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Members of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice march out of a cathedral in Suwon on April 24 following their prayer meeting there. (Park Seung-hwa/The Hankyoreh)

The Catholic Priests\' Association for Justice (CPAJ) held their first protest service to call for the resignation of the Yoon Suk-yeol government on March 20, 2023 in Pungnammun Square, in Jeonju. Since then, the association has been traveling around different regions to hold prayer meetings every Monday.

Beginning with Seoul Plaza on April 10, the group has held prayer meetings in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province on April 17, Seongnam-dong Cathedral in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on April 24, and the May 18 Democracy Square in Gwangju on May 1.

The weekly prayer meetings have been held at 7 pm on Monday nights in major cities across Korea, featuring CPAJ sermons and public chants critical of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The events are streamed live on the CPAJ’s official YouTube channel.

Members of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice march out of a cathedral in Suwon on April 24 following their prayer meeting there. (Park Seung-hwa/The Hankyoreh)

At the meeting in Gwangju, CPAJ leader Rev. Kim In-guk took to the podium and said, “Although it is the CPAJ’s duty to pray for the world in quiet places, when faced with a desperately dangerous situation, we have the duty to awaken the world.”

“I think this is why we are continuing to hold these prayer meetings every Monday,” he went on. “I believe now is not the time for us to complacently sit back and trust that things will work out, it is time for us all to rise up. This is an extraordinary and dire crisis.”

The statement read at the prayer meeting in Seoul explained, “[We] started these rallies because a priest’s conscience did not allow us to sit around and watch.”

“We believe that ordinarily being dutiful in one’s everyday life like Martha, then dropping everything to absorb yourself [in action] in times of emergency like Maria is a gospel act.”

Nuns participating in a prayer meeting by the CPAJ hold signs reading, “Safety for the weak; Justice for the strong,” and “Calling for contrition from the president,” during the sermon on April 24 in Suwon’s Seongnam-dong Cathedral. (Park Seung-hwa/The Hankyoreh)

During the meeting in Changwon, the CPAJ shouted, “We want a president dedicated to his office, a president with the correct perceptions of democracy and peace, a president whose education and view of history are upright and clear, a president who solves problems in just and truthful manners!”

There were also chants of “Step down, president that goes against our wishes! Step down, traitorous regime and dictatorship of prosecutors!”

Participants in the prayer meeting held in May 18 Democracy Square in Gwangju, outside the former provincial office, hold up signs and chant. (Park Seung-hwa/The Hankyoreh)

At the prayer meeting in Suwon, the group put forth a statement that read, “To stand by or tolerate that dark power which drags the national community to ruin is a grave misdeed tantamount to consorting with the sinner himself,” thus arguing that “taking back the power [vested] is of paramount priority.”

The CPAJ will hold a prayer meeting on Monday, May 15, at the May 18th National Cemetery in Gwangju to mark the anniversary of the 1980 uprising and massacre there.

Participants in the May 1 prayer meeting by the CPAJ in Gwangju pray in front of the Gwangju Democracy Bell while holding candles. (Park Seung-hwa/The Hankyoreh)

By Park Seung-hwa, senior staff writer

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