Cardinal Andrea Yeom Soo-jung presided over the ordinations
By Thomas Han
Feb 9 2021
Cardinal Andrea Yeom Soo-jung presided over the ordinations, confirming the local Church’s commitment to support vocations to the priesthood. One of the new priests is a missionary bound for Latin America.
SEOUL – Card Andrew Yeom Soo-jung presided over the priestly ordination of 20 new priests in Myeongdong Cathedral last Friday.
Mindful of COVID-19 regulations, only the parents and parish priests of the new priests attended the service, together with the auxiliary bishops and some other concelebrants.
The ordinations confirmed the springtime of vocations that the South Korean Church is experiencing.
In thanking God for this gift, Cardinal Yeom said in his homily that he wanted to continue to further promote and encourage openness to the priestly calling.
The cardinal, who is Archbishop of Seoul, extended a special thanks to the parents of the new priests, for their willingness to support their sons in their vocation to serve the Church.
One of the 20 new priests belongs to the Seoul International Catholic Missionary Society, a missionary congregation founded by the Archdiocese in 2005 to send missionaries to Latin America.
Two others were trained at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, which was set up in the South Korean capital in 2014 by the Neocatechumenal Way. One of the new priest comes from Rome (Italy), 39-year-old Fr Fabiano Rebeggiani, who trained in Seoul.
The celebration of priestly ordinations provided the Archdiocese with an opportunity to greet two leading figures present as concelebrants: Mgr Seo Sang-Bum, former parish priest of Daechi-dong, recently appointed military ordinary, and Mgr Mario Codamo, charge d’affaires of the nunciature in South Korea, who will soon transfer to Romania to take up a new post.
In thanking the Church of South Korea, in particular Cardinal Yeom for his pastoral dedication, Mgr Codamo expressed admiration for the missionary commitment of the Archdiocese of Seoul. – AsiaNews
