Pope learns how to greet in “Kkottongnae-style”
By Ko Dong-hwan
Fr. John Oh(right)
Pope Francis received an audience from a Korean priest in Vatican.
Fr. John Oh, founder of Korea’s largest welfare facility “Kkottongnae” (flower village) in North Chungcheong Province, was received in an audience by Pope Francis on Aug. 2.
An associate from Kkottongnae said on Aug. 4 that this meeting was anticipated from their previous communication. The Pope, when he was the bishop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, had requested Fr. Oh for a meeting, which then couldn’t be accomplished. Their recent meeting is thus interpreted as Fr. Oh’s response to the Pope’s past offer.
The meeting, absent of formal frills, took place beside a simple round table in the residence hall of the St Martha’s House for 40 minutes.
At the meeting, Fr. Oh requested the pope to visit a beatification practice for the 124 deceased and Kkottongnae in Korea.
The Pope told Fr. Oh that “Korea erected its Catholic kingdom with pure efforts of laymen and sacrament of baptism.” He expressed special interest and passion for Kkottongnae and advised Fr. Oh to “keep embracing the poor with decency, bravery and prayer.”
Fr. Oh presented the pope a China pottery bearing a text that read “God granted me grace as I retain power to feed myself” and the Pope’s portrait drawn by a paralyzed patient who painted it with his mouth.
In return, the pope drew up his arms above his head to make a shape of the heart, which is known as the “Kkottongnae-style” greeting, and gave Fr. Oh and other participants of the meeting from Korea papal rosaries.