Highlights in the Life of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Compiled by Cheryl Wetzstein
September 5, 2012
The Washington Times

1920

Jan. 6 — Born as Yong Myung, one of 13 children, to Kyung-yoo Moon and Kyung-gye Kim in Sangsa Ri village in Pyongan province, now part of North Korea. His family had been wealthy, educated farmers, but had fallen on hard times. Japan had annexed the country in 1910, and Moon elders participated in independence efforts.

1930

Joined the Presbyterian Church with his family and became increasingly devout. While mourning the death of two siblings, he perceived that God was “the grieving parent of a lost mankind.”

1935

April 17 — After praying near Mount Myodu, he said Jesus Christ appeared to him on Easter morning and asked him to “take on a special mission on Earth having to do with Heaven’s work.” Overwhelmed, the 15-year-old initially declined, but eventually pledged to do so at the cost of his life. For the next nine years, searched for answers through intense prayer, fasting and Bible studies.

1941

March — Traveled to Tokyo to attend a technical school at Waseda University. Became involved with Korean independence activities, even though this meant arrests and beatings by Japanese police.

1943

Sept. 30 — After graduation, booked passage to Korea on the Konron Maru ferry. However, felt strange leadenness in his feet and a strong premonition not to board the ferry, and went instead on a trip with friends. The Konron Maru was sunk by a U.S. submarine, with more than 500 people aboard.

1944

May 4 —Married Seon-Gil Choi, daughter of a prominent Christian family, in a match arranged with an aunt. Knowing his mission, he asked Miss Choi several times if she could bear a life with a man with a difficult mission, and she insisted she could.

October — Arrested by Japanese police, who demanded he reveal the names of his friends in Japan. When he refused, police officers tortured and beat him, even hanging him from the ceiling “like a slab of meat in a butcher shop.”

1945

Aug. 15 — Japan’s surrender frees Korea, but the country was divided at the 38th parallel, with North Korea led by atheistic communists.

1946

June 5 — Acting on what he called “God’s demand,” left behind his wife and son to “find the people of God who are in the North.”

Aug. 11 — Arrested by North Korean police for spying for South Korea, was held and beaten for months.

Oct. 31 — After a severe beating, tossed out of the prison into the snow and left for dead. Nursed back to health by followers. Resumed preaching in North Korea, but was viewed as a heretic and threat to Christians, who themselves were suffering communist harassment.

1948

February — Arrested on complaints of “disruption of the social order” and sentenced to five years imprisonment.

May 20 — Entered Hungnam Special Labor camp, where teams of men had to fill 700 bags a day with ammonium sulfate or be punished. Food was so scarce prisoners would take rice out of the mouths of dead men.

1950

Oct. 14 — Released from Hungnam as guards fled advancing U.N. troops. Walked more than 100 miles to Pyongyang to find his followers.

Dec. 4 — As Chinese troops advanced to Pyongyang, began journey south with two followers, one of whom had a broken leg and had to be carried or pushed on a bike. Arrived in Busan refugee camp two months later.

1951

September — Built first Unification Church out of stones, wood and discarded U.S. military ration cartons. Began writing “Divine Principle” in this hut.

1952

November — Was reunited with wife, but she did not understand his long absence or his religious mission, and in 1958 she divorced him.

1953

March — Formally changed name from Yong-Myung (“dragon”) to Sun-Myung. Moon means “truth,” Sun means “to reveal itself clearly,” and Myung “combines characters for sun and moon,” he once explained. 1954 May 1 — Founded Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.

1955

March — After months of denouncing Rev. Moon’s church, Christian-led Ehwa Women’s University fires or expels 19 faculty and students who refuse to leave the church. Other Christian-led universities urged President Syngman Rhee’s administration to disband the church.

July 4 — Arrested and held for avoiding military draft. Found “not guilty” 93 days later. 1960

April 11 — Held marriage blessing ceremony with 17-year-old Hak Ja Han as “True Father” and “True Mother.” Five days later, they blessed three more couples.

