Lessons Learned From Matteo Ricci

This year, the 400 anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci, Jesuit (1552-1610) has seen a number of events, seminars and  academic meetings on this  extraordinary missioner to China. He never entered Korea but influenced the life of early Korean Christians through his books. The importance of Ricci's contribution was discussed during the recent International Academic Meeting here in Korea, with excerpts from the talks appearing in the Catholic Times. A summary of the talks follows.

Ricci not only introduced  European knowledge to China but also introduced Chinese religion and philosophy to Europe. Ricci's method of evangelizing, according to one scholar,  can be briefly stated: He introduced European knowledge and Renaissance culture to the educated Chinese, respecting Chinese customs and rites and adapting  them, what we now call inculturation. He pursued the road of friendship with the educated and started a new way-- working from the top down. In 1773 the Jesuits  were disbanded by the Church partly because of the problems in  their accommodation in the Rites Controversy. The influence of Ricci, however, continued to have a  great impact  on the educated classes both in China and in Europe.

One Scholar described the mission work of Ricci as based on friendship. According to this scholar, his death at the rather young age of 57 was precisely because of this ability to make friends; his openness to them meant that he had a steady stream of visits from the learned which brought a great deal of fatigue into his life. The scholar believes this was the reason for his early death.  Valignano was Ricci 's mentor and was  considered the father of the missions in China but our scholar thinks  Ricci deserves  the title.

Another scholar points out that Ricci did not follow the usual missionary example in the 16th century, where missioners followed  the sword, but  he fashioned a peaceful accommodation to the culture that was very successful; it was the dialogue approach to mission.

One of the participants  mentioned  the mission life of Giulio Aleni, a talented and learned missioner whose life of  Ricci became his textbook.  He was a second generation Jesuit in China, who  followed the way of accommodation and even complemented  some of Ricci's methods.

Credit was also given to Alesandro Valignano, a Renaissance man and humanist, who was directly under the Jesuit Superior General  in Rome. It was Valignano's approach to mission that Ricci espoused in China. His approach, one scholar said, was a foretaste of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council 400 years later. Based on the theology of St. Paul, his understanding of mission moved him away from stressing the authority of the Church and persuaded him to place, instead, more emphasis  on the people they were dealing with, which was quite a change from the thinking of the previous generations.
 
When Valignano became aware that many missioners in Japan weren't even able to give a sermon to their own Christians, he required  two years of language study; not surprisingly he  noticed a big difference in what the missioners could  do.

    
It is from these early missioners that we have received a wealth of information. Today,  missioners follow in their pioneering footsteps and are thankful  for making working in another culture  much easier.  

---

Trip to North Korea with the Eugene Bell Foundation

 Father Hammond , Maryknoll Local Superior, e-mails an account of his recent trip to North Korea. Besides his duties here in the South, which are  many and varied, he  is always ready to make the exhausting trip to the North with the Eugene Bell Foundation. His first person account follows:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health invited a delegation of 5 members of the Eugene Bell Foundation to visit North Korea from September 7-14. This was my 45^th trip to North Korea in 15 years.

The purpose of the trip was to visit 5 Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Care Centers in North and South Pyongan Provinces, and a Pediatric ward, also in Pyongyang and one in Nampo.

.

The following was the schedule.

Schedule of “Eugene Bell” Technical Mission

7-14 September 2010

Date	AM	Activity	PM	Activity	Stay
09/07/10 Tue			15:50 19:00	Arrival Briefing with MoPH	Potonggang Hotel
09/08/10 Wed	10:00	Departure for Shinuiju By Train	14:00	Sonchon MDR TB carecenter, N. Pyongan	Apnokgang Hotel
09/09/10 Thu	15:00	Departure for PY By Train	19:30	Arrive PY Station	Potonggang Hotel
09/10/10 Fri	10:30	Songsan MDR TB carecenter, S. Pyongan	15:30	Pediatric ward, S. Pyongan TB Hospital	Potonggang Hotel
09/11/10 Sat	09:30	Kangso MDR TB carecenter, Nampo			Potonggang Hotel
09/12/10 Sun	13:00	Mass at Polish Embassy	14:00	Ryongsong MDR TB carecenter, PY	Potonggang Hotel
09/13/10 Mon	10:30	Sadong MDR TB carecenter, PY	16:00	Debriefing with MoPH	Potonggang Hotel
09/14/10 Thu	09:00	Departure for Beijing

