The president and Melania Trump walked from the building about 11:45
a.m. onto a large outdoor patio, turned and faced the assembled media
and posed for a photo.
They then turned around and stood for several minutes before the
statue of the late pontiff, where a wreath had been laid earlier, before
walking back inside the building without speaking or taking questions.
John Paul II served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, and
was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in April 2014. The
effort to erect the shrine was spearheaded by the Knights of Columbus, a
lay Roman Catholic organization.
During an annual report given last week, the Supreme Knight
of the Knights of Columbus, Carl A. Anderson, announced that the Order
is making another international expansion, this time to South Korea.
The chartering of St. Andrew Kim Taegon Council 16000 in Seoul
extends the Order’s reach to the country’s growing Catholic population.
“There are nearly 5.5 million Catholics in South Korea today,” said
Anderson during the announcement. “It is among the fastest-growing
Catholic communities in the world. I am sure that South Korea, like the
Philippines, will play a significant role in the future of the Knights
of Columbus.”
Pope Francis will visit South Korea this week.
The Knights of Columbus made its initial inroads into Korea in 2007
with the establishment of Bishop John J. Kaising Council 14223 at U.S.
Army Base Camp Humphreys near Osan. Since then, military Knights in
Korea have provided support to fellow service members in the Middle East
and have demonstrated charity to poor Koreans by collecting clothing
for the needy and volunteering at Shalom House, a Christian center for
migrant workers.
Bishop F. Richard Spencer, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for
the Military Services, USA, transferred his membership to the Korean
military council shortly after its founding in 2007. Four years later,
Bishop Francis Xavier Yu Soo-il of the Military Ordinariate of Korea
joined Council 14223 in mid-2011.
In addition to the councils in Korea, there are five military
councils in Japan. But the Order’s biggest presence in Asia lies in the
Philippines, where there are more than 320,000 members in approximately
2,600 councils.
