In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you!

Good morning to all. Welcome!

joh-eun achim-ieyo (good morning).

Eminence, dear brothers and sisters,

It is a joy to welcome you today, Korean priests, religious sisters and religious, to Rome. Here, at the memorials of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the faith you received in Korea finds its roots and can receive new missionary impetus. You come from far away, it is true, but here you are at home.

I greet in particular those engaged in preparing World Youth Day in Seoul 2027. This year also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the headquarters of the Pontifical Korean College: I extend to the College community my best wishes and my gratitude for the service rendered to the Church in Korea and to the universal Church.

The history of your Church is truly singular. The faith sprang up spontaneously in Korea and also developed through the sincere search for truth by men who came to know Christian texts and wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. From that search was born the desire for Baptism, and from Baptism a community that recalled the Church of the origins (cf. Acts 4:32).

This history hands down to us two words: memory and hope. Christian memory is not nostalgia, but gratitude for what God has accomplished and responsibility for what He entrusts to our hands today. Hope is not mere optimism, but the certainty that Christ is risen and that no darkness can have the last word.

The Church in Korea has grown on the witness of the martyrs. The Korean people have shown throughout their history an extraordinary strength of spirit: they have endured persecutions, wars, poverty and divisions, knowing how to rise again and look forward. Illuminated by the Gospel, this tenacity has become Christian fortitude: the capacity to go through trial without losing hope and without letting suffering harden the heart.

To keep the memory of the martyrs alive means allowing their faith to continue living in our choices, in service, in forgiveness and in the gift of ourselves. I think in particular of Venerable Thomas Choe Yang-eop, the second priest in Korean history, remembered as the "martyr of sweat". For eleven years he tirelessly travelled the roads of Korea to reach distant and hidden Christian communities, bringing them the Word of God and the Sacraments, until he consumed his own life in service. His witness reminds us that there is the martyrdom of one who offers life in a single moment, and the more hidden martyrdom of one who gives it day after day. Yes, all Christians are called to this: to give one's life with love, every day.

Our time needs precisely this: men and women who have the courage to do good even when it costs. Become neighbours to those who are alone, support those who are weary, seek out those who have drifted away. Have the courage to forgive, to start over, to engage in dialogue. Good is not always recognized and often costs effort, but it is this daily courage of charity that makes our proclamation of the Gospel credible.

The strength to live in this way comes from friendship with Jesus Christ, who said to his disciples: "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15). Dear priests, religious men and women, keep this friendship alive. Nourish it in the Eucharist, in listening to the Word, in prayer and in silence before the Lord. It is in being with Him that we rediscover the joy of our vocation and learn to love as He loves.

And friendship with Christ opens us to fraternity. You come from different dioceses, institutes, congregations and experiences: make this diversity a resource for synodality. A synodal Church is a Church that walks together behind the same Lord, listening, welcoming and recognizing in the other a brother or sister and a companion on the journey, never a competitor.

This takes on particular meaning when I think of your homeland. The Korean peninsula still bears the painful wound of division. For this reason I ask you to always be men and women of reconciliation. Peace begins in the heart and in daily relationships, when we listen instead of judging, forgive instead of holding grudges, choose communion instead of confrontation. Be united and be artisans of peace. Let us continue to work and pray that new paths of encounter may open and that the Gospel of peace may be proclaimed freely in every part of the Korean peninsula and of the world.

Korea, once a land of mission, has today become a homeland of missionaries. It is a precious fruit of the faith and sacrifice of those who came before you: memory generates mission, and mission opens to hope. The upcoming World Youth Day will make all this visible. Young people from every part of the world will arrive in a land where the Gospel has grown through the witness of the martyrs. I would like it to be a great encounter between memory and future: the martyrs hand down the faith to the new generations, and the young people receive it in order to carry it along the roads of the world.

Listen to young people, walk with them, and help them discover that following Christ does not diminish freedom but makes it full; that faith does not restrict life but opens a wider horizon for it. Prepare WYD, then, with passion – as you are already doing – keeping in your hearts the words: "Take courage, I have conquered the world!" (Jn 16:33). Your martyrs had understood this: their hope did not depend on favourable circumstances, but on the certainty that Christ had already conquered.

Dear brothers and sisters, you have received a great inheritance. Be strong in faith, generous in charity and persevering in hope. Never tire of doing good, even when it costs and even when no one sees it: no gesture done out of love is lost before God.

In this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, I entrust you and the journey toward World Youth Day to the Virgin Mary Immaculate, Patroness of Korea. I ask Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Saint Paul Chong Ha-sang and all the holy and blessed Korean martyrs to accompany you and make you custodians of memory, witnesses of hope and artisans of peace.

To you, to your families, to your brothers and sisters in community, and to the whole People of God in Korea, I impart with all my heart the Apostolic Blessing. Thank you!