l  MoPH: Ministry of Public Health         PY: Pyong Yang

After the Mass on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, in the library of the Swiss International Aid Agency in Pyongyang, I met  the Polish Ambassador to the DPRK. He invited me to offer Mass at the Polish Embassy the next time I would be in Pyongyang, so I contacted him on Sunday, September 12, that I would be in Pyongyang. The Ambassador made all the arrangements for a 1 PM Mass at the Polish Embassy. A Mass booklet and hymns were printed for those attending the Mass.

Over 52 people attended the Sunday Mass, including 8 children. An altar, with candles and flowers, was prepared, and I brought the vestments. After Mass all were invited for brunch in the Embassy garden. It was a grace-filled time to be with those that needed spiritual help and to be speaking to such an alert and enthusiastic group of worshippers. They represented over a dozen different nationalities. Everyone seemed reluctant to leave after the Mass so I remained at the Embassy till 6 PM.

The Ambassador hopes that when I return in the last two weeks of October that I will be able to offer Sunday Mass on October 24 for the diplomatic community and UN personnel. Clearly, a deep spiritual hunger had brought these people together under such difficult circumstances, and I felt blessed to be able to minister to them even for such a short time. God willing, I will be able to do this again soon as we are tentatively scheduled to return for another visit in late October.

The Legacy of St. Francis

Today the feast day of St. Francis is a good time to reflect on his life, and what he left as  a legacy.

In the October issue of the  Kyeongyang magazine, a priest who studied ecology and represents an ecological spiritual research group, brings to our attention the criticism of many: the  failure of Christianity in not doing a better job of taking care of creation.

He mentions the historian Prof. Lynn White, who gives a great deal blame to Chrisitiantiy for the ecological  problems in the West.  We  have taken the words of Genesis (1:28) as the rationale to conquer and subdue creation, White says, as if God's grace was only there for us.  He  criticizes Christianity for being the most  human-centered  of all religions and believes that St. Francis would be a good antidote to this way of thinking, which is also the belief of the priest. He  does not accept all the criticism of the professor but, along with White, thinks that Christianity has now the responsibility of undoing the harm that was done.

St. Francis was one of the saints who made all of creation his brothers and sisters. He is the patron of all those who are working in the field of ecology. We all are familiar with his canticle to the sun in which all of creation are members of the family of God. The human body is similar: When we prick one of our fingers doesn't the whole body feel the pain?

The problem comes when we think the rational life is the standard by which all of creation should be judged. With this thinking, how are we to think of those who have mental difficulties and of those who are not functioning well in their old age? Are they not also to be respected and given their human rights? Isn't all of creation to be respected?

Scripture makes this known to us in many passages. Pope Benedict tells us in his Peace Day message that if we want peace, we need to be concerned with creation. In the documents of the II Vatican Council, we are told of the need to take care of creation. St Francis knew how to do this.

He cared and respected the water he used, the creatures he found along the paths he traveled--everything in the world he considered family. He believed not only that we have to love creation but acknowledge the mutual relationship between creation and God. We have to rid ourselves of the man-made obstacles that keep the natural world separate from the supernatural. When we embrace God's creation, we are embracing God.

He concludes the article with an examination of the ecological  spirituality of Francis. 


Sorrow:  For the way we have exploited creation in  searching for the comfortable life.


Poverty: A willingness to accept a more uncomfortable lifestyle  and be less of a burden on the environment.

Humility:Remembering that non-rational creation is also  family, and living a life of  thanks instead of greed; trust instead of exploitation.
 

Mercy:  Acknowledging  the blessings of creation are for all  humans and all organisms; understanding that indiscriminate development destroys part of who we are; and recovering a sensitivity to the hurt that our environment suffers.

Addiction to Advertising All Too Possible

A priest,  in  public relations in his diocese, writes for the Kyeongyang magazine this month on the business of advertising: its influence  on society and the moral implications for a business that profoundly affects all of us. It is an ever present reality in our lives and from the time we get up to the time we go to bed, we are exposed to its influence. There is little that we can do to eliminate it from our lives, and he goes on to explain why.
 
