ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - “The Church in Korea is with you!” Korean Bishops’ president tells Spanish Bishops

Wednesday, 15 June 2005

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Seoul (Fides Service) - In Korea where experiments in human embryo cloning have given rise to concern and a national debate the local Catholic Church is fully committed to using all its influence and energies to defend the value of human life and the family. Therefore in view of the efforts being made by the Spanish Bishops to protect the family, the Catholic Bishops of Korea have voiced full support : “We fully support the courageous efforts of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference to protect life and the family. We wish to tell the Bishops of Spain: we the Church in Korea are with you as you strive to defend moral and social values in your country. May the Lord be with you and may your valuable commitment lead to good results”.
The Bishops of Korea also welcomed the outcome of the recent referendum in Italy to relax laws restricting fertility treatment when the majority of Italian said no with a non vote. The Bishops said that this outcome gave new courage to Catholics the world over to fight to defend and protect human life from conception to natural end.
In recent years human life and the family have been subjects for reflection on the part of the Church in Korea and indeed all over Asia. In fact last year the Church in Korea hosted a general assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences FABC on the theme “The Asian family towards a culture of life”. In its closing statement after discussing the threats facing the family in Asia FABC said “only a culture of life inspired by the values of the Kingdom of God can promote the good of the family” and culture of life means “protection of human life in every situation and at every stage from conception to natural end” and it affirmed the “primacy of human dignity over efficiency and economy”.
Last December the Bishops of Korea issued a pastoral letter “The Family Place of Love and Life”, with practical suggestions to develop formation programmes, form small communities of families, train lay people in family pastoral care, offer human and spiritual counselling to divorced people, and to victims of domestic violence.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 15/06/2005 Righe: 26 Parole: 268)