Peter Chung Soon-taick to take over as new archbishop of Seoul

Peter Chung Soon-taick will officially assume the role of the new archbishop of Seoul on Wednesday, succeeding Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, who served in the post for nearly a decade.

Chung's installation ceremony and Mass will be held at Myeongdong Cathedral in central Seoul at 2 p.m., according to the Archdiocese of Seoul.

During the ceremony, the 60-year-old archbishop will accept pastoral staff symbolizing the authority of the pastoral office from his predecessor Yeom and take a seat in the cathedra, or bishop's chair.

Chung will then take the oath of obedience and exchange greetings of peace with the representatives of the clergy, the monks and nuns and the laity.

After the Mass, there will also be a separate congratulatory ceremony for the new archbishop of Seoul, where Apostolic Nuncio to South Korea Alfred Xuereb, Bishop Mathias Lee Yong-hoon, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will deliver congratulatory messages.

A native of Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Chung studied chemical engineering at Seoul National University, and upon graduating in 1984, he enrolled at the Catholic University of Korea.

Two years later, Chung entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1992 and earned a master's degree in sacred scriptures at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 2004.

Chung later served as definitor general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites in Rome for the Far East and Oceania and then became auxiliary bishop for Seoul in 2013.

After being consecrated as bishop in 2014, Chung was president of the Committee for Youth Ministry of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea.

In October, Pope Francis appointed him the 14th archbishop of Seoul and the apostolic administrator of Pyongyang as Yeom offered his resignation in 2018, the year he turned 75. (Yonhap)