17 August 2014  

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□ Meeting with Asian Bishops, 11:00 AM

In the morning of August.17, which is Pope Francis’ fourth day of visit to Korea and the last day of the 6th Asia Youth Day (AYD), the Pope will meet with the Asian Bishops at Haemi Martyr Museum in the Haemi Shrine located in Seosan, Choong-cheong nam-do, at 11:00 AM. 15 Korean Bishops and 50 Asian Cardinals and Bishops will be present at the meeting.

The Pope and Bishops will pray the Liturgy of the Hours together in English. After the welcome greeting of H.E. Cardinal Oswaldo Gracias, the President of Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference, the Pope will deliver a speech to the Bishops. Then, the Pope will greet the Bishops one by one. Although simple and short, the meeting with the Bishops is important. It will be an occasion for the Pope to meet and have conversation with the entire Asian Catholic Church by meeting with the Bishops who take care of the Church in the region. The Pope will have luncheon together with the Bishops from 13:00 in the Shrine.

□ ​Closing Mass of Asia Youth Day, 4:30 PM

The closing Mass of Asia Youth Day and Korea Youth Day will be celebrated in Haemi Castle (Haemieup-seong) at 4.30PM. Haemi Castle is the place where thousands of Catholics were killed and executed by the end of Chosun dynasty; around the Castle are the West Gate of the Castle through which the dead bodies of the “Catholic sinners” were carried out, the site of the jail in which the great grandfather of St. Kim Tae-Gon Andrew, St. Kim Jin-hu Pius, died, the “Hoya Tree” on which the martyrs were hung, their hairs tied to the tree’s branches, and the more.

The altar, the central space of the Mass, is prepared next to the West Gate of the Castle. This implies that the West Gate, through which the Catholics passed through dead, is regarded as the “Gate to the Heaven.” The Pope will stand next to the Gate; the young people will pray, facing the Pope as well as the Gate to the Heaven. The altar is made by assembling the crosses decorated by the young people from 23 countries. This is to show the Asian Catholic youths united in one.

This Mass, celebrated by the young people from 23 different countries and the Pope, will be a banquet of various languages. The reading will be in Tagalog and Bahasa-Indonesia, the prayers of the faithful will be in Japanese, English, Hindi, and Korean. Other prayers will be offered in Latin by the Pope and in different mother languages by the participants.

The Pope’s speech, which will become the closing remark of the Asia Youth Day, will be delivered in English, not in Italian as usual. The closing Mass is open to the youths participating in AYD-KYD and the 50 Asian Bishops, as well as to everyone who wish to come. Daejeon Dioceses expects approx. 45 thousand people to participate in the Mass.