Singapore Archdiocese Warns of Excommunication for Visiting Alleged Korean Marian Site

The Archdiocese of Singapore’s Chancery office has warned that Catholics who visit an alleged Marian site in Naju, South Korea, promoted by a woman who claims to have received divine revelations, are automatically excommunicated. 

“Those who continue to visit the centre in Naju where the alleged visionary continues her activities against the guidelines of the local Ordinary in Korea, incur an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication,” said the notice dated October 31. 

Latae sententiae means the excommunication is not imposed by judgment but automatically results from an offence committed. 

“All faithful who have previously visited the centre must stop doing so, and approach a priest for the sacrament of reconciliation for the excommunication to be lifted,” said the notice, issued by Chancellor Father Terence Pereira. 

“Those who are planning to visit the centre should desist,” the notice added. 

The notice also referred readers to two previous notices issued by the Chancery office. A 2022 notice warned Catholics that the office had received a report of a group known as the "Naju Team" coming to Singapore for prayer sessions on July 29-30 that year. The Naju Team was reportedly led by Ms Julia Youn, the alleged visionary. 

The notice said that “Julia Youn and her followers, who have insisted on the so-called divine miracles centred on her, have incurred ‘latae sententiae’ excommunication” issued by then Archbishop Andreas Choi Chang-mou of Gwangju on January 21, 2008. “They had ignored the requests and directives” of the Archdiocese prior to the excommunication, the notice added. 

The notice said that the Singapore Archdiocese is in agreement with Gwangju Archdiocese, “that the actions and attitudes of Julia Youn and her followers are not in accord with Catholic practice … The faithful are reminded that these false teachings and associated devotional material should not be promoted or distributed.” 

In an October 3 notice this year, the Chancery office said the latest response from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith “states clearly that the clergy, Religious, or laity who preside over or attend the celebration of the sacraments or sacramentals” against the prohibition of the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernandez, “incur a latae sententiae excommunication”. 

According to media reports, the so-called miracles in Naju date to 1980 when Ms Youn claimed she was miraculously healed from terminal cancer. In 1982, she claimed she had a vision of Jesus with His Sacred Heart bleeding from people’s sinfulness. She also claimed a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, owned by her, started weeping on June 30, 1985. 

As these stories spread, many flocked to visit the statue, which has been placed in a hilly garden. This prompted the Archdiocese of Gwangju, which covers the area, to conduct investigations into the claims and eventually reject them. 

The Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference has also rejected the alleged miracles associated with the shrine.