 |
| Pope Visits Cemetery for Aborted Babies |
(Seoul) Pope Francis is the first Catholic Church leader to visit a cemetery for the victims of abortion. The Pope's visit on the third day of his stay Korea was to a Catholic Center for the Handicapped, House of Hope in Kkottongnae south of the capital Seoul.
The priests of the center built a garden on the site of the Taeahdongsan where there is a statue of the Holy Family, which is surrounded by hundreds of white crosses. The crosses symbolize the unborn children killed by abortion. A place of remembrance, of silent prayer that gives visibility to these children who could never see the light of day, is an indictment of the prevailing crime of infanticide. The Koreans commonly refer to the garden as the "cemetery of aborted children". Memorials and cemeteries for abortion victims are still a very new initiative to respond to the mass murder of unborn children.
In South Korea, Only Every Second Child Survives Pregnancy
Abortion cemetery in South Korea
South Korea is among one of the highest abortion rates in the world. According to the latest published official figures in 2005, 340.000 children were killed in the womb, while 440,000 were born. That is to say that hardly more than half of all children begotten in South Korea have a chance to be born.
Unborn children may be killed up to the 24th week of pregnancy. The reasons for the usual indications are accepted: rape, incest, severe disability or danger to the mother's health. As evidenced by the extremely high number of abortions, the statutory indications are not objective safeguards for mothers, but rubber stamps that actually allow the systematic mass murder of unborn children.
Hostility Through the Myth of "Overpopulation"
According to experts, the cause of the hostile attitude of many South Koreans to fertility, is a deliberate policy over decades of controlled fertility, which has been propagated by the government under the heading of "overpopulation" since the 60s.
In the "House of Hope" founded by Father John Oh in 1976 in Kkottingnae, several thousand disabled people have a safe home. The Catholic Center is a very safe place for orphans in a very hostile environment outside. There is also a kind of baby hatch.
The inclusion of the center of Kkottingnae by the organizing committee in the itinerary of the Pope was criticized by the media, because Father Oh is accused of having "misappropriated" public funds for its establishment. As Catholic observers insist, it seems in keeping with the smear campaign, because the life center with the cemetery for aborted children is considered an eyesore in certain circles.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Infovaticana
image: Infovaticana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD
