Pope Prays at Garden Memorial for Aborted Children
Pope Francis paid a visit to a garden memorial for aborted children on Saturday as he toured a South Korean hilltop community for the sick and disabled.
During the solemn visit, part of his prearranged itinerary to South Korea, the Holy Father and his entourage stopped for a moment and prayed in silence in front of hundreds of small white crosses representing victims of abortion. Accompanying the Pope was Father Lee Gu-won, a representative of pro-life groups in Korea and missionary to people without limbs.
The moment of prayer today came after the Pope visited Kkottongnae ("Village of Flowers"), a Catholic center about 60 miles south of Seoul which seeks to provide care and rehabilitation to the severely disabled, homeless and those afflicted by addictions. The Pope's visit to the memorial was especially appropriate given the stigma of disability in Korea and that genetic deformities are often used to justify abortions.
The "Cemetery for Aborted Children" is located behind the home and includes a statue of the Holy Family surrounded by a cross representing the unborn.
Some news agencies insisted on referring to it as a garden memorial for "aborted foetuses" rather than children or babies, despite the official name for the symbolic cemetery.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
