Why I Respect Cardinal Kim

Fr. Oh Kyong-hwan a priest of the diocese has an interesting article in our Sunday Bulletin this week. He was a professor in the Seoul Seminary and had the opportunity of meeting the Cardinal often. He not only heard him speak, talked with him, and saw him in action during those years he was able to hear comments about him from others. He feels that the church and society were blessed with his presence as the bishop of Seoul. From the beginning of the 1970s to the beginning of the 90s it was a dark time in Korea. The basic rights of free speech and the media were repressed and those who had difficulty with the state of things were arrested and at times tortured.

During that time the Cardinal reacted, as the ordinary of Seoul, in a very proper way. He was able to do what the times were asking of him and responded appropriately: when all in 1971 were afraid and silent. During the sermon at the midnight Mass that was televised nation wide, he criticized the totalitarian rule of Park Cheong- hee. He became the protector of freedom, democracy and human rights. His was a prophetic stance, the supporter for human rights, but never in the extreme.

In 1987 June 10th at the end of a demonstration denouncing the government by college students, they went to the cathedral. The Cardinal's tone was determined, he told those sent to arrest the students they would have to walk over him, the priests and the sisters to get to the students. This put an end to the attempt.

The Cardinal did not worry on what to do and what to say. He was able to judge what the government was going to do but the big concern was a small group within the Church that were in opposition and criticizing what he was doing. They also began a campaign to remove him from his position by circulating a petition asking for signatures of those that disagreed with his actions. A group of young priests took to the streets to demonstrate against the government. Those who were for and against continued but he never refused the priests from using the Cathedral for prayer meetings against the government.

During this time Fr. Oh was teaching the seminarians what the Church's message was in social teaching. The foundation of this social teaching is: with our intellects, freedom of the will and consciences we are made in the image of God and have dignity. That dignity should never be violated.

The Cardinal always followed the teachings of the Church. Fr. Oh concluded the article saying it was a blessing that he was the ordinary of the diocese. Someone else in that position who was in opposition to what he did, would have given us a very shameful history to deal with and there would have been a delay in democratization of the Country.

5000th KOREAN PRIEST

Today is the Feast Day of Father Andrew (Taegon) Kim, the first Korean Priest. On June 26, 2009 at the Olympic Stadium, we had the ordination of the 5oooth Korean Priest. The first Korean Priest was ordained on 1845 the 5000th was ordained for the Archdiocese of Seoul at
the ordination ceremony at Olympic Stadium where 27 priests started their new life.

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father on June 19, 2010. the Pope has declared St. John Vianney the Universal Patron of Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Curé d’Ars.

At the celebration of ordination to the Ministerial Priesthood, Cardinal Cheong said, "As of the year 1961 when I was ordained a priest, there were less than 250 Korean Priests. However, today we have a pleasure to see the birth of the 5000th Korean Priest here in this place."

Whenever we select a group for special attention there are reasons. The problems that priests can have in our modern society are many. The editorial in the Catholic Peace Paper this week mentions that for a priest to live as he should in our society demands that he overcome many obstacles. If one is not alert it is easy to live the comfortable life, there are just too many areas of contamination.

The Korean Priests have their older brother priest St. Kim Andrew and St. John Mary Vianney, parish priest patron, to help them in their priestly life. The life of our priests depends on the prayers and life of our Catholics; that is not overstating the case. It is said the Catholics get the priests they deserve. Priests come from the modern society in which they live and it is not easy to overcome the temptations that are prevalent in that society. Priests do influence the
Catholics but I wonder if the Catholics' influence on the priest is not greater.

Why Some Leave the Church

Fr. John Cioppa a Maryknoller working in Hong Kong reflected on the reasons people enter, stay and leave the Church in Hong Kong. I found it interesting and not much different from the reasons that the Koreans might suggest for doing the same. We will consider Fr. John's understanding of why they leave.

The Catholic Church in Korea has had a spectacular growth. From a very small Church to 10% of the population at the present. We also see a large number of these baptized, not practicing, shortly after entering the Church. The former President Noh Moo-hyun would be a good example of this . How much does this have to do with catechizing and how much from the motivation of the individual is an interesting question?

Fr. John mentions a survey that was done a few years ago on newly baptized Catholics:

they found that 10.4% lose their faith and became alienated from God in the first year after Baptism, and 19.5% seldom or no longer attended Sunday Mass. That is a good reminder that those who develop the habit of going to Mass during their catechumenate period are more likely to continue doing so after being baptized. Falling away can be a conscious decision. Some leave because they disagree with the Church's policy or the local Bishop or parish priest. Others do so because they feel hurt or neglected by the parish leader. Some leave because they don't feel welcomed by the local Catholics. Some are angry with God because of an unanswered prayer, or for some other reason. Those who violate Church laws or have done something which they think cannot be forgiven, feel it's hypocritical to remain in the Church. Falling away can also be an unconscious decision. Some people gradually become distracted by work, money or power. Those who are no longer around friends and family who have been their spiritual support often stop going to church. This can happen when a Catechumenate class is finished and there are no more meetings or when people move away from their parish church. In my experience the vast majority do not fall away . They were never fully in the Church. They may have been baptized as infants but have had no opportunity for Christan formation. Perhaps their parents were new Catholics and didn't have an adequate understanding or appreciation of the faith themselves. When these youngsters reach adulthood , they often don't admit they are Catholics. Of course, they don't get married in a church nor have their children baptized. When sickness or old age comes, however, they may return for the Sacrament and a Catholic funeral. For them the flame flickered but didn't go out.

It is my conviction that religion is not taught but caught. It is something that has to be experienced over a long period of time in order to have a lasting effect. John A Cioppa M.M. "IN HIS OWN WORDS"

Otto Who?

This was written by Fr. Roman Theisen in 1989 . Fr. Roman died in 2002, at Maryknoll Center. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's many years before and continued to work as pastor, Regional Superior and as chaplain at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. His desire was to die in Korea but it was not to be. His condition deteriorated and had to return to the Center to get the necessary medical help. He died shortly after but not experiencing the "Roman who?" of this blog.

Some where in the Maryknoll world a priest or brother had died. The Rector went to the altar and read a brief telegram: "Word has just arrived at Maryknoll that father Otto Rauschenback was killed yesterday by Chinese bandits. details will be made known as they are received." There was a sudden silence, and then whispers were heard: "Otto who?" Even the Rector seemed embarrassed at not knowing who this priest was, whose tragic death had just been announced. It impressed me then, and still does, that here was a Maryknoll Missioner who'd been ordained at Maryknoll for the foreign missions, sent to China, stayed there, and was largely forgotten. He became to me an instant hero.

Details later informed us that Otto "Rauschenbach had gone to China twenty-one years before. He returned to the U.S. for a home visit after ten years in China. He went back and ten years later was planning another visit home when Japanese armies invaded China. Fearing he might not be allowed to return if he left, he moved into a mountainous area behind the Japanese lines and continued to minister to his Chinese people. In the unsettled area between the warring armies he fell into the hands of bandits, who killed him and left his body lying in a ditch.

Maryknoll has a Departure Ceremony for young priests, brothers, and lay missioners. Friends and relatives surround them, wishing them god-speed and success in their first mission. It is, indeed, a heart warming occasion... however I have been impressed, by the quiet men who arrive alone after years on their mission. They arrive by taxi, often having had no one meet them at the airport.Their eyes light up if they recognize a classmate or someone they know. Otherwise, they follow the official guest master to their assigned room. They stay awhile for medical care at the end of which they call a taxi, murmur farewell to a classmate or someone they know, and then they are gone. quietly returning to people they love.

The greatest honor I can imagine is for the Lord to allow me also to remain quietly with my own people in Korea, until the day a telegram is sent from Maryknoll announcing: "Father Roman Theisen has died in Korea," and in distant places young Maryknollers look at each other in puzzlement: "Roman who?"

LISA

Another incident from the People I Love by Father Roman Theisen.


Was I hearing correctly? Or was I overly tired and imagining what I thought I heard? It was late at night, about 10:30. We'd conducted regular Thursday evening catechumen classes and had several interviews . I'd locked the church and returned to the priest's house to find this beautiful high school girl waiting for me. Lisa was growing up in a tragically unhappy family. Her father was a notorious womanizer, bringing his girl friends home to flaunt before his wife and family. Lisa's mother, faced with a hopeless situation, was given to hysterics, hovering on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As always, the children, of whom Lisa was eldest, suffered.


But what was Lisa telling me now? "No one loves me," she was saying. "If you love me you'll take me to bed with you tonight and make love to me. Nobody will know." That wouldn't be true love," I tried to explain. " That would be selfish love. I'd be taking advantage of you when you're feeling rejected. It's because I do love you, and love you truly, that I am going to send you right home. You may not understand now, but sometime you'll realize I really love you for yourself, and not for my own selfish pleasure." Lisa slammed the door as she left. "No one in the whole world loves me, " she shouted back angrily.


Three days later her mother told me Lisa had disappeared from home. Then a month later she came to see me. "I just want to find out how my mother's doing," she said. "Don't tell her I came to see you." Lisa had taken a "hostess" job in a bar next to one of the U.S. Army camps. From time to time she came to see me. She allowed me to tell her mother only that she was alive and well.


Then one day Lisa came with a Polish boy from Hamtramck, Michigan. He'd met her in the bar and they wanted to get married. Before they left I persuaded them to call Lisa's mother, and there was a tearful reconciliation between mother and daughter. I eventually witnessed their marriage, and Lisa followed her soldier husband to the US. Back in the US Lisa's husband reenlisted in the Army and as a reenlistment bonus was allowed to pick his new duty post. He chose to return to Korea. They came to see me when they arrived back.


Some months later the phone rang. It was Lisa's husband. Congratulate me, Father Roman, he said, "I have a son! Lisa asked me to see if you can baptize him next Sunday afternoon?" I agreed and asked what name they were giving their baby. "Lisa give me no choice," he laughed. "She says you're the only person in the world she's sure really loves her, and the closest to a father she ever had. She insists we name our baby Roman"

SEEING OURSELVES AS WE ARE

One of the priests of the diocese recounted one of his experiences while studying for the priesthood in Rome. He was watching TV with a number of students from Africa and South America. The TV news was showing members of a National Assembly fighting one another . They were dressed in suits; one of the members was lying on the floor writhing in pain and another was at the chairperson's podium playing the part of superman. "Where in the world would this be happening these days?" the priest blurted out sarcastically. Then down below as a subtitle came the words " Corea del Sud" (Korea)

The same priest mentioned while on a pilgrimage with his classmates from East Europe he was watching TV when a Korean came on the show speaking flawless German. The Korean was hosting the program and the priest felt proud to see one of his countrymen in fluent German in that position but as the show progressed he again felt deep shame. The Korean was hosting the show visiting Korea in search of his mother. Korea was the number one country in the world exporting children to the world. ( This is no longer true. The Koreans are adopting more of the children and the percentage is much lower than it was)

The conclusion of this introspection was that we do not see ourselves as we are. Most of the time we choose to ignore reality for something easier to accept. This obviously is not only true of the Koreans but all of us. Things that embarass us are easy to pass over. We have heard numerous times that we should not be concerned about the speck in the other person's eye but begin to deal with the log in our own eye. It is only then that we probably will see everything much more clearly.

God's Gift - Noel.

Taken from Fr. Roman Theisen's People I love.

She opened my office door hesitantly. "Are you busy, Father Tai?" "Not at all,"I replied. I liked this woman. she and her husband were devout Catholics whom I had baptized two years before. She sat down. " I have a problem," she began. "I didn't know I was pregnant and took quite a lot of cough medicine that my doctor tells me will cause my baby to be born mentally and physically disabled. He wants me to have an abortion." she looked at me in anguish.

I sympathized with her. I'd heard the same story from other women. As always, I explained our Catholic belief that God, the Creator, gives life and that this God-given gift of life is so beautiful and precious that once given no one but God may take it away.

"but my doctor said,..." she explained at length the reasons her physician urged her to have an abortion. I explained how precious and sacred the life of even one human person is, simply because every person is destined to know and to give glory to God, and to share God's own glory for all eternity even though that person may be deformed, old or disabled mentally and ... But if it were my child, I'd trust God and have the baby. Her face brightened. "I'm so glad you said that," she said. "My husband told me you'd know what to do."

From that day on every time I saw Marcella and Paul at Sunday Mass I besieged Heaven with prayers that Marcella's baby would be born strong and healthy. Then one morning I went to open the Church for early Mass and found Paul waiting for me. His face was beaming, "Yesterday afternoon my wife gave me a strong, healthy son." I congratulated him and sent a fervent "Thank you" up to the Good Lord in Heaven, whom I am sure was smiling upon us. They named the baby Noel, because they said, " He was God's Christmas gift to us."

I was invited to Noel's First birthday Party, the baby's "Tol", which Koreans traditionally celebrate with great solemnity and joy. Paul presented me with a painting which he himself made from the photograph he'd taken after Noel's baptism, of me holding little Noel in my arms. As Marcella and Paul gave me little Noel to hold again, he looked up at me with clear eyes and smiled. How precious and wonderful God's gift of Life! How good God is to His People!