Renewal of Priests in the Seoul Diocese

Priests of Seoul gathered in their fourth meeting after the visit of Pope Francis to Korea last year. The topic of this meeting was how to move from a quantitative to a qualitative growth. The bishop in attendance reminded the participants that they were discussing for the whole diocese. The discussion was written up in the Catholic Times.

In attendance were about twenty priests. The results  were not open to the public but with groupware programs, the priests of the diocese would be notified of the results. The inaugural talk  dealt with the renewal of the priests of the diocese. "From the year 1980, we have heard requests for the renewal within the church and at the center was the renewal of  priests." He explained this was saying  we  were not living up to our calling.

The priest took 7 points of renewal from Pope Francis' Joy of the Gospel.

*Does the Seoul Diocese have the will to renew?
 
* Do we have the will to see the decentralization of authority to the different zones in the diocese?
 
* Are the diocese and parishes willing to make the poor the central dimension of the work?
 
* Do we know the structural reasons for poverty, and have the courage and energy to work to improve the situation?  Do we have the willingness to get involved with the Social Gospel?
 
*Do we have a plan for our own renewal?
 
* Specialization for city work.
 
*Improve the place of women within the church.

The priest presenter stressed the most important of these seven was the renewal of priests and programs to implement what is decided.  He would like to see a committee established with clergy, religious, and laypeople present, and religious and lay people in the decision making.

This requires the solidarity of priests and the need to make decisions known to all-- a (manifesto). Study of Scripture, Church documents, and study in small groups would be required for our development. He would like to  see all the clergy tithing; with the best of intentions the renewal, if we take it seriously, will  have results after 10 or 20 years.

Ecozoic Era

What do we mean by an ecological spirituality?  Improvement of life in the 21st century will  depend on our actions. We are already seeing the numbers of species reduced, and many  continue to die. A column in the Peace Weekly acquaints us with this area of our spiritual life. 

Thanks to the recent encyclical of Pope Francis we are all a little more understanding of the problems involved. We have the choice of destroying life and in the process killing ourselves. Or with our great potentiality, we can follow the direction of nature that continues to renew itself.  

He mentions a number of authorities  one of them  David Korten: The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. In this book during   the empires, we had an unequal distribution of power and benefits. Our corporations are versions of the empires of the past, and as destructive of communities and the environment.

Problems that will arise will help us to change our way of thinking to concern for our 'Earth Community'.  Understanding of ecology is spreading to various  aspects of society. Movements are working for clean, safe  and sustainable energy: wind, water,  sun energy and bio-fuels. We have the 'Triple Bottom Line' thinking with more than profit as a goal but also the social and environmental results of work.

Eco-literacy is the study of the relationship between humans and nature. A  connection not always measurable but a desire to have a good rapport with  nature is a healthy result. The Rio Conference on the environment is continuing to get more participants and bodes well for the future.

Thomas Berry introduces us to the Ecozoic era. Earth is a communion of subjects not a collection of objects and  exists and can survive only in its integral functioning. He  gives us another era he calls the Technozoic--technology, which for a short-term benefit, nature is abused and controlled to an extreme. He compares the thinking of these two mentalities. Understanding the Ecozoic era is the only future that we have. Here we understand the rhythms of the earth and live accordingly.

In  Ecozoic thinking, the whole earth  and nature are all one body. We need to respect all of nature and protect the different species. Berry  considers this new understanding as a grace. We need to be open to all life on the planet; the future of life will depend on our understanding of this reality.

Defusing the Bomb We Have in Us

A religious sister with a doctorate in clinical social welfare writes from her experience with young people in the Kyeongyang magazine. She has worked with problem youth since 1988 and since 2000, she has worked in a center preventing abuse of children. Dealing with battered children she laments on the condition of many of our families, society, and country; this  abnormal condition of  society  has moved her greatly.

She has many stories to tell about the abuse of children. After installing a telephone line for the reporting of abuse of children the first child was a nine-year-old girl, skin and bones, with  spots on her left hand as large as a coin where her father with cigarettes burned her hand.The next day three girls were brought in with black and blue marks on their back. The father appeared at the center with abusive language and  threats, wanting the girls back.  
A third grader in elementary school came to class, and the teacher noticed he was in pain. No signs on the exterior were seen; the teacher raised his upper outer clothing and saw the bruises all over his body and called the center.

"I am alright; my father must not know this. I told my new  mother that I would not mention what happened. I have no trouble with the pain." The father denied beating the boy but when the bruises were shown to him, he broke down crying. Sister was upset more by the third grader not acting his age and trying to cover over what happened. 

There is no reason to continue the retelling of these stories we know they exist.  She continues with the results of this abuse among the young. The aftereffects of the abuse put the young into a world of darkness. Children are too young to have the inner strength to overcome the effects of abuse and serious mental problems arise.

She finishes  her article with a wish that the Church become more active in this area. Jesus was concerned about the young and wants the Church to change the way they think about prevention and solutions to the problem. She gives us three proposals. 

First, we  should not accept this situation in society and be patient. Talks and efforts need to be made. Secondly, the  church needs to open its door  to all that are hurting. We need to change the image that we have of church as a place for the saved. Thirdly, education is needed for all the parishioners on ways to prevent abuse and violence in the family. Invite specialists to come  to give  talks on violence in the home, abuse of children and the  elderly. These problems, important to remember, are not only seen in families with mental aberrations.

Both in society and church, persons that have emotional problems and have difficulty in controlling their anger need to receive help. Christians know the help Jesus, and his teaching has for us, and the  need  to draw nearer to him. A famous psychologist is quoted as saying, more  die from problems we have among ourselves than all the many natural disasters. The bomb that we have in ourselves has to be defused.

Preventing Road Rage

"Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving" (Social Doctrine of the Church #583).

A lawyer writing in the diocesan bulletin recounts the tale of a driver who was in custody for retaliatory driving, and the writer was the  lawyer who  worked in his defense. The problem arises because the accused felt strongly that he also was a victim. Briefly, the incident may be described as follows: 

The accused was driving in the  first lane on the turnpike, and a follow traveler (plaintiff) was in the passing lane beside him. In front of the driver on his left was a freight truck that was going very slow, and the driver in the first lane surmised the plaintiff was looking for an opportunity to come back to the first lane, so he began to slow down to give the driver a chance to return. However, the driver did not respond. The accused then began to accelerate and the plaintiff, the one on his left- without any signaling  suddenly made a turn to the first lane. The accused  stepped on the break averting an accident.  No sign of regret from the driver and  a couple of meters later again without any signal moved to the passing lane. The accused was so angry; he made up his mind to stop the car and get an apology. With much effort he did get the plaintiff to stop, and the accused leaving his car belligerently demanded to know if the driver  realized what he was doing? While he was bawling out the driver, a car  smashed into the back of the plaintiff's car,  there was a three-car pile up with six people injured. 

We have the defendant who was doing everything possible to allow the  plaintiff to return to the first lane, but he didn't take advantage of the opportunity given. When he did make the move, it was without any signal and the defendant considered he was mentally harmed by the actions of the plaintiff. The defendant did not get any sign of sorrow for his efforts, and the anger (road rage) built up to the point that he wanted some compensation or to   show he was not a pushover. He was so overcome with anger that he responded with retaliatory driving, both ended up as victims.

The lawyer told his readers that he learned a lot from this incident. When making a lane change the lawyer admits that he was not always thankful for the help given when it was received. He has often been at fault in actions on the roadways and is now able to make allowance for the faults of others. He is putting