During the liturgical year, the Catholic Church of Korea has set aside
three weeks for intensive reflection: the week beginning with the second
Sunday of Advent (Human Rights Week), the week beginning with Holy
Family Sunday (Sanctification of the Family Week), and the last week of
the liturgical year (Bible Week). During this time the Church wants us
to mull over and understand in more detail the Church's teachings on
human rights, the family, and the Bible, making them an integral part of
our daily life. The Church has acknowledged a deficiency in responding
clearly to these areas of life and intends to remedy the situation.
Human
rights, the first of the three special weeks, is a problem for many
because of the tendency to separate the truths of religion from the
often harsh realities of secular life. Many Catholics would prefer that
religion concern itself only with prayer, good deeds and the spiritual
life. When the Church talks economics or gets involved in social issues,
Catholics tend to feel uncomfortable. It's helpful to remember that the
society into which Jesus was born, a theocracy, was very different from
the modern society. Jewish society was seen as both religious and
secular, there was no separating the two. That is not our reality today.
We do not separate our bodies from our souls, and neither do we want to
compartmentalize or privatize our religious life, closing off our
secular life. So during this week devoted to the dignity of our
humanity, let us reflect on the declaration of human rights.
The
Peace Weekly columnist writing on current events recommends that we
spend some time reading the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights,
proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948. He mentioned that although
Korea at that time, after liberation, was trying to establish a new
government amid the chaotic conditions prior to the Korean War, they
were prepared and eager to support the declaration with ceremonies in
the temporary capital of Pusan, despite being a divided country.
He
mentions that there are few that remember the role of the Church in
drawing up the articles of the declaration. Reading the U.N. document
today, one can easily see the similarity in the wording of the articles
and Catholic social teaching that found its way into the declaration,
both directly and indirectly, Those that drew up the declaration, the
columnist says, were familiar with Pope Leo 13's Rerum Novarum (1891)
and Pius 11's Quardragesimo Anno (1931).
The Church's
influence on the declaration was more indirect than direct, according
to the columnist. In 1947, the year prior to the passage of the
declaration, the Catholic laity and bishops of the United States issued
a Declaration of Human Rights which was handed to the chairwoman of the
human rights commission of the United Nations. Composed of 50 articles,
in more detail than what was ultimately agreed upon by the U.N., the
Church document, nonetheless, bore a striking resemblance to what was
finally accepted. This should not be surprising, the columnist says,
since one of the prominent drafters of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights was the Thomistic philosopher Jacques Maritain.
The
columnist goes on to say he doesn't want to give the impression that it
was only Catholic social thinking that was considered, but that without
Catholic teaching the U.N. document would not have been the same
declaration. The balance between rights and duties, the individual and
society, corresponds well with Catholic social teaching. That the
declaration was accepted by non-Christians and non-Western countries
shows that human aspirations are the same the world over. The Church in
the work of protecting human dignity, says the columnist, using the
words of Pope Francis, is to serve as a field hospital. He wants us to
reflect on these words during Human Rights Week.
