Paul Marie Kinam Ro

Paul Marie Kinam Ro

Paul Marie Kinam Ro ( Korean : 노기남 ; born December 22, 1902 in Ron Tjai , P'yŏngan-namdo , North Korea , then Japanese Empire ; †  June 25, 1984 in Seoul ) was a Korean bishop . Paul was his baptismal name, Kinam was his first name, and Ro was his family name.

Rise to Archbishop

He was born the eleventh child into a Catholic family and was ordained a priest on October 26, 1930. On November 10, 1942, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Colbasa and Vicar Apostolic of Seoul . This made him the first Korean bishop. On December 20, 1942, his predecessor Adrien-Jean Larribeau consecrated him with the assistance of Bonifatius Sauer , Abbot of Tokwon , and Paul Aijirō Yamaguchi , Bishop of Nagasaki , as bishop. His motto was “Fiat Voluntas Tua”, which means “Your will be done”. From June 1 to December 9, 1948, he was also Apostolic Administrator of Taiko .

With the elevation of the Apostolic Vicariate Seoul to the archbishopric, Ro was appointed first archbishop on March 10, 1962. As a council father he took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council . From 1964 to 1967 he was chairman of the Korean Bishops' Conference.

During the reign of Rhee Syng-man , the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960, Ro was considered pro- American and anti- communist .

Retreat and end of life

Archbishop coat of arms

On March 23, 1967, Ro resigned from his office as archbishop and was appointed titular archbishop pro hac vice of Tituli in Proconsulari . He returned this title on March 10, 1971 and became Archbishop Emeritius of Seoul. He was the chief consecrator of John Baptist Choi Deok-hong and Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk and co-consecrator of eleven other bishops.

Ro died in Seoul on June 25, 1984 at the age of 81.

More than 1.4 million Catholics now live in the Archdiocese of Seoul, which was previously headed by Ro; of the 50 million inhabitants of South Korea, just under 5.4 million are currently Catholic (as of 2017).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David M. Cheney: Archbishop Paul Marie Kinam Ro. Catholic-Hierarchy, accessed February 10, 2018 . 
2. ^ Sang-yŏng Yu: Democratic Movements and Korean Society: Historical Documents and Korean Studies . Yonsei University Press, ISBN 978-89-7141-816-1 (English)
3. ^ Archdiocese of Seoul , North Korea and South Korea . In: GCatholic . ( gcatholic.org [accessed February 10, 2018]).
4. ↑ How are the Christians in South Korea? . Domradio.de, September 1, 2017 , accessed on April 2, 2018.

predecessor	Office	successor
Adrien Larribeau	Vicar Apostolic of Seoul 1942–1962	raised to the archbishopric
First incumbent	Archbishop of Seoul 1962–1967	Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan