January 2003

This article is written in response to many inquiries that we receive about the status of Naju in the Church.  Additional information can be found in our Special Issues (1998 #1, 1998 #2 and 1998 #3) and also on the web site: www.marys-touch.com

I.  THE MESSAGES AND MIRACULOUS SIGNS IN NAJU, KOREA

1. Messages

Julia Kim received the first message from the Blessed Mother on July 18, 1985. (Interestingly, Our Lady's first apparition to St. Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal in Paris, France, was also on July 18, 1830.)  Since then, she has received many more messages from Our Lord and Our Lady with irregular intervals between them.  Sometimes, she received more than one messages on one day; other times, with an interval of a few weeks or months between messages.  Sometimes, she received messages in ecstasy; other times, while being awake.  Most recently, Julia received the Lord’s message on August 15, 2002, which is on our web site and can also been seen in a recent video: Who Will Sew Up My Torn Heart ? "

2.  Tears and tears of blood from the Blessed Mother's statue

Clear tears were first shed on June 30, 1985, while bloody tears began on October 19, 1986.  Our Lady's weeping lasted intermittently for a total of exactly 700 days until January 14, 1992.  According to Fr. Raymond Spies, Julia's spiritual director, this number 700 means a strong emphasis and continuity. 

3.  Fragrant oil

Oil with an intense sweet fragrance, similar to (but not the same as) the fragrance of roses, began exuding from the Blessed Mother's statue on November 24, 1992, and lasted for exactly 700 consecutive days until October 23, 1994.  During that period, the Chapel, where the statue was (and still is), was continuously filled with fragrance.  More recently, fragrant oil dripped down on the ground on the Blessed Mother's mountain near Naju several times while Julia and her helpers were doing the Stations of the Cross.

4.  Fragrance of Roses

Sometimes a powerful fragrance of roses fills the Chapel all night during the overnight prayer meeting; other times, it lasts only briefly.  Some people smell this fragrance from the water from the Blessed Mother's spring on the mountain, from the message book, from photographs, and so on.  Some people experience the fragrance while writing their testimonies.  Sometimes, the fragrance can be smelled only by a particular person (who may be undergoing conversion or physical healing).

5.  Eucharistic miracle involving changes of the Eucharistic species into visible flesh and blood

This miracle occurred more than twelve times through Julia, in the Naju parish church and Chapel, on the mountain in Naju; in the Cathedral in Sibu, Malaysia, in a hotel room in Rome, in St. Francis Church in Lanciano, Italy, in St. Anthony Church in Kailua, Hawaii, and in the Holy Father’s chapel in the Vatican.  The most recent one was in the Naju parish church on October 19, 1996.

6.  Miraculous descent of the Eucharist

This miracle occurred eight times, in the Chapel and on the mountain in Naju.  The most recent one was on the Blessed Mother's mountain on January 1, 2002.  Some of the Sacred Hosts that came down miraculously were taken to the Kwangju (=Gwangju) Archdiocesan office and others were consumed at the instruction of the bishop or priest.

7.  Stigmata on Julia

Visible bloody wounds appeared miraculously on Julia's body (palms, feet, and side) several times so far.  They lasted for a few days and then disappeared, probably because Julia prayed for that.  The Stigmata usually occurred when Julia was suffering the pains of Our Lord on the Cross. 

8.  Descent of Our Lord's Precious Blood on the Blessed Mother's mountain near Naju

Between November 9, 2001 and August 15, 2002, Our Lord's Precious Blood descended miraculously on the Blessed Mother's mountain several times and stained thousands of little rocks.  Julia saw that Our Lord's Sacred Heart was torn apart because of people's sins and their refusal to repent and the blood and pieces of muscles pouring out of the Sacred Heart.  On one of the rocks collected on August 15, 2002, the Precious Blood has been alternating between solidifying and liquefying.  The blood-stained rocks are being preserved in Naju and will probably be displayed in the Basilica which will be built after an official Church recognition of Naju.

9.  Countless spiritual and physical healings

Lately, the water from the Blessed Mother's spring on the mountain has frequently been a medium for healings.  Many times, Julia suffers the same pains that the person whose illness is being healed.  
 

II.  POSITIVE RESPONSES BY CHURCH LEADERS

1.  Bishop Daniel Chi of the Wonju Diocese in Korea visited Naju in January 1990 for a Novena prayer.  After witnessing the tears of blood on the Blessed Mother's statue, he wept and left a written testimony: I clearly saw and firmly believe. 

2.  Archbishop Giovanni Bulaitis, the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio in Korea until 1997, visited Naju on November 24, 1994, and witnessed a miraculous descent of the Eucharist two times.  He wholeheartedly accepted these as genuine signs from God and accordingly reported them to the Holy Father and Cardinals in the Vatican.  He has been spreading the information to many Church leaders in Europe.

3.  Bishop Dominic Su of Sibu, Malaysia, celebrated Mass on the Blessed Mother's mountain in August 1995 and witnessed a miraculous change of the Eucharistic species into visible flesh and blood.  He accepted it as an authentic miracle and a call for him to more vigorously teach the truth about the Holy Eucharist.

4.  Bishop Roman Danylak from Toronto, Canada, celebrated Mass on the same mountain in September 1995 and witnessed another Eucharistic miracle.  He wrote a sworn testimony and has been giving testimonies in many countries. 

5.  On October 31, 1995, the Holy Father witnessed a Eucharistic miracle through Julia in his chapel in the Vatican.  Some months later when he was with a bishop from Korea (Most Rev. William McNaughton of the Incheon Diocese), he said that he saw the Eucharistic miracle through Julia.  In 1997 and afterwards, a major Catholic TV station in Italy and St. Pio's shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo were allowed by the Holy See to publicize the same Eucharistic miracle.  The Holy Father also urged the Korean bishops who were on their ad limina visit to share the wonderful graces in Naju, especially with people in Asia. 

6.  Bishop Dominic Su in Malaysia witnessed another Eucharistic miracle through Julia during her visit to his diocese in Malaysia in September 1996 and issued a statement officially recognizing it, as this miracle occurred within his diocese. 

7.  Bishop Paul Kim of the Cheju(=Jeju) Diocese in Korea visited Naju on June 12, 1997 and witnessed a Sacred Host that miraculously descended.  During his ad limina visit, he made a detailed report to the Holy Father and asked him to open an international investigation.  The Holy Father reportedly sent down some instructions to the proper Congregations.  Bishop Kim informs us that the Holy Father had a deeply warm feeling toward the Blessed Mother in Naju and Julia.

8.  Bishop Dominic Su visited Naju again on August 15, 2002, and witnessed Our Lord's Precious Blood descended on the mountain.  After his return to Malaysia, he wrote a testimony. 
 

III.  REJECTION OF NAJU BY THE MODERNIST CLERGY IN KOREA

In the early years of the messages and signs in Naju, Archbishop Victorinus Youn of the Kwangju(=Gwangju) Archdiocese, which covers the Naju parish, was quite favorable toward Julia.  However, he was gradually persuaded by the progressive priests surrounding him, and eventually issued a negative statement or declaration on January 1, 1998.  His stance toward Naju is being maintained by his successor, Archbishop Andrew Choi.  Most of the twenty Korean bishops have been going along with the decision by the Kwangju(=Gwangju) Archdiocese.  A few bishops and some priests in Korea continue their positive stance on Naju.  The flow of many pilgrims — both Korean and foreign — continues.

