Year of Faith has been emphasized by the 16 dioceses of Korea. The Church sees serious difficulties in the life of the spirit with the prevalence of relativism, secularism and materialism within society, and wants to work to strengthen the faith of the Christians.
The failure of understanding that our relationship with God relates very closely to how we relate with our brothers, and sisters is a problem that the Church seeks to minimize by speaking often and in depth about the social gospel. Many of the dioceses have established schools for the study of the social gospel and we hear lectures and sermons and see articles in the Catholic media bringing the social message of the Gospel to our attention.
Healing is of great interest in society, and the Church is making healing a bigger part of her message. There have been many sermons on the healing effects of the confessional and the sacrament of the sick. And the need to heal the scars that many have from their different relationships.
There are over 111 places of pilgrimage in Korea, which bring back to our thoughts the lives of our first Christians and what they had to endure to be true to what they had learned. There are many talks and recommendations on taking walking trips to these holy sites, ways to deepen our faith, and to familiarize us with the beginnings of Christianity in Korea.
Because of the frequency of divorce in society, the Church has shown great interest on ways of helping our married couples overcome the difficulty they encounter. A new translation of the rites for marriage was published and efforts made in strengthening the bonds of family with various programs.
Many talks are heard about the difficulties of living in the world we have made. The Catholic TV and radio programs have discovered the popularity of talk shows and are working to develop communication with one another.
The Social network is alive and doing well in Korea and in the Church. With the smart phone and the many ways of social networking this topic was given a great deal of space in the Catholic media. They are developing different applications for the smart phones everybody carries around with them. The smallness of the country and the way it has adapted to the digital world makes communication on the national level rather easy, hopefully this will in time influence the communication on the community and personal level.
