Soon after her president visited the world's smallest country, Sr. Mina Kwon from South Korea participated in the month-long synod. She says she learned a lot, but in her deepest heart, she longs for peace, especially in her country.
SR. MINA KWON
“I hope that the Holy Father would visit North Korea because he is already a symbol of peace. Not only for our Korean peninsula, but for all over the world. So he could make more peace in the Church and we really hope to unify between the North and South Korea. So we pray very hard to put the hope in our land and also in all over the world.”
She says while there is no religious persecution in South Korea as there was 200 years ago, there still is a division between the North and South.
This hope was something she gained personally when she found her vocation with the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. She came to really hear her call after caring for her grandmother who was in a coma. She felt she could really share in her grandmother's suffering, just as Christ shares in humanity's.
SR. MINA KWON
“I joyfully responded to God that I will change my life and I will serve for God and for the people of God, dedicating myself to this kind of love.”
This love is not only in fairytales, but it is found in the streets, amongst neighbors and even between countries. This, she says, can also be called peace.
SR. MINA KWON
“Everyone has the responsibility to put peace in one's proper place. It doesn't matter if it's Rome or it's Korea or it's Iraq.
It is my desire to put peace in every situation and in every people. So it's what I discovered here as my new responsibility in my life.”
With this new responsibility, she returns to South Korea to help foster this idea and share the virtues she's gained in Rome with the members of her community.