Even though Korea had about 20,000 Catholic martyrs from the mid-18th century until the late 19th century and still has a large number of priests, religious, and laity who are solidly faithful to the traditional Catholic teachings, loyal to the Holy Father, and devout in their Eucharistic and Marian devotion, it cannot be said that the Catholic Faith and Tradition has landed its root firmly and deeply among the Korean people and culture yet.  After Korea was liberated from the Japanese colonization at the end of World War II, Protestant denominations grew at phenomenal rates partly because of the effective work by the American missionaries. (Now, about one quarter of the Korean population of 47 mil. are Protestants compared to only about six to seven percent for Catholics.)  For the past several decades, the Catholic Church in Korea has been making considerable efforts to accommodate the Protestant brethren as well as the traditional Buddhist and Confucian followers and has not been adequately assertive in unequivocally proclaiming and propagating the traditional Catholic teachings.  Also, many of the leading theologians in Korea were trained in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria.  Frequently, their loyalty to Rome seems doubtful.  Then, from the mid-1960s, there were the tidal waves of the so-called The Spirit of Vatican II, which is actually a progressive spirit, disloyal to the authentic Catholic Faith and Tradition and based on distortions and exaggerations of the true teachings of the Second Vatican Council.  As widely known, the progressive theologians and their followers seized that opportunity to implement their modernist, secular, Protestant-like ideas.  Soon after Vatican II, kneelers in all Korean Catholic churches were removed; the beautiful Catholic tradition of genuflection (they now bow instead) and kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament disappeared; many of the Blessed Mother’s statues were taken away; communion on the tongue was virtually prohibited; the leading liberal theologians have been advocating female priesthood, abolishment of priestly celibacy, election of bishops by priests and laity, adapting the Church doctrines to the modern needs, etc. and have been guiding the Sisters who teach Catechism; Buddhist monks have sometimes been invited to speak in Catholic churches; the ban on "Chesa (an old custom in Korea of ancestor worshipping or veneration)"was lifted (many Korean Catholics of the 19th Century were martyred for discontinuing to practice "Chesa"); and more.  In the mean time, a significant number of the priests in Korea have lost their sense of heavenly vocation and got married.

The theologian and priest who wrote the Kwangju(=Gwangju) Archbishop's negative declaration on Naju defended this declaration in his article carried in the official magazine of the Korean Bishops' Conference, Pastoral Care, two months after the declaration.  In it, he stated that the real reason for rejecting the Eucharistic phenomena in Naju was "to seek the grand objective of pursuing unity with Protestants"  Is he proposing that Catholic teachings be compromised in order to unite with Protestants?  Is he saying that we should adopt the Protestant belief that Christ is present in the Eucharist only in a symbolic way?  Is he suggesting that Church teachings are human products and, therefore, can be altered by humans?  He even seemed to have some air of pride and satisfaction in having provided his bishop with a theological justification.  The Kwangju(=Gwangju) Archbishop's declaration and subsequent arguments by some Korean theologians state that the Eucharistic miracles are in conflict with Church teaching that says that the Eucharistic species must remain unchanged and also that descents of the Eucharist are in conflict with Church teaching that says that Eucharist can be formed only through consecration by validly-ordained priests.  (By this statement, the Korean theologians are making a mockery of all the Eucharistic miracles in Church history and the Church decisions that officially approved many of the miracles.)  As explained elsewhere (in the three Special Issues of Mary's Touch 1998 and on the Mary's Touch web site), these statements by the Korean theologians are themselves outright distortions of the authentic Catholic teachings.  The Korean theologians are referring to the Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent to defend their views, but, on other occasions, they usually discredit the Church teachings prior to Vatican II — especially the teachings of the Council of Trent, which clarified Church teachings against the Protestant errors.  In Korea, the modernist forces are powerful in the Church and hold teaching positions in seminaries and Catholic universities.  They also get involved in some of the political issues through their influential organization called "Priests for Social Justice," which has also been exerting a major influence in blocking Naju.  They seem to have many reasons to feel confident that they can easily crush something like Naju.  Whether the messages and signs are really coming from God or not seems to be beyond their interest.
 

IV.       CONCLUSION

What is going on in Korea is an intense spiritual battle.  It is a war being waged all over the world to decide the fate of the human race, but is currently being fought especially intensely in Korea.  In some ways, Korea seems to be at the focal point in this spiritual war.  Korea has the highest abortion rate in the world: more than 50% of all pregnancies end in abortion.  North Korea has the only remaining Stalinist dictatorship, now threatening world peace, while starving its own people.  The Blessed Mother has been giving messages of grave importance and pouring down so many miraculous signs in Naju.  When she wins the battle in Korea, the whole continent of Asia may open up for her advances, and the faith in the West may also be revitalized. 

This is a difficult time for the Church and for everyone who stands up for the Truth.  In Naju, Our Lady has repeatedly said that, with the help of her little-but-devoted children, her Immaculate Heart will surely triumph.

Sang M. Lee
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