Pope hopes Church can help suffering North Koreans

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed hope that the Church would do all it can to aid North Koreans, according to media reports on a meeting between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and the pontiff.

President Lee Myung-bak

Lee, who visited the Pope on July 9 while in Italy for the G8 Summit, spoke with him in private for about 30 minutes. It was Lee’s first meeting with the Pope.

“It will be difficult to resolve the North Korean issue through political means, but I hope the Catholic church will do all it can to help relieve the sufferings of the North Korean people,” the Pope was quoted as saying by Kim Eun-Hye, a spokeswoman for the presidential office.

G8 leaders had on July 8 condemned “in the strongest terms” North Korea´s recent actions in testing nuclear weapons, saying it “undermines peace and stability in the region and beyond.”

According to media reports, Lee’s office said the Pope and the president discussed issues of “mutual concern”, including North Korea’s poor human rights conditions and improving ties between Seoul and the Vatican.

The Pope also expressed his concern about the effect of the ongoing global economic crisis on the world’s poor.

He stressed the need for the international community to increase its support and efforts to resolve various humanitarian problems facing poor nations, according to the Korean delegation.

President Lee praised the contributions of South Korea’s Catholic Church to the improvement and protection of the rights of poor and invited the Pope to visit South Korea “to help expand the country’s Catholic Church.”

The invitation comes 20 years after the last papal visit, when Pope John Paul II traveled to the country in 1989.

After the papal audience, Lee held talks with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states.

The Vatican statement after the event said the discussions “provided an opportunity for an exchange of ideas on certain themes of common interest, among them the effects of the world economic crisis, especially on the poorest countries, and the political and social situation on the Korean peninsula.”

It added that “at a bilateral level mention was made of the good relations that exist between the Republic of Korea and the Holy See, as well as of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and of cooperation between Church and State in the educational and social fields.”

There are more than 5 million Catholics in South Korea, about 10 percent of the population.