Catholic World News News Feature

Korean bishop issues caution on alleged Marian revelations July 19, 2007

A bishop in South Korea has renewed his caution to the faithful about a group led by a woman who has claimed special messages from the Virgin Mary.

Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san of Inchon has instructed Catholics of his diocese not to participate in activities at the Naju shrine, founded by the alleged seer Julia Kim Young Hong-sun. He issued his order after several hundred people gathered at the shrine for liturgical services led a Korean-born priest now living in the US.

Julia Kim Young Hong-sun began making claims about a weeping statue of the Virgin in 1985. She later added the claim that she receives private revelations, and has reported Eucharistic miracles at the shrine she established in Naju.

A Church investigation into the claims ended in 1998 when Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi of nearby Kwangju announced that there was no evidence of supernatural phenomena at the Naju shrine. Church officials rejected the reports of miracles in a second statement issued in 2005.