Who is Julia Kim? (Eucharistic miracle of Naju).

Julia Kim was born in 1947 in Naju, a city of about 80,000 near the south-western tip of the Korean peninsula. Her father was a teacher of Chinese literature. During the Korean war, in the early 1950s, the father and grandfather perished, together with Julia's younger sister. The years that followed were years of hardship and poverty for her and her mother. Julia could not even complete her secondary education.

In 1972 she married Julio Kim, a civic employee of the city of Naju. The Kims had embraced the Christian faith in one of the Protestant churches. Early in her married life Julia fell victim to various serious illnesses including cancer. Her life became an existence of extreme pain and suffering.

Julia was near death when the Kims were visited by a Catholic priest friend. As the priest prayed over Julia, she received an anointing of the Holy Spirit and was healed completely. The Kims began taking instructions in the Catholic faith, and were received on Easter Sunday, 1981. By now Julia had opened a successful beauty salon. She and her husband both became zealous and active Catholics. Julio is presently in charge of the neo-catechumenate program in their Naju parish. The Kims have four children and two grandchildren.

New suffering

In 1982 Julia was called to share in the cross of Christ through new sufferings. This was in preparation for the mission the Lord was preparing for her, to suffer in reparation for the sins of our society and especially for the sins of abortion.

On June 30, 1985, the Kims had been visiting a poor village north of Naju. When they returned home before midnight, Julia began to pray the rosary before a statue of the Blessed Virgin, when she noticed tear drops in the eyes of the statue. Two weeks later, July 18, 1985, she received her first message. On October 19, 1986, the statue began to weep tears of blood. On February 4, 1988, Julia received the stigmata. Eventually the statue began to ooze a fragrant oil, which ceased October 23, 1994. Julia experienced the first Eucharistic miracle on June 5, 1988.

Meeting Julia

In March, 1991, Julia was invited with her husband to the United States to address one of the first Marian conferences, this one in Pittsburgh. She gave witness to the evil and sinfulness of abortion. It was there that I first met her. I had come to the conference to translate for Josyp Terelya--a Ukrainian Catholic confessor of the faith who spent 22 years in Soviet prison camps. On Sunday, March 25, the three of us, Julia Kim, Josyp Terelya and I were invited to preside at the coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima after the consecration of all present to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This was the beginning of a friendship that would be renewed in September 1994 when Julia visited Toronto.

Eucharistic miracles

The Eucharistic miracles of Naju continued, now in the parish church on May 16, 1991, and in the Marian chapel in Naju thereafter. They continue in a variety of forms to the present. The seventh Eucharistic miracle was witnessed by the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Korea, Archbishop Giovanni Buleitis, in the Marian chapel.

During her 1994 visit to Toronto, Julia invited me to the tenth anniversary of the first weeping of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on June 30, 1995. It was only in September 1995 that I was able to keep my promise, an appointment with heaven. Our group--Catherine Lee, a Canadian Korean, Fr. Joseph Finn from London, Ontario, and myself--arrived on Thursday, September 14 at Kwangju airport, where Julia was waiting for us. As we embraced we were enveloped in the fragrance of roses that often accompanies Julia. We continued by car to Naju, arriving at 9 p.m., in time for the Holy Hour of prayer before the miraculous statue. Around 200 men and women, children and infants were already waiting.

The next day we made it to a large valley in the Naju mountains. We celebrated Holy Mass at 6 p.m. A week later, September 22, we returned to that area.

The Blessed Virgin had led the Kims to this mountain retreat and asked them to acquire this land. She promised that a beautiful church would be built there. As in the case of St. Bernadette, she instructed Julia to dig in the hillside, and water sprang from the earth: a new Lourdes in the land of the rising sun.

Photographs

Why was a photographer present, some people have asked. The answer is quite simple. I was welcomed as a most honoured guest. I was the first bishop, and that of the Eastern Catholic Church, to celebrate the heavenly visitations. I needn't elaborate on the Korean hospitality Julia and the women lavished upon me, including a lunch in my honour. Naturally, there were cameras present, including one carried by young Sebastian. It's as simple as that.

After the late lunch we made our way to the valley. The men and women, about seventeen in all, set up the open air chapel. What occurred next is explained in the May issue.

It was only later that evening, when Fr. Finn and I were drafting our first testimony to this miracle of a tiny palpitating heart on the tongue of Julia, that we viewed both the amateur video and photographs of Sebastian. He had been snapping pictures once he realized that something was happening. By comparing photos and experience we could ascertain that this little heart was about 5 millimeters thick.

Message

Our Lady organises everything well. Julia remained rapt in prayer and ecstasy when Jesus Himself spoke to her. His voice made itself heard to Julia even though she could not see Him, at once warm and loving and full of dignity and majesty. This was the message:

"My beloved little soul. My most holy Mother is the greatest treasure in the Church...My Mother is the Queen of the Universe and also your Mother... Today my Mother is now showing and revealing My Heart to a bishop, who seeks to follow Me and My Mother ...so that he can make ever more known that I am truly present in the Eucharist, the sublime mystery of faith and love."

This was the eleventh Eucharistic Miracle of Naju, September 22, 1995. All information is now in the hands of a Commission of Korean bishops who are investigating the events and who will report some time in the future.