| Styles of Francis Hong Yong-ho |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
| Posthumous style | not applicable |
Francis Hong Yong-ho (Korean: 홍용호 프란치스코, 洪龍浩 프란치스코) (born 12 October 1906) is the Roman Catholic bishop of Pyongyang, North Korea.[1][2] Francis Hong Yong-ho was imprisoned by the communist regime of Kim Il-sung in 1949 and later disappeared.[3][4][5] According to Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk, speaking in 2006,
| “ | There’s no knowledge of priests surviving persecution that came in the late forties, when 166 priests and religious were killed or kidnapped. The Pontifical Yearbook continues to describe as "missing" the man who was the bishop of Pyong-yang at the time, Monsignor Francis Hong Yong-ho, who today would be a hundred years old. It's a gesture by the Holy See to point to the tragedy that the Church in Korea has suffered and is still going through.[6] | ” |
Born in Pyongyang, Korea, on 12 October 1906, Francis Hong Yong-ho was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 25 May 1933, was named vicar apostolic of Pyongyang on 24 March 1944 by Pope Pius XII, and was ordained a Roman Catholic bishop on 29 June 1944 by Bishop Bonifatius Sauer, O.S.B.; when the Diocese of Pyongyang was established on 10 March 1962 by Pope John XXIII, Francis Hong Yong-ho was named the first bishop of the new diocese.[7]