Requiem Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan(1922-2009)
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan passed away at the age of 86 at St. Mary's Hospital in Seoul Monday, leaving a great legacy as the ``conscience of the time'' in critical moments in Korean history. In his death, the late Cardinal also showed how he lives on in the minds and hearts of Koreans as a messenger of love, hope and gratitude.
The late Cardinal was a fervent advocate for human rights and democracy and outspokenly criticized the country's dictatorships during the military regimes from 1961 until the late 1980s.
At a Christmas Mass in 1971, he strongly denounced the Park Chung-hee government for trying to extend its rule.
In the 1980s, the late Cardinal stepped forth to block riot police from entering a compound where protesters for democracy huddled at Myongdong Cathedral.
During his Easter sermon in 1987, Kim also blasted the Chun Doo-hwan government as ``despotic.''
Kim was ordained as a priest in 1951 and raised to the rank of Cardinal-Priest of San Felice da Cantalice a Centocelle by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of April 28, 1969, becoming the youngest and the first Korean to hold the title. He retired in 1998.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens paid homage to the late Cardinal, whose body was placed in a glass casket in the main hall of Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral.
His funeral Mass will be held at the cathedral at 10 a.m., Feb. 20. Kim's body will be laid to rest in the Catholic Priests' Cemetery in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.