Advertising is information about products and services that most of us use daily, communicated, he reminds us, in the most persuasive manner possible to convince us to acquire these products and services. It has been called an aspect of art, speech in service to the public, a sign of  healthy capitalism, a necessary evil, and the stuff that makes the commercial world go around. It has been part of our reality from the time the printed world came on the scene, both in the East and in the West.
 
To find how much influence advertising has on our actions, a small city in Europe attempted an experiment. Specialists in advertising gathered together to plan an imaginary shopping mall. After studying the most successful strategies that have been used to interest the public in buying a product or service, they went ahead and advertised in local media, announcing the many good and inexpensive items that were available at the "new shopping mall." 
   
The result, the priest says, was a great success. On the day of the opening, over half the population of the city came to a very large field without any buildings, just a placard identifying the place as the location of the shopping mall. The citizens knew they had been fooled. The reaction was varied. Some were angry and considered themselves conned; others were thankful for being made to see how powerful advertising is.  It was an example that makes clear how easily influenced we are by advertising.
 
The priest goes on to tell us the four principal concerns that are most often brought to mind when any advertising is being planned: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (AIDA as it is known in the industry). The attempt to get the public's attention so that they will delve into the content of the advertisement enough to arouse their interest, spark desire and motivate them to a buying action requires an attention stopper. Here is where many of the moral concerns come to light: using sex, violence, and fraudulent claims to grab the consumer's attention.
 
He finishes the article with the instructions from the Pontifical Council for Social Communication:

 Truth in advertising

Even today, some advertising is simply and deliberately untrue. Generally speaking, though, the problem of truth in advertising is somewhat more subtle: it is not that advertising says what is overtly false, but that it can distort the truth by implying things that are not so or withholding relevant facts (#15)

  Human dignity

          There is an "imperative requirement" that advertising respect the human person, his interior freedom, his right and his duty to make a responsible choice; all of these would be violated if man's lower inclinations  were to be exploited, or his capacity to reflect and decide compromised. (#16)

          Social responsibility...

          Advertising that fosters a lavish lifestyle, which wastes resources and despoils the environment, offends against important ecological concerns.   Advertising that reduces human progress to acquiring material goods expresses a false vision of the human person that is harmful to individuals and society alike.

       When people fail to practice a rigorous respect for moral, cultural and spiritual requirements--based on the dignity of the person and on the proper identity of each community, beginning with the family and religious  societies-- then even material abundance and the conveniences that technology makes available will prove unsatisfying and in the end contemptible. (#17)

Consequently, there is the obligation on the part of all of us to discern the often corrupting influence of advertising from its legitimate uses, and have the courage and wisdom not to be overcome by it.

Where do we find Lazarus today?

The Korean Catholic press is showing an  interest in the Social Gospel that many feel should have been stressed more in the catechumenate. The teaching on spirituality may have been overly stressed so that the social aspects of the Gospel were not appreciated as much as the private devotional aspects. Effort is now being made to see the whole of the Gospel, looking beyond the personal and individual spirituality to the community and the world.

A newsletter for priests ran an article that asked a question many young people ask concerning the teaching of the Church on the morality of acquiring as much wealth as possible. What should we think of persons who through their own efforts and ability have large and beautiful houses, expensive cars, and have the material comforts that most of us do not have? Is there any degree of wealth accumulation that we can say is too much? Is it merely jealousy on the part of those without these benefits, a discrimination by the not-wealthy against the wealthy?

The writer claims the Church is also helping to propagate acceptance of this inequality by having parishes that are wealthy and can afford to have many and varied programs while having parishes that, for lack of funds, even have to cut back on snacks for students. It's an unjust situation that the writer feels should be corrected.

The Catholic Kyeongyang magazine last year reported how Bolivia has been trying to correct a long-standing injustice in that country. A member of the  Bishop's committee of Korea  described how the president of Bolivia  took land, 150 times the size of Yoido, away from five cattle farmers and gave it to those who were working in slave-like conditions for the cattle farmers; now the land was theirs. But much of the inequality  that is sanctioned by the government is still in place: The wealth of 100 Bolivian families is five times the wealth of 2 million of their poor. Most of the rich and powerful,  those responsible for the injustice in that country, the writer surmises, are undoubtedly Catholics going to Mass in their best attire, in their expensive automobiles, and asking for salvation.

