with the continental Asian Youth Day celebrations to take part in South Korea and the Pope
will preside over Holy Mass for the Asian youth during those festivities.
The visit is an event of a global impact which will attract pilgrims and visitors from many other parts of the world. And thousands
of media staff will be on the spot to follow everything on behalf of a heavy global audience!
Programmed also for Asia are two papal visits, one to Sri Lanka and another to Philippines, both in 2015.
Meanwhile in Rome St Peter's Square is getting ready to resume the general Wednesday weekly audiences with effect from tomorrow
Wednesday August 6, 2014. Thousands of chairs have been placed in the first third of the Square to seat the old, the sick and the
disabled, in addition to the very many groups of pilgrims from abroad. Close to 200,000 people are expected!
And the Square will again shine brilliantly on October 19, 2014 when hundreds of thousands will pack in to witness the expected
beatification of Africa's beloved Pope Paul VI.
The Pope of vast crowds has continued to show his great impact on the populace with hundreds of thousands of people madly cheering
him wherever he has travelled in Italy. And during his appearances in St Peter's Square for the Sunday mid-day Angelus prayer he has
attracted masses and masses thanks to his message against the persecuition of Christians in Irak and the armed conflicts in the
Middle East. Palestinian flags were always seen in the Square as an accompaniment of the many Palestitian pilgrims always present.
In spite of thje terrible Roman summer heat an average 100,000 people would regularly turn up for the Angelus prayer. And what is
now becoming a mode of life in the Square is the almost naturally coded ululation the vast crowds howl whenever the Pope appears in
the window of his study. One could believe that the scene is in Africa!


Dr G.H. Kkolokolo ( Paris / France )

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