Monday, July 13, 2009

Church of Korea's Legion of Mary


There was a news report that mentioned a Legion of Mary presidium in Pusan with 100% attendance for 10 years starting from March 2000. An extraordinary fact, very hard to pass over without a comment. There were 12 members of the presidium and most of them are over 73 , the majority illiterate. This is an indication of the place of the Legion in the life of the Korean Church. There is possibly no country in the world that has a Legion of Mary as active and as large as the Korean Legion of Mary.

The Legion is the largest lay Catholic group in the Korean Church with about 300,000 active members and about a similar number of auxiliaries, and over 30,000 Presidia ( individual groups). There are very few parishes without a Legion. There is even a group in the mission station at which I am in residence.

The Legion of Mary is the most successful lay apostolic group in the Korean Catholic Church. It has made a tremendous contribution to Church development. It has helped Catholics mature in their faith, motivated them to participate in the work of the Church, gave them a taste for small group activity, helped them to understand the life of prayer and gave them a desire for learning and motivation to improve their life of Faith.

A chaplain for the Legion is quoted as saying that: " we can't think of the Korean Catholic Church without the Legion of Mary, and Korean lay Catholics' spirituality can naturally be thought of as the spirituality of the Legion of Mary."

The Legion can and often does go along without the direction of the priest although this is not what is desired. In some parishes you have over 20 different presidia and a curia that helps them to coordinate their work. The prayer and effort they expend in apostolic works is truly impressive. They are expected to spend 2 hours each week doing some missionary activity with another person: women and men, young and old learned and illiterate, a cross section of the Korean Church.

The Legion has a problem, however, with many within the Church for not changing their handbook which is pre- Vatican II; much of the spirituality is not attractive to many within the Church. Some do not want to tamper with something that is not broken others want to see more freedom and fewer regulations. This will be a point of contention for many in the years to come. It will be interesting to see the changes that will be made. It has been a force for good and hopefully after the discussion and changes, it will continue to be a force for good.



Church building : a tent or a tabernacle

A fellow Maryknoller, Fr. John Cioppa, who celebrated his 50th Anniversary of priesthood has a book of reflections on his years of work in Hong Kong. I found his thoughts In His Own Words to be very wise and could translate many of them very easily into the Korea situation which I will do in coming blogs.

Sometimes in conversation with Catholics they complain, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a real church here?" I am not so sure. I am convinced more than ever that having a small temporary "church" or Mass center ... has many advantages. Let me explain.

I guess we should start with a consideration of just what a church building really is. The church building is the place where a group of believers come together to pray, worship God and through the liturgy it transforms into the "true presence of Christ". Vatican II has made it very clear that the "Church" is the people of God, a community which accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior. The church (building) is the home of the Christian Community.

For Many centuries churches were designed with the Blessed Sacrament as the focal point. They were constructed in such a way that the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the most prominent place in the building- usually in the middle of the main altar. This was to accommodate the principal devotion of the people, namely the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Have you noticed that in all of the churches today , both old and new, the Blessed Sacrament is now placed on a small side altar like those in ...

The emphasis now in church design is to create a favorable environment for the Christians to gather and pray. Both church design and the liturgy itself are reminders that we are a community on a journey and that this earth is not our permanent home. So the best symbol of our "Church" is not a massive, beautiful structure of marble and stone, not a place that is fixed, secure and solid, but rather a TENT, a symbol of travel, impermanence, change and simplicity. This is the primary image of the Church of the millennium: a TENT not a tabernacle.

The church is a place for people to gather. The liturgy is not a state. It is a series of feasts in dynamic relationship. We begin with Advent and Christmas, move through Lent and Easter to Pentecost and finally to the end of the year with the feasts of All Saints and Souls reaching a finale in the celebration of Christ the King. In the liturgy we bridge the world of the present and the world to come; earth and heaven; the secular and the sacred. We come to the liturgy not as passive observers, but as active participants to be transformed. We come to church not to feel comforatable, secure and "at home". We come to church to realize that this world is not our permanent home, that we are people on pilgrmiage with our feet on the ground, but with our eyes fixed on the Kingdom...
From reading the above we can see that Hong Kong is less traditional in viewing the liturgy. I personally prefer the tabernacle in the sanctuary at the main altar or very close to the main altar. I would see our Churches both as TENTS and TABERNACLES. However the point that I like is the idea of temporary. I do think that we spend too much time and money trying to make our churches into monuments and miss what is most important. This obviously is an area of much discussion and difference of opinion but a fruitful area for debate.