Catholics from South Korea and Japan have jointly marked the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of two Catholics who were martyred for their faith in Japan.
Catholics from the Archdiocese of Daegu in Korea and the Archdiocese of Nagasaki in Japan joined the ceremony to honour Blessed Kaiyo and martyr Diego Koichi, at the St. Philip Cathedral in Nagasaki on Nov. 15.
Bishop Jonh Bosco Jang Shin-ho, vicar general of the Daegu Archdiocese, cele-brated a memorial Mass on the occasion concelebrated with Archbishop Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki. A group of Korean Catholic pilgrims, including priests, led by the Korean Women’s Association, joined the ceremony as part of their tour of holy sites in Japan. ”Let us join hands with the two martyrs and become one in love and forgiveness,” Archbishop Nakamura said in his homily. “Let us all become one in acce-ptance, prayer, and evangeli-zation to all.”After the Mass, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the monument to the two martyrs in the 26 Saints Memorial Hall.
The Archdiocese of Daegu and the Archdiocese of Nagasaki jointly erected and blessed this monument in 2016.The two dioceses have maintained ex-changes for a long time. The common denominator is that they are the closest countries and the churches have grown based on devotion to the two martyrs.