SOUTH KOREA: Mourners pay their respects to Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon

Record ID: 523922

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: Mourners pay their respects to Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon
  • Date: 6th September 2012
  • Summary: GAPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA (SEPTEMBER 6, 2012) (REUTERS) HEAD OF PYEONGHWA AUTOMOBILE, PARK SANG-KWON STANDING AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) HEAD OF PYEONGHWA AUTOMOBILE, PARK SANG-KWON SAYING: "(The message reads) I express my deep condolences to widow Hak Ja Han and the bereaved family upon receiving the sad news that Sun Myung Moon, President of the World Peace Federation,
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Obituaries,People,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAACOHU3RF5YA3488LLH5Y91FJ7
  • Story Text: Thousands of mourners gathered at a church in Gapyeong, east of Seoul on Thursday (September 6) to pay their respects to the founder of the controversial Unification Church.
    Twelve altars are open across the country for people to remember Sun Myung Moon, a self-declared messiah, who died on Monday (September 3) leaving a vast business empire and a legacy of mass weddings.
    One woman was devastated at the news of his death.
    "I felt like the earth was falling down - I could not describe what I felt. What can I say here, where our true parent on earth passed away. My heart is still trembling and I was overwhelmed with grief," said 53-year-old Korean Jo Sung-sook.
    Another mourner from Angola felt the loss deeply.
    "When I heard the news, I was really really like lost, you know. Yes, father, I feel like lost my own father," said 42-year-old Frederic Domingo, who is living in South Korea.
    Church officials said Moon, 92, who had suffered complications from pneumonia, was taken to hospital in Seoul in mid-August and was moved to a hospital in a rural retreat last week when his family believed there was little chance of recovery.
    His body was lying in a vast building resembling the White House at the retreat in rugged hills about an hour outside the South Korean capital of Seoul. The funeral will be on Sept. 15, after which he will be buried at the retreat.
    Moon had led an active public life until recently, officiating a mass wedding for 2,500 in March and leading a service of more than 15,000 followers in July.
    Critics have for years vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as "Moonies."
    The head of the Unification Church's joint auto-making venture company with North Korea said he had a received a condolence message from the isolated state.
    "(The message reads) I express my deep condolences to widow Hak Ja Han and the bereaved family upon receiving the sad news that Sun Myung Moon, president of the World Peace Federation, died of illness. Though he passed away, his efforts and feats made for the reconciliation and unity of the nation, the reunification of the country and the world peace, will last forever. Kim Jong-un. September 5," Pyeonghwa Motors President, Park Sang-kwon at a news briefing in Gapyeong after his visit to Pyongyang.
    He added that North Korea had not appeared to send a condolence delegation.
    North Korea's state-run television KRT said on Wednesday (September 5) its leader Kim Jung-un sent a condolence letter to the family of Moon.
    Moon was known as a strident anti-communist and visited North Korea in 1991 to meet the reclusive state's founder, Kim Il-sung, to discuss business ventures and unification, a visit condemned by South Korea which remains technically at war with the North.
    Moon is survived by his wife - the pair are called "true parents" by followers - and 10 of their 13 children.
    Religious experts say Moon will remain at the centre of the church, keeping it together despite signs of previously unimaginable fissure among his sons, according to a creed that had been prepared since a helicopter crash four years ago that nearly killed Moon and his wife.
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