1961

May — Gave the marriage blessing to 33 couples. Over the next decades and up to March 2012, the Moons held dozens of mass weddings, many with tens of thousands of couples, and even hundreds of thousands who participated either at the main ceremony or via satellite in ceremonies around the world.

1965

Feb. 12 — Made first visit to United States and created 120 “holy grounds,” as part of first of many world tours.

1971

Dec. 18 — Arrived in United States and established World Mission Headquarters. Through the early 1970s, held many national speaking tours on “Christianity in Crisis” and “Day of Hope.”

1973

Nov. 30 — Placed ads in major newspapers urging Americans to fast, pray and “forgive, love, unite” regarding the Watergate scandal.

1974

Feb. 1 — Met President Richard M. Nixon.

Sept. 18 — Held rally at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan with 25,000 attending. Purchased the Christian Brothers Seminary in Barrytown, N.Y., which became Unification Theological Seminary; in the next two years, purchased New Yorker Hotel; Manhattan Center and Hammerstein Ballroom; Tiffany Building and Columbia Club in New York, and the Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, N.Y.

1976

June 1 — Held rally in Yankee Stadium in New York

Sept. 18 — Held rally at Washington Monument with 300,000 in attendance.

Dec. 31 — Launched News World newspaper as a conservative voice in New York.

1978

Accused of being an agent of South Korean government in hearings held by Rep. Donald M. Fraser, Minnesota Democrat. Although Mr. Fraser lost his bid for U.S. Senate in September, his commission issued a report recommending full government investigation into the Unification Church.

1980

Was subject of a N.Y. grand jury investigation over tax issues.

Created “Ocean Church,” a ministry to build personal character and revive and strengthen boating and fishing industries. This led to maritime activities in Korea, South America, and U.S. locations such as Gloucester, Mass., Hawaii; Alaska; Norfolk, Va., and, in 2012, Lake Mead in Nevada.

Created CAUSA International, which conducted hundreds of “Victory Over Communism” conferences worldwide until 1991.

Nov. 4 — Predicted on News World’s front page that Ronald Reagan would win election in a “landslide”; Reagan was photographed with the paper at a victory party later that night.

1981

Oct. 15 — Notified while in South Korea that he and a church leader were indicted on 13 counts of tax fraud, including not paying $7,300 taxes on $160,000 of church funds kept in a bank account under his name. Returned to the U.S. on the next flight.

Oct. 22 — At a rally with clergy and members in New York’s Foley Square, said, “I am innocent. I have committed no crime I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my religion is Unification Church.

1982

April 1 — Went to court for tax trial.

May 17 — Launched The Washington Times in Washington, D.C.

May 18 — Found guilty of tax fraud by a jury. On July 16, Judge Gerard Goettel sentenced him to 18 months in prison and a fine of $25,000.

1984

May 14 — Despite outcry from religious groups over the legal implications of the verdict, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.

July 20 — Entered federal prison in Danbury, Conn., with Takeru Kamiyama, who was also convicted. Became famous as a model prisoner, good Ping-Pong player and praying nightly in the prison chapel from 3 to 5 a.m.

1985

Received honorary doctorate from Shaw University, which his wife accepted for him.

Aug. 20 — Freed from Danbury prison; attended a welcome-home banquet in Washington, D.C., with 1,700 clergy including the Rev. Joseph Lowery and the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

1990

April 10-11 — Spoke in Moscow at World Media Conference, and met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

1991

Nov. 30 — Dec. 1 — Traveled to North Korea and met with President Kim Il-Sung. 2000 Inaugurated the Ambassadors for Peace program. Gave marriage blessing to Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and Maria Sung. The Catholic prelate was later excommunicated and started an advocacy group to promote marriage for Catholic priests and nuns.

2002

April 27 — Held Blessing ceremony for 144,000 clergy couples in Washington, D.C.

May 20 — Addressed 20th anniversary gala of The Washington Times.

June 12 — Hosted inauguration ceremony for the Sun Moon Peace Cup in Korea, with soccer star Pele.

