Asian bishops are warning about Korea’s Naju shrine. Here’s why

The Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines urged Catholics Monday not to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Naju in South Korea.

Philippines bishops’ conference president Archbishop Gilbert Garcera noted in a July 13 statement that South Korea’s Gwangju archdiocese had issued a negative judgment on the events at Naju, following a discernment process in communion with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“We address diocesan pilgrimage organizers, parish leaders, travel agencies, as well as Filipino pilgrims and devotees, urging them to refrain from organizing, promoting, or participating in pilgrimages to Naju,” Garcera wrote.

“Instead, we encourage the faithful to make pilgrimages to approved Marian shrines in the Philippines and throughout the world, where authentic Marian devotion is fostered in full communion with the Church.”

The statement appears to be the first instance of a national bishops’ conference publicly issuing its own formal pastoral guidance on the Naju site and telling Catholics not to organize, promote, or participate in pilgrimages there.

But the intervention follows a flurry of declarations about the phenomenon issued by archdioceses in Southeast Asia — an indication of growing concern