His Eminence Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, Requiem æternam...

The man "respected even among non-Catholics as the country's spiritual leader" has died — Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan Passes Away. His Eminence was "the first South Korean to become a Roman Catholic cardinal" and "was named archbishop of Seoul in 1968 at the age of 46, becoming the youngest member of the College of Cardinals at that time."

His Eminence was "the first cardinal from an East Asian country" and "was respected as a spiritual leader of both Catholics and non-Catholics for promoting democracy in the country during the military dictatorship" — Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, spiritual leader, dies at 86.

His Eminence, who was "one of the most revered religious leaders in Korea," "was born as the youngest of seven siblings in a poor but devout Catholic family in the southeast city of Daegu in 1922" — Cardinal Stephen Kim Dies at 86. His Eminence "was renowned as an advocate of human rights and contributed to the democracy in the country where military regimes ruled in 1960s and '70s" and "was devoted to North Korean churches and their believers and created a religious organization in 1995 to prepare for the reunification of the two Koreas."

"Cardinal Kim and the local Church came to be seen as defenders of human rights against dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, and Seoul's Myongdong Cathedral was seen as a prominent symbol of the people's aspiration for democratization" — First Korean cardinal dies at age 87. "Many local people have called the late cardinal the guardian of human rights and democracy."