Dec. 15 — Began the process of bequeathing his physical belongings to Unification Church members.

2003

Feb. 5 — Held dedication ceremony for Cheongshim Hospital at Chung Pyung in Korea. Also holds a ceremony to renew vows with Mrs. Moon.

May 12 — Held the first Middle East Peace Initiative, in which clergy of different faiths visit Rome and the Holy Land to discuss peace.

2004

March 23 — Held Crown of Peace ceremony at Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

2005

July 13 — Held rally for unity of North and South Korea with 6,000 Koreans.

September — Embarked on a four-month, 100-country speaking tour. A ban on his travel into several European countries is finally lifted, and he visits them as part of this tour.

Sept. 12 — Founded the Universal Peace Federation and spoke on “God’s Ideal Family, The Model for World Peace.”

2006

March-April — Attended nine rallies in Korea for the restoration of the homeland.

Aug. 31 — Began a 40-day world speaking tour with members of his family.

2008

April 18 — Appointed youngest son, Hyung Jin, as international president of the Unification Church.

June 19 — Survived a helicopter crash in Korea; he and 15 others, including his wife, grandchildren and others, all escaped with minor injuries before it ignited into flames.

July 29 — Appointed daughter In Jin as head of Unification Church in North America.

2009

March 9 — Published his autobiography in Korea and held yearlong celebration of 50th wedding anniversary with Mrs. Moon.

2011

April-June — Held speaking tour in Asia, Europe and Africa. Unveiled personally designed “Won Mo” boat in Las Vegas.

2012

Sept. 2 — Died of complications of pneumonia at the church complex at Chung Pyung, South Korea.

Sources: Today’s World magazine; “Sun Myung Moon, The Early Years: 1920-53,” by Michael Breen; “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen,” the autobiography of Rev. Moon; “Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon,” Volumes I and II, by Bo Hi Pak; HSA-UWC.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Times Founder, Dies at 92 - Led Religious Movement To Help Promote World Peace

Cheryl Wetzstein
September 2, 2012
The Washington Times

“I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes trouble in the world,” Rev. Moon wrote in his 2009 autobiography, “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen.”

The world “has associated many different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me. Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only oppose me,” he wrote.

“Today, though, not even the slightest wound remains in my heart. … True love is a love that forgets it already gave love, and gives love again.”

Rev. Moon became widely known to Americans in the 1970s during his evangelistic rallies across the country, and major rallies at Yankee Stadium and the Washington Monument in 1976. America was in “moral decline,” Rev. Moon wrote in his autobiography, “and [I] played the role of a fireman responding to a call in an effort to reawaken its Puritan spirit.”

But accusations that his church “brainwashed” members helped make Rev. Moon the target of repeated investigations. In 1982, Rev. Moon was convicted of income-tax evasion and eventually served 13 months in federal prison.

Prolific Founder

Despite such hostility, Rev. Moon established and helped fund nonprofit organizations, including the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and the Universal Peace Federation.

He also launched business interests in industries such as shipbuilding, industrial machinery, stoneware, fishing and seafood products, computer software, ginseng tea and other health products, soft drinks, arts and cultural schools, newspapers in several countries and car factories in China and North Korea. In 1992, the church rescued the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut from bankruptcy with a loan reported at $60 million.

A passionate fisherman, Rev. Moon inspired “Ocean Challenge” programs for youths and fishing tournaments in places such as Gloucester, Mass.; Alaska; and Hawaii. In 2011, he launched a marine company in Las Vegas to make a new kind of leisure craft.

Rev. Moon also founded numerous international, interfaith service groups, such as the International Relief Friendship Foundation, Religious Youth Service and Service for Peace, and sponsored thousands of conferences on world peace, family and interfaith issues. National leaders including former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush addressed some of these conferences.

“My peace plan starts from the level of the individual,” Rev. Moon once said. “First we must find peace with God, then peace with our fellow man, and finally we can secure world peace.”

