US missionary in North Korea a silent 'apostle of peace'
US missionary in North Korea a silent 'apostle of peace'
- Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, no Catholic priest has resided in the North of this divided peninsula, where autonomous religious activity is effectively forbidden. And no enemy of the communist regime there is more detested or fiercely denounced than the United States. Nevertheless, one of the few outsiders to have penetrated the so-called hermit kingdom of the North is an 81-year-old Catholic priest from West Philadelphia. Maryknoll Father Gerard Hammond, 81, who has lived in
- Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, no Catholic priest has resided in the North of this divided peninsula, where autonomous religious activity is effectively forbidden. And no enemy of the communist regime there is more detested or fiercely denounced than the United States. Nevertheless, one of the few outsiders to have penetrated the so-called hermit kingdom of the North is an 81-year-old Catholic priest from West Philadelphia. Maryknoll Father Gerard Hammond, 81, who has lived in