Korean Delicacy Canonized by Pope

ROME, Italy (AP) – For the first time ever a food has the chance to achieve sainthood in the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI announced on Thursday that the Korean delicacy kimchi will soon become a saint. The unusual announcement comes after a campaign in South Korea to enlighten the world on the advantages of kimchi.

“Kimchi has miraculous properties. It can cure everything from acne to yellow fever. The world should know how healthy it is and this is the best way to make it known to Westerners,” Rev. Kim Han-woo of the Catholic Church of Korea said on Thursday after the announcement.

While most people extol the health benefits of kimchi, some people question if it deserves such holy praise.

“It’s just a food. It hasn’t done any miracles. It hasn’t turned water into wine or made the blind see.” One parishioner, who wishes to remain anonymous, asked.

Not true, says one man in Seoul. A man, whose family name is Kim, claims that kimchi cured his blindness 25 years ago. He says he was blinded after being hit by a taxi on his way to English school when he was 9.

“I was almost killed that day. The doctors told my family I’d be blind for the rest of my life. The day I returned home from the hospital, my grandmother told me to put kimchi on my eyes overnight. The next morning I could see. It was amazing,” Kim said in a phone interview.

The canonization ceremony will take place simultaneously in St. Peter’s Square in Rome and at the Kimchi Museum in Seoul.