This may seem like a parody of the reality, but it is the situation in many parts of the world. The Church has a very elaborate  teaching on the issues of social justice, but it is not always easy to speak on issues of this type when the government of a country is solidly in the hands of the perpetrators of the injustice. There are two extremes with which the Church has to contend when dealing with  injustice: Those who want to correct the problem as soon as possible, which brings up the question of possible violence--although violence is not an  option for a Christian, preparing the ground for change appears to many to foster violence, the feared consequences, some believed, of Liberation Theology--and, at the other extreme, those who want to change the unjust conditions with prayer, good works and alms.


This past week we heard many sermons on Lazarus the beggar. The rich are thought not to need others, while Lazarus needed  the crumbs from the rich man's table.  It is rather clear from the different parables that the rich have the temptation to go it alone,  they may even forget God, while the poor cannot so easily forget they are dependent on others. Acknowledging our dependence on others can lead to a healthy spirituality which will, hopefully, sensitize us to the plight of the poor and motivate us to change the conditions leading to poverty, or at least to lesson the burden until conditions can be changed.

Some countries, according to a recent news report, are doing this already by asking for a tax that will be earmarked for the poor. And here in our country, yesterday's newspaper reported that the government has earmarked 28 percent of the budget, the highest in history, for welfare.  We are, as a nation, becoming more conscious of those who do not partake of the good life. It's a healthy sign for the future.

True Story-- continued from yesterday

                                    First Communion in the Palace

A year later, September fifth, 1897, the princess sent a messenger to ask me to see her that evening, that I  might hear her confession and, if possible, give her  First Communion. This time it was arranged that I should go to her at the palace. In a chair not unlike the one she had used, I left my house about nine o'clock in the evening, carrying the Blessed Sacrament on my breast was taken through a side-door to the room of a Christian servant. The porters having been dismissed, I was led across several courts to the apartments of a court lady who was in the secret.  On the way I narrowly escaped running into one of the guards who make the round of the palace during the entire night. Each of them is armed with a long stick, bound  with iron, with which he strikes the ground, making a horrible noise. We stood aside in the shadow until he passed, and continued on our way.

A very old lady of the court received me in her  room, where I found also the lady who had been present at Princess Mary's baptism. I laid the Blessed Sacrament on a table which had been made ready for it, lit a candle, and awaited the coming of the princess. At half past eleven I heard a slight noise  and rose quickly. It was indeed the king's mother who approached, having profited by a moment when all her attendants were asleep to have herself carried on the back of a slave to the room in which I awaited her. After our greetings and some little conversation Princess Mary asked me to hear her confession. I did so at once, and afterwards prayers were read to her in preparation for Holy Communion. Shortly after midnight I put on my surplice and stole and gave her Holy Communion. I can still see the whole scene: the aged princess kneeling before me to receive Our Lord, and behind her two pagan ladies of the palace with a humble Christian servant between them, all three reverently  bent low. Such was the First Communion of Princess Mary in the early morning of the sixth of September, 1897, when she was eighty years of age. It was her last communion as well as her first. I was obliged to interrupt her thanksgiving to take leave of her, and never saw her again.

                                    Pagan Rites Over a Christian Body

Towards the end of the year she fell ill, but profited by a day on which she was better to send me messages, recommending herself to my prayers and begging me, if possible to see her husband, the old regent, Heung-song-koun, who was also very ill. She hoped that I might be able to bring him into the Church. I had no further news of her until the morning of January ninth, when word was brought me that she had died the evening before. In any case it would have been impossible for me to be with her at the last. Knowing this, she had told a Christian servant to stay beside her, and in words agreed between them to suggest pious thoughts until the end came.

I felt it my duty to seek an audience with the king, that I might offer my condolence and tell him that his mother had died a Christian. Some one's indiscretion had already appraised him of the fact, and fearing that I should mention it before the assembled court he refused to see me, sending word that he was unusually busy and would summon me later.

I asked also, for an interview with Heung-song-koun, as the princess had asked me to do. He sent me effusive messages of thanks, but explained that he was not on friendly terms with his son and a visit from me at that moment might get us both into trouble. Perhaps this, too, was but an excuse.

