SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- A liberal Catholic group called Monday for a thorough probe into April's ferry sinking following last week's parliamentary passage of a bill aimed at determining the cause of the disaster that claimed more than 300 lives.
On Friday, the National Assembly passed the special bill calling for an independent investigation into the cause of the disaster through the appointment of an independent counsel and a fact-finding team and other relevant bills after months-long debates on their details.
"We will go with the grieving families who lost their loved ones until the last minute and fight against all those in power trying to cover the truth about the disaster," the group said during a news conference to release a statement allegedly signed by 130,936 Catholics.
The press conference took place at Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square, where activists from the group camp out in support of the victims' families demanding the full truth about the disaster.
The group vowed to regularly pray for the victims and survivors of the ferry sinking at 4:16 p.m. every day in an effort not to forget the incident in which the 6,825-ton ferry sank off the country's southwest coast on April 16. The incident left more than 300 people dead or missing with most of them high school students on a field trip.
Among the signers were 17 South Korean bishops who are former or incumbent heads of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea.
"We warn that a political authority disregarding the people's pain should fall behind and we trust a noble tear of great conscience rather than the state," the group said.
It pledged to do all it can do to unveil and spread across the world the truth behind the tragedy.
A task force composed of liberal Korean Catholic priests, ascetics and ordinary believers issues a statement calling for scrutiny into April's ferry disaster during a news conference at Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square on Nov. 10, 2014. (Yonhap)
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