Thursday, May 28, 2009

Funeral of Korea's 16th President


The funeral service for the late former President Roh Moo-hyun took place today at 11 a.m. at Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul. There was also yesterday a Mass at the Cathedral in Seoul for President Roh offered by the the priests of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice.

President Roh came up from poverty to the highest position in his country. He did not have a college education but with determination and confidence in his ability was able to pass the necessary exams and work as a human rights lawyer, helping the poor. He showed a desire to benefit the underprivileged of our Society. How much of what is said about him after leaving the Presidency and his involvement in bribery will be the job of history to determine. How much of the publicity concerning the scandal was politically motivated is also a question for history but that politics was part of it is very difficult to deny.

The Catholic Paper's editorial mentioned over and over the intensity in which he did everything and even the way he chose to die. The editorial went on to say our desires were not considered when entering this world and we should not take control of the way we leave it. There is a sadness in that the late President Roh died in the way he decided. By doing so he cast a shadow on the intensity of his life, its meaning and values that he lived. This makes the grief and regret over his death all the harder to bear.

The Mass at the Cathedral was celebrated by Monsignor Kim Pyong-sang as the main celebrant. He mentioned that he was disappointed in that the bishops were not the ones saying the Mass. Although the President was baptized he never lived the life of a Catholic but the monsignor mentioned that he tried to live the contents of the Encyclical of the Holy Father, Deus Caritas Est.(God is Love ) He was a man who took seriously chapter 25 of Mathew, and monsignor felt that few would deny this.

We can all pray for him, the family and the country; pray also that the different political camps do not use his death as a ploy to further their own political ends at the expense of the unity that we should strive to achieve in these difficult times.

Second Part - Visit to Cardinal Kim

Stephen Cardinal Kim was a work of art.
He was like a lake that reflects the sky, and the light and the scenery around it.
You can't be awe-struck by a lake.
It demands nothing for itself, but enhances everything around it,
Allows us to contemplate beauty.

In April, 1974 I spend 40 minutes in his quarters talking to him alone.
How I wish I could remember more of what he said.
I was very wound up about false arrests and torture
And am sure I did most of the talking, especially as he was such a good attentive listener.I had knocked at his door and began to apologize to him for the impertinent letter I'd written about the lack of Catholic reaction to worsening repression.

`But before I'd gotten a few words out of my mouth, he ushered me in, seated me while
saying, and waving his hand:
"No, no no! These are daily problems of my heart."

In the 35 years since that April day I have often repeated those words of his to me and I usually tear up and sometimes choke up, too, when I say them.

Just like I tear up and choke up seeing shots on TV of the long lines of people waiting to spend a few seconds before his body in the cathedral.

One day in 1969 or 70, soon after taking office, he came to Maryknoll and spoke to us, asking a favor of us as citizens of a culture that was by nature more tolerant of
differences than most.

"Our Korean Catholics would die to protect the Church, but they are not trained to care for the rights of others," he told us, and asked, "Teach them to do so in your parishes."

I filed that away, remembering it only years later, after that unfair letter I'd written him, unaware as I was of the "daily problems of his heart"

The cathedral he was buried from became what he wanted it to be, the center of more
than Roman Catholic worship. Those 400,000 mourners proved that to be true, By
providing sanctuary behind its wall he broke down walls, and by being the person he was, he led the Church out of its own walls.