His belief in the divine significance of marriage was the rationale behind the Unification Church’s most famous events — the mass public “blessings” for both newlyweds (including church members whom Rev. Moon matched together) and married couples of all religions renewing their vows.

“What is the blessing? It is to possess God’s love, God’s son or daughter, and then all the universe,” Rev. Moon explained at a 1975 matching ceremony.

Early Years

Rev. Moon was born Jan. 6, 1920, in Sangsa Ri village in Pyongan province, now part of North Korea. His family members were poor farmers who joined the Presbyterian Church when he was 10. Rev. Moon embraced his conversion deeply and often lamented about the world of perpetual suffering he saw in Japanese-occupied Korea.

On Easter Sunday 1935, when he was 15, Rev. Moon would later say, he was praying on a Korean mountaintop when Jesus Christ appeared to him and asked him to fulfill his life’s work. Rev. Moon refused twice, but when Jesus asked him a third time to accept the mission, the teenager promised, “I will do it.”

For nine years, he studied, prayed and fasted to understand his mission. In 1943, he married his first wife, Seon-Gil Choi, and worked as an electrical engineer to support their son. But in 1946, he suddenly left his home to go to Pyongyang, North Korea, where Christianity and communism were colliding. He later said he was heeding God’s call.

There, he established himself as a spiritual leader, but was arrested after Christian clergy complained to police and accused him of being a spy from the South. During one arrest, he was tortured and left for dead outside the prison. His followers nursed him back to health.

In 1948, the same year he was expelled by the Presbyterians, Rev. Moon was arrested again by North Korean communists and imprisoned in the Heungnam labor camp.

Life expectancy in the camp was only a few months, but Rev. Moon persevered until 1950, when United Nations forces, under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, liberated the camp in October, on the eve of his scheduled execution. In the early 1980s, Rev. Moon financed the feature film “Inchon” to honor the U.S. war hero, who was played by Laurence Olivier.

In December 1950, Rev. Moon walked 500 miles south to Pusan, South Korea, where he and a small group of followers built a church from discarded U.S. military supply crates.

‘Divine Principle’

It was in Pusan where Rev. Moon committed his theology to writing, in a volume called “Wolli Wonbon,” or the “Divine Principle.” In that volume, based on years of intense biblical study, he explains that God, as the Original Parent of all mankind, has been grieving for His lost children since the Fall of Man.

The Divine Principle further explains the events of the Fall, the existence of evil, and how God has been working through human history to reclaim heaven and earth through a formula called the providence of restoration. God’s followers are called to live lives of true love, public service and work to bring peace among religions.

In 1953, Rev. Moon moved to Seoul where, the next year, he registered his church as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity — generally known as the Unification Church. By 1957, Unification churches were established in 30 Korean cities and towns. In 1958, the church’s first missionary went to Japan; in 1959, the first Unificationist missionaries arrived in America. He later sent missionaries to every country in the world.

Rev. Moon’s marriage to Seon-Gil Choi ended in 1958 after she filed for divorce.

In 1960, Rev. Moon married Hak Ja Han. The couple eventually had 14 children, and are revered by church members as the “True Parents.”

Beginning in 1960, Rev. Moon matched and married his earliest followers with their consent. The ceremonies, which the faithful believe release them from the bondage of original sin, grew to include 2,075 couples in Madison Square Garden in 1982. Over the years, these “blessing ceremonies,” the most recent occurring in March, have involved millions of couples either in stadiums or via satellite.

Rev. Moon first traveled to the United States in 1965 for a five-month visit, during which he toured the country and spent three months in the Washington home of Bo Hi Pak, a South Korean diplomat and Unification Church member. Rev. Moon returned to the U.S. in 1969 and, in 1971, moved the missionary headquarters of his church to Westchester County, N.Y.

