Seoul – “There are an estimated 250,000 street children in Korea. That is an enormous number. So we said to ourselves: if they do not come to us, we will go to them.” That was how “Azit” came into being, a movement that takes staff and volunteers onto the streets of the city to reach young people and offer them a path towards recovery and social reintegration. Fr. Vincenzo Bordo, OMI – known in Korea as Fr. Kim Ha-jong – told Fides about his work with street children in South Korea, “a rapidly changing society where new forms of poverty are constantly emerging.”
“We created the Azit movement,” he explains, “and we go out in a bus from 4 p.m. until 11 p.m., driving through the city looking for young people living on the streets. This is God’s way of doing things.”
“I am working to establish Azit in every diocese in Korea, and I would be very happy if Azit could become a message for the universal Church. Azit is Jesus’ method. When Jesus began his ministry, he did not build a church in Nazareth and wait for people to come. He went out onto the streets of Palestine to meet people and be with them.”
This is one of the experiences recounted in I’ll Be Waiting for You in Seoul, a book the Missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate is presenting in Italy. The book is closely linked to next year’s major event: World Youth Day , which will be held in Seoul in August 2027.
Fr. Bordo spent 36 years in pastoral ministry in Korea, dedicating himself to some of the most vulnerable people in Korean society, including people experiencing homelessness, young people who had run away from home and elderly people living alone.
“Fr. Bordo’s experience is closely connected with the preparations for WYD 2027 and with the expectations surrounding the arrival in Seoul of young people from all over the world,” said Shin Hyung-sik, Korea’s Ambassador to the Holy See, who organized the book presentation. “We hope that World Youth Day in Seoul will be not only an important occasion for Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Korea, but also an opportunity for young people to grow in faith and engage in cultural exchange, bringing together youth from every part of the world.”
“The Korean government,” Shin added, “will do everything necessary to ensure that WYD is successfully and safely held, so that it can become a moment of encounter and an opportunity for young people from around the world to share a message of peace and solidarity.”
“Together with the Holy See, our government will continue to do its part for peace on the Korean Peninsula and throughout the world, for human dignity and for the common good,” the Ambassador said.
For Fr. Bordo, WYD cannot be separated from the streets and from the people he encounters every day. This, he says, is at the heart of the Azit approach: “We should not wait for the most vulnerable people to come into Church structures. We have to go out and meet them where they are.”
For the missionary, this experience goes far beyond social work.
“In the poor, in elderly people who live alone, in people on the streets, in street children, and in the volunteers who dedicate themselves to serving others, I saw God. I felt him. I encountered him, and he embraced me.”
Among the many encounters that have shaped his ministry, Fr. Bordo remembers one in particular.
“One evening in January – and it is very cold in Korea at that time of year – we were going around with backpacks, sandwiches and milk, looking for our homeless friends. I remember a man who was very ill. I said to him, ‘I’m sorry you are feeling so unwell.’ And he replied, ‘No, Father. Life is beautiful.’”
“He was a homeless man telling a priest that life is beautiful. That man became one of my teachers. He helped me go deeper into life and discover what really matters.”
That experience found a concrete expression at Casa di Anna, a center established to welcome and accompany people facing situations of vulnerability.
“Casa di Anna serves people living on the streets, children, young people, homeless people and elderly people who live alone. We have various programs and initiatives.”
Around 500 meals are served every day.
“It is a dinner for people who are poor. We also have showers, a barber and basic clothing.”
Over the years, Casa di Anna has provided more than three million meals to some of the most vulnerable people in Korean society and supported thousands of people as they worked to rebuild their lives.
The second floor houses a range of additional services: “We have a group of lawyers, a group of doctors and a clinic that provides medicines free of charge. We help people looking for work, guiding them and helping them find employment. We also offer music therapy, art therapy and many other programs.”
The center also has a dormitory.
“On the third floor we have a dormitory for homeless people, where 30 people live. And on the fourth floor, we have a small workshop for them. The aim is to help these people reintegrate into society.”
Ten residential homes have also been established for street children.
Over the years, Casa di Anna has also become a place of formation for the Korean Church.
“In recent years, more than 100 seminarians have spent three or six months at Casa di Anna as part of their formation. Today, they are all priests.”
Fr. Bordo recalls the surprise of many seminarians when they encountered a reality that often remains distant from seminary life.
“They would ask us: ‘Are there places like this in Korea?’ Normally, formation takes place in the seminary, then you return home and go to a parish. This is a reality outside those familiar surroundings.”
Many religious men and women have also visited Casa di Anna.
“They came to see what we were doing, and some have started soup kitchens like ours. That was a small contribution.”
Fr. Bordo also sees a connection with the ministry and teaching of Pope Francis.
“What Pope Francis brought to the Church, his closeness to the poor, was something we were already living. So many people came to see our work. Perhaps this was a small contribution to raising awareness of mercy.”
“In my view,” Fr. Bordo says, “Casa di Anna has two functions. The first is to help the poor. The second is to help Korean society become aware of this reality.”
Around 1,500 volunteers pass through the center every month.
“Every month we choose a theme for volunteer formation. People are educated in volunteer service, sharing, fraternity, justice and love.”
In this way, Fr. Bordo explains, charity also becomes an experience that transforms those who serve.
“We are not only helping the poor. We are also helping society to see them, to know them and to share the lives of these people.”
The title of the book, I’ll Be Waiting for You in Seoul, directly evokes the expectations surrounding WYD.
“But it also expresses another expectation,” Fr. Bordo explains: “that of the poor we encounter every day. The book has this title because so many people are waiting for the Pope, waiting for the young people who will come. But the poor are waiting too. They have their own hopes and expectations.”
Fr. Bordo experienced this particularly during the visit of the Jubilee Cross for young people to Casa di Anna.
“We had the joy of welcoming the Jubilee Cross for young people twice. On one occasion, we placed it outside Casa di Anna. We prepared our guests, most of whom were neither Catholic nor Christian.”
Then something happened that the missionary had not expected.
“We prayed before the Cross, with hymns. Our young people, the people living on the streets, our poor – each one came forward, touched the Cross and prayed for a moment.”
“There is a desire for spirituality, for truth, for a message, for Good News,” he says. “That is why I believe WYD will help all of us, including our friends who are not Catholic and who do not share our experience of faith.”
From the missionary’s perspective, WYD Seoul can therefore become an opportunity to move beyond the visible boundaries of the Church: not simply a major gathering of Catholic young people, but a place of encounter with a society undergoing profound change and facing new forms of poverty.
I’ll Be Waiting for You in Seoul thus becomes more than the title of a book. It becomes a promise: that of a Church that does not simply wait for people to come to it, but, like Jesus on the roads of Palestine, chooses to go out and meet humanity.
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