Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The Rosary that consecrated North Korea to Fatima

Seoul (Korean)

On August 15, 2020, the solemnity of the Assumption, the Cardinal Andrea Yeom Soo-Jung, Archbishop of Seoul and Apostolic Administrator of Pyongyang, consecrated the diocese of Pyongyang and all North Korea to Our Lady of Fatima. Lo hizo en la catedral de Myeongdong, en Seúl, en lo que la Iglesia coreana vive como un acto «en el exilio»: no podía celebrarse en el Norte, donde la diócesis sigue vacante e impedida, sin obispo ni sacerdotes residentes.

The gesture should be well placed. The diocese of Pyongyang did not historically have a Marian advocation of its own, and no consta that the church of Changchung - the only visible Catholic temple in the capital, built by the regime in 1988 and under state control - has changed its vocation or developed a Marian cult. The consecration of 2020 is therefore not born of the regime, but of the Church who prays from the South. Cardinal Yoom explained that he was seeking to implore Mary's intercession for the reconciliation and religious freedom in the North.

The choice of Fatima is sober and consistent: the message of Fatima - conversion, prayer and penance for peace - applies here to the reality of a divided peninsula. No wonders are promised and no miracles are announced; on exvotes, cures or apparitions linked to Pyongyang no consta nothing in the serious sources. What is offered to the Virgin is something more quiet and deep.

Because the devotion of the people of the North, says the Korean Church, focuses on the «martirio silencioso» of so many Christians: missing priests, deporteed laity, faithful living the faith in hiding. They are seen as intercessors for peace and reunification. They are not spectacular stories, but a hidden fidelity that cries out to the sky.

Thus, every time the Rosary is prayed for North Korea, the faithful unite their Hail Marys to that consecration and that silent martyrdom, entrusting to the Mother of Fatima the hope that one day the closed doors will reopen.