The mayor of Dangjin requested a papal visit to the birthplace of St. Andrew Kim Taegon (1821-1846), Korea’s first Catholic priest, ahead of the upcoming 2027 World Youth Day in Seoul, the city said Monday. On Sunday, Dangjin Mayor Kim Ki-jae met with Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy of the Holy See, to request that Pope Leo visit the Solmoe Holy Ground during the global Catholic festival. The meeting took place at the Solmoe Holy Ground in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, where the cardinal was visiting to celebrate a mass commemorating the feast day of St. Andrew Kim Taegon. During the meeting, the mayor emphasized the symbolic importance of the birthplace of Korea’s first priest, calling it the cradle of Korean Catholicism. Additionally, looking ahead to a potential papal visit to North Korea, he proposed a performance of the Gijisi tug-of-war, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage that originated in Dangjin, as a symbolic gesture to convey a message of peace and inter-Korean harmony. You, who spoke with reporters in Seoul on Friday