Obliged by ill health to go to Shanghai for two months' rest, it was there that I learned of the regent's death on the twenty-second  of February. National obsequies-entirely pagan of course- were held at the same time for him and for Princess Mary. For her soul she had only the portion of the poor: the generous suffrages of the Church and a few Masses said at the request of some humble Christian servants.

A True Story by Bishop Mutel, Bishop of Seoul, 1890

Back in August of 1919 in the Field Afar, Maryknoll Magazine, there was an article captioned:  A True Story by Bishop Mutel of Seoul. The article as it appeared in the Field Afar magazine will be divided into two blogs, one for today and one for  tomorrow. This is a  story known to the Catholics of Korea, but for those not acquainted with  Korean Catholic history may find this of  interest. The story  as related by Bishop Mutel  to the Superior of Maryknoll is  told below: 
                                       
                                       Christianity in the Court

The prince whom the Japanese call Prince Ri Senior, occupied the throne of Korea, first as king, from 1864 until 1897; then as emperor, from 1897 until 1907; when he abdicated in favor of his son, who was dethroned in 1910 and has since been known as Prince Ri Junior.

Born of a noble family in 1852, Prince Ri senior was only twelve years of age when he was chosen to succeed a childless king, and the regency placed in the hands of his father, Heung-song-koun, principal author of the terrible persecution of 1866, which gave us so many martyrs. Little as the regent suspected it, Christianity had even then won its way not only into the court, but into his household. The nurse of the boy-king was a devout Catholic, and his own wife loved the Church and  believed in it. Shortly before Bishop Berneux's martyrdom she sent a message, begging him to offer a number of Masses for the prosperity of the kingdom, and while her husband was torturing priests and thousands of native Christians, she was secretly studying the catechism and preparing herself for baptism.

                                     Empress Seeks Baptism

She was a Christian at heart for many years, and when, in 1890, I returned to Korea as Bishop, she sent to me, begging for baptism. It was impossible for me to grant her petition, for notwithstanding her great age she still acted as mistress of the royal family and among her duties were the preparation of the pagan sacrifices and the defraying of whatever expense pertained to them. I was obliged to reply that she could not be baptized until she renounced all  participation in the false worship of the court.

In the spring of 1896, giving her advanced age as excuse, she resigned her place as head of the   royal household, and once more asked for baptism. The eleventh of  October was the day chosen, the place a Christian maid-servant's unpretentious home, outside the grounds of the palace, but not far from it. I was the first to reach the house and hid behind the door of its one room. Soon the princess came, carried in a kind of chair which is in general use among the ladies of the palace. The bearers did not know her and suspected nothing. A pagan woman of the court, to whom the princess had confided the secret, accompanied her on foot. When the princess alighted she was greeted as Koreans greet an aged relative; only after she entered the house, and the door had been closed, was more profound  respect shown her.

                                    The Secret Ceremony

The princess was immediately presented to me. She was simply dressed, and very simple in manner. Her sight had grown dim, but her hearing was perfect and her mind was alert and keen. We had much to say to each other, but there was little time for anything  but the serious matter for which we had met. I asked her to repeat our ordinary prayers, and she said them fluently, as one does who recited them often. I examined her in Christian Doctrine, and she readily answered all my questions. I then baptized her with as much solemnity as time and place permitted. A Christian, the daughter of the king's nurse, was godmother. All went well, although during the ceremony we could hear the bearers of the princess' chair wrangling over a few pennies just outside the door. Evidently they had too much wine.

When I poured the baptismal water on the forehead of Princess Mary, I saw a look of unutterable joy illumine her face- a look which I have seen a thousand times on the countenances of humbler converts. Immediately afterward I confirmed her, and this time a Christian servant was godmother. The ceremonies had lasted about an hour and we could not tarry longer without danger. I said good-bye to Princess Mary and hid behind the door while she went to her chair. When it passed out of sight I also left the  house.

The following day Princess Mary sent someone  to thank me, to tell me that she had re-entered the palace without being see, and also to ask for a dispensation from abstinence, which it would have been almost impossible for her to observe.

Second part will continue tomorrow.