Koreans and those visiting South Korea for the upcoming World Youth Day should not visit a location claiming to be a site of a Marian apparition, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea warned in a January 12 letter to the faithful.
The letter, which was signed by Fr. Lee Cheol-su, the conference's secretary general, warned against visiting the shrine in Naju, South Korea.
The letter claims that Julia Yoon, the purported "visionary" at the Our Lady of Naju shrine, and those who follow her teachings, were acting in defiance of the Magisterium and have been purposefully misleading faithful Catholics about the validity and approval of the shrine.
Yoon, said the letter, was lying about the Church approving of the site and the Miracle of Our Lady of Naju. The Church does not approve of either of these and has repeatedly said that the visions and events are not supernatural in nature.
Additionally, the letter was written in response to reports of area clergy participating in the shrine's activities, thinking they were licit.
The shrine had been using the 40th anniversary of the "visions" to "actively spread false propaganda through various media such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook," said the letter from the bishops, and encouraging people to make "pilgrimages" to the site.
“What is even more concerning is that many clergy, including bishops from Southeast Asia, are participating in the prayer meetings they hold, and that young people from abroad who are interested in our country are receiving information related to Julia in Naju through online content without identification ahead of the 2027 Seoul World Youth Day,” he said.
Bishops should make use of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea's document “Church’s Teachings on the Issues Related to Julia Yoon of Naju” to anyone who wishes to learn more about the site.
The letter from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea comes weeks after bishops in Malaysia and Singapore issued similar warnings to their flocks to avoid visiting the shrine or interacting with any of its ministries.
History of "Our Lady of Naju"
In 1985, a woman named Julia Kim, a convert to Catholicism, claimed that her statue of the Virgin Mary had begun weeping tears and excreting fragrant oil. Kim also claimed to have received a series of messages from the Virgin Mary over decades, and said she had experienced Eucharistic miracles.
The statue became known locally as Our Lady of Naju, and has drawn pilgrims, mostly from Asia, ever since. Kim herself has become known as "Mama Julia" by her followers.
Shortly after the reports of the visions began, the Archdiocese of Gwangju, which contains Naju in its territory, began an investigation into the alleged happenings at the site.
In 1998, the then-Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi of Gwangju flatly rejected Kim's claims of miracles and said there was no evidence the events were "supernatural and thus from God."
Visiting Naju and believing in the supposed miracles at the site was "an act of breaking the unity of the faith of the Church," Youn warned at the time.
Again in 2024, the Archdiocese of Gwangu reiterated that “the Naju phenomenon" was unapproved by the Church and that Catholics were not to visit the location.
Approved Marian apparitions
There are a handful of Marian apparition sites and major shrines that one can visit throughout east Asia.
In South Korea, there is the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Namyang, which was the country's first-ever Marian shrine.
Japan is home to Our Lady of Akita, a Marian apparition that has been approved by the Diocese of Niigata, Japan. Beginning in 1973, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa, a religious sister in Akita, Japan, experienced numerous visions and other instances of the supernatural.
And in Vietnam, there is Our Lady of La Vang, a minor basilica that was constructed on the site of a reported Marian apparition in 1798.
