Breakthroughs of Peace

This week in history: November 2-8

• The CAUSA International Headquarters building has its grand opening
• True Mother’s mother, Soon Ae Hong, ascends into the spirit world
• Sung Hwa University is established
• The News World predicts a Reagan landslide
• True Father is admitted to the United Kingdom after 27 years

November 2, 1983

Dedication of CAUSA International Headquarters

True Parents dedicate the CAUSA International Headquarters.

True Father set up CAUSA, from the Latin word for “cause,” in 1980 following the fall of Nicaragua in 1979 to Marxist Sandinistas. The overwhelming success of CAUSA programs in Latin America in ideologically arming students, union leaders, teachers, government officials and police who previously had been exposed to Marxist theory led to CAUSA’s expansion to the United States. In 1983, construction of CAUSA International Headquarters began in the Tiffany Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In addition to a main hall equipped with highly advanced multimedia equipment and seating for 200, renovated space included 22 offices.  Among these were CAUSA libraries for research, the CAUSA Institute, and multimedia rooms for the preparation of lecture slides and diagrams. True Parents dedicated the facility, cutting a ceremonial ribbon and encouraging staff at a celebration banquet on November 2, 1983. The following year, CAUSA sponsored 34 major conferences and 290 local programs.

November 3, 1989

Ascension of Mother Soon Ae Hong

True Father’s calligraphy for Soon Ae Hong at her Seonghwa (ascension) ceremony.

True Mother’s mother, Soon Ae Hong (born February 14, 1914), ascended to the spirit world on November 3, 1989, at the age of 75. She had been ill for some time and True Mother was at her bedside when she passed. Mrs. Hong, whom True Father gave the honorific title Dae Mo Nim or “Great Mother,” had the distinction of participating in several of the Korean spiritual groups that preceded the Unification Church, including the Holy Lord and Inside-Belly churches. However, her main contribution was raising True Mother. At her Seonghwa ceremony True Father prayed that she “may pave the road for all people to receive God’s blessings, from the lowest parts of hell and on every level.” True Mother said, “She will be able to travel between heaven and earth freely,” assisting “True Family and all of you in your work.” Their words were prophetic as attested by the dynamic ministry undertaken under Dae Mo Nim at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center.

November 3, 1989

Sung Hwa University Established

On November 3, 1989, it was announced that the South Korean Ministry of Education had given permission for Sung Hwa Theological Seminary to become a university. Located in the city of Cheonan, the seminary previously had been given permission to confer four-year degrees. With its elevation to university status, Sung Hwa entered an era of expansion which culminated in it becoming Sun Moon University in 1994 and moving onto a second campus in the city of Asan. True Father founded Sung Hwa Theological Seminary under the auspices of the Sung Hwa Educational Foundation, which managed a number of affiliated schools including Kyung Bok Elementary School, Sun Hwa Arts Middle and High Schools, Sun Jung Women’s Middle School and Sun Jung High School. True Father established the foundation to realize his vision for holistic education under the motto of “Love Heaven, Love Humankind, Love Your Country.”

November 4, 1980

The News World Predicts “Reagan Landslide”

Ronald Reagan holding a copy of the News World, which predicted Reagan’s landslide victory on Election Day morning, November 4, 1980.

After the Washington Monument rally of September 1976, True Father “set the deadline” of December 31 for producing the first issue of a new daily newspaper in New York City. On December 31, “the presses rolled early in the morning … and the first issue of The News World hit the streets of New York.” With a color photograph on the front page and a motto that described it as “New York’s oldest daily color newspaper,” The News World was a twenty-four page general-interest daily with a staff of 200. During the New York City blackout of July 1977, it was the only newspaper to publish, with reporters working by candlelight to write and edit stories. Later, during a three-month newspaper strike that shut down the city’s other major dailies, The News World continued to publish, with its circulation soaring to nearly 400,000 daily.

Undoubtedly the paper’s boldest move was to predict a “Reagan Landslide” in a bold headline on November 4, 1980, the day of the U.S. presidential election. The next day, having been vindicated in its prediction that Ronald Reagan would “win by more than 350 electoral votes and carry New York as well,” the paper published another banner headline, which read, “Thank God! We Were Right!” and featured a UPI photo of President-elect Reagan holding the previous day’s News World.

November 5, 2005

True Father Admitted to the United Kingdom after 27 Years

On November 5, 2005, at about 11 a.m. an airplane carrying True Parents landed at a small airport, Biggin Hill, in the foxhunting countryside near the London suburb of Chislehurst. This was True Father’s first visit to the United Kingdom since the summer of 1978, when he came with Unification Theological Seminary students to pioneer home church. Since 1995, the British government had banned True Father from entering Britain. Germany subsequently banned True Father as “a threat to public order” and was followed by fourteen additional European Union nations who employed common immigration practices under the Schengen Agreement’s immigration system. Schengen Agreement provisions were designed to prevent terrorists and drug dealers from abusing liberal European travel codes. Unificationists eventually would be successful in demonstrating that the ban on True Father was illegitimate and having it removed. Prior to that, in October 1995, British Home Secretary Charles Clark lifted the British ban and True Father delivered a public address, “True Family and I,” in London as part of the Universal Peace Federation’s Inaugural World Tour. On disembarking the plane, True Father was reported to have said, “Hmm … harder to get into Britain than to enter the spiritual world.”

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of November 2-8.