In 1972, Rev. Moon began a seven-city U.S. evangelical tour with a “Day of Hope Rally” at New York City’s Lincoln Center. He continued his public appearances over the next two years, speaking on the theme of “Christianity in Crisis,” including a Sept. 18, 1974, event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

In November 1973, Rev. Moon had taken out newspaper ads urging Americans to “forgive, love and unite” in the face of the crisis created by the Watergate scandal. That led to a Feb. 1, 1974, Oval Office meeting between President Richard M. Nixon and Rev. Moon.

‘Brainwashing’ Charges

After Rev. Moon associated himself with Nixon, his religious movement began to be regarded as politically controversial. Critics began charging the Unification Church with “brainwashing” its members.

“Liberals in America, especially those who sympathized with international communism, felt particularly threatened by Rev. Moon’s appearance on the national scene,” Mr. Pak later wrote. “They feared that Rev. Moon could become a major threat, and so they came together to form an anti-Rev. Moon movement.”

During the 1970s, the Unification Church in America attracted many young adults. These converts often lived communally, witnessing, lecturing or raising money for the church’s projects. This attracted the attention of established religious organizations. Some parents of new members complained that the church prohibited contact between young converts and their families. In some cases, parents arranged to have young people abducted from Unification training centers and “deprogrammed.”

“I have never divided families or broken homes,” and the accusations of brainwashing are “nonsense,” Rev. Moon told theologian Frederick Sontag in a 1977 book about the church.

In 1977, a House subcommittee on international organizations began investigating the Unification Church. Rep. Donald Fraser, Minnesota Democrat, charged that the church was a lobbying organization for the South Korean government.

Although the congressional investigation failed to find any wrongdoing by Rev. Moon or the church, the Internal Revenue Service in 1981 obtained an indictment against Rev. Moon for income-tax evasion. The IRS charged that Rev. Moon failed to declare $112,000 in interest and $50,000 in corporate stock. Rev. Moon’s defense asserted that the assets were not Rev. Moon‘s, but were held in trust for the Japanese Unification Church.

A jury found Rev. Moon guilty of not paying about $7,500 of tax on interest income, and he was sentenced to 18 months in Danbury Federal Correctional Institution, a sentence he began serving in July 1984. With time off for good behavior, he was formally released Aug. 2, 1985, after serving 13 months. More than 2,000 clergymen welcomed Rev. Moon at a banquet in Washington that night.

‘Landslide’ Predicted

Even as he faced investigations and imprisonment, Rev. Moon embarked on a new aspect of his public career. He had declared that “only the United States can protect the democratic world against the threat of communism,” and warned that President Jimmy Carter’s “naivete” about that threat would soon lead to “world communization.”

His aide, Mr. Pak, later recalled that Rev. Moon prayed for an American president who would “stop the marching tide of communism,” and that Rev. Moon one day told him: “The next president of the United States will hold the fate of the world in his hands, and Heaven has chosen Ronald Reagan.”

Unification Church members actively supported the Reagan campaign in 1980 and, at Rev. Moon’s direction, Mr. Pak arranged a meeting with Reagan in Toledo, Ohio. Greeting the candidate as “President Reagan,” Mr. Pak recalled, he told the Republican challenger: “God has already decided on you as the next president.”

Reagan, according to Mr. Pak, was “taken aback” by the statement and asked him: “What did you say? Who on earth told you that?”

After he explained Rev. Moon’s prophecy, Mr. Pak said, Reagan responded with his characteristic humor: “I wish I had as much confidence in myself as Rev. Moon does.”

Opinion polls predicted a close election, but Rev. Moon’s confidence was reflected by the News World, a New York newspaper that he founded in 1976. On Election Day 1980, the News World rolled off the press with a giant headline predicting “Reagan Landslide.”

At a news conference that morning, Mr. Reagan held up the News World’s front page, an image carried across the country by television reports. When the votes were counted, the Republican had won 489 of 538 Electoral College votes, more than matching the bold prediction.

Going to Print

The News World, renamed the New York City Tribune in 1983, was Rev. Moon’s first venture into the American press, and in 1978, he established the World Media Association dedicated to promoting freedom of the press. When The Washington Star went bankrupt in 1981, Rev. Moon thought it was important to ensure that the nation’s capital remained a two-newspaper city.

Mr. Pak, who was then publisher of the News World, recalled that on Jan. 1, 1982, Rev. Moon ordered him to establish a daily to be named The Washington Times — to begin publication by March 1.

This seemed “an impossible mission,” Mr. Pak remembered.

Recruiting veteran editor James Whelan and purchasing a warehouse on New York Avenue that is still the newspaper’s headquarters, Mr. Pak was able to get a debut issue of The Times printed by Rev. Moon’s deadline of March 1. A little more than two months later, on May 17, 1982, The Times published its second issue and began regular daily publication.

One analyst predicted that the new daily would not “last more than six months,” but according to Mr. Pak, Rev. Moon invested more than $1 billion in The Times during its first 10 years of publication, and Unification Church members — including many with no previous newspaper experience — worked tirelessly with seasoned professional journalists to make it a success.

During its first 10 years of publication, The Times won more than 650 awards, including top honors from the Society of Newspaper Design in 1988 and 1992, and an editorial writing award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1989.

A favorite of Republican leaders (Reagan insisted on reading The Washington Times first thing in the morning at the White House), the newspaper scored scoops with its award-winning coverage of congressional scandals and the Whitewater scandal in the 1990s.

The Washington Times is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Over the years, Rev. Moon was associated with a number of other publications, including the Segye Ilbo in Korea, Sekai Nippo in Japan, the Spanish-language weekly Tiempos del Mundo in Argentina, the Middle East Times in Cairo, Ultimas Noticias in Uruguay, and Washington Golf Monthly.

In 2000, News World Communications purchased the United Press International wire service. A weekly newsmagazine, Insight on the News, and a monthly magazine, The World and I, ceased publication in 2004, but continued as online publications.

‘Victory Over Communism’

Throughout the 1980s, Rev. Moon actively promoted opposition to communism, a struggle he saw in religious terms.

“The only way to defeat communism is to clearly prove the existence of God,” he said. He developed an anti-communist strategy he called Victory Over Communism (VOC), which critiqued the fallacies of Marxist theory while seeking to “demonstrate in detail how God guides human history.” VOC was the philosophical underpinning of CAUSA (Confederation of Associations for the Unification of the Societies of the Americas), an organization that Rev. Moon established in 1980 to combat the spread of communism in Latin America. CAUSA seminars trained anti-communist leaders through South and Central America, and even sought to convert communist sympathizers.

Rev. Moon also advocated national security policies for free nations threatened by communism. In 1986, he established the International Security Council, which convened conferences of prominent geopolitical experts and senior officials from the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and other nations.

The collapse of the Soviet empire gave Rev. Moon cause to celebrate what he called “an end to the most pernicious worldwide dictatorship in history.” He described the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union as “the results of God’s providence.”

He conveyed that message, but in a spirit of reconciliation, when he met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in April 1990 and with North Korean founder Kim Il-sung in December 1991.

Culture Warrior

Even as he celebrated the end of the Cold War, Rev. Moon focused on new struggles, calling for “a revival of spiritual culture.”

“The societies of free countries today are exhibiting a phenomenon that is every bit as evil as communism … the philosophy of materialistic humanism and … the extreme individualism and selfishness that are the offshoots of this philosophy,” he declared in 1992.

“The young people, whom we normally expect to become the future leaders, are losing touch with their consciences in a flood of immorality, drugs and crime, to such an extent that it is difficult for us to have hope in them as the leaders of the 21st century.”

To turn back that “flood,” Rev. Moon inspired a number of organizations for youths and for adults, including the Women’s Federation for World Peace, the American Family Coalition, the World Culture and Sports Festival, the Little Angels Performing Arts Center, the Il Hwa Chonma Soccer Team in Korea and the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington.

In a 1997 speech, Rev. Moon called for “a true youth culture centering on true love” for the “supreme task” of combating “the social trends of moral degradation, including moral decadence and selfindulgence.” The struggle against those forces would, he said, “determine whether humanity will survive or be destroyed.”

He brought his efforts for international peace into academia and science. Beginning with the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences in 1972, the Professors World Peace Academy in 1973 and the Summit Council for World Peace in 1987, and through the Universal Peace Federation, founded in 2005, Rev. Moon underwrote thousands of conferences and forums as a way for scholars, activists and community leaders to resolve human problems.

He announced his idea of an International Peace Highway connecting Tokyo and London in 1981. In 2005, he proposed a bridge-and-tunnel project from Alaska to Russia.

Rev. Moon received numerous honorary doctorates, including a doctorate of divinity in 1985 from Shaw University.

His interfaith work in America, launched in the 1970s, has grown under the American Clergy Leadership Conference. Thousands of clergy from different religions, known as “ambassadors for peace,” have visited the Middle East to pray together and create a foundation for peace.

In 2007, Rev. Moon held a conference with delegates from 194 countries to pledge to create a “peace U.N.” to emphasize “living for the sake of others,” and in 2011 underwent another international speaking tour, mostly in Europe. He also worked to promote peace between North and South Korea.

“Since [the meeting with Kim Il-sung“] and continuing to this day,” Rev. Moon said in his autobiography, “we have maintained a special relationship with North Korea. … That is the importance of trust.”

Rev. Moon, who was 93 by Korean age calculations, is survived by Mrs. Moon, 11 children, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Several children preceded him in death.

Rev. In Jin Moon, the Moons’ third daughter and senior pastor of the Unification Church of North America, had been touring the country to speak about her father’s illness when he died.

“Before I left my father’s side, I held his hand as I normally do during the visits, and in my mind, I said, ‘Father, I’m going to take your love and your handshake back to all of the brothers and sisters who are praying for you.’ And it is really the heart of our True Mother as our mother to really thank you individually. I’m sure if she could be with you here today, that is exactly what she would do,” she told members at a Chicago service Aug. 29.

• Former Washington Times staff member Robert Stacy McCain contributed to this report.

Report: Rev. Moon's Health Condition Worsens

Cheryl Wetzstein
August 31, 2012
The Washington Times

Unification Church head and Washington Times founder the Rev. Sun Myung Moon has been moved to a private complex in Korea where he can be surrounded by family as his health has taken a turn for the worse, a Unification Church leader said. The 92-year-old evangelist has been in intensive-care treatment for pneumonia at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital since Aug. 13.

"For a while, it appeared that [Rev. Moon's] condition was improving; however, during the last few days, the doctors reported that he has entered an irreversible stage of his condition," Joon Ho Seuk, international vice president of the Unification Church, said in an Aug. 28 memo to members that was made public Friday in Seoul.

"In reality, he is currently sustaining his life with the assistance of various machines" and "we have reached the point at which this stark reality cannot be reversed," Mr. Seuk wrote.

The religious leader's illness has led to loss of kidney function and deterioration in the liver function, Mr. Seuk wrote. "He can no longer sustain his life without the supply of oxygen artificially produced by a machine."

This week, Rev. Moon's wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, and several of the couple's children and church elders made the decision to transfer Rev. Moon to Cheongshim International Medical Center, a hospital in the Chung Pyung church complex, according to church officials.

Rev. Moon's primary doctors, a respiratory specialist and veteran nurses will be on hand to care for him around the clock, as well as Mrs. Moon and other members of his family, the statement said, and specialist has been brought in from Japan to assist in the treatment.

Rev. Moon, one of the most recognized Koreans in the world, founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, commonly known as the Unification Church, in 1954, and founded The Washington Times in 1982.

Church officials say the Unification Church now has a presence in over 200 countries and millions of followers worldwide. Among the church's other interests are hospitals, schools and universities, a newspaper in South Korea, Manhattan's New Yorker Hotel, and properties in North Korea, where the Reverend Moon was born.

Rev. Moon's last public appearance came in July, when he participated in the ceremonies opening and closing the Peace Cup soccer tournament in South Korea sponsored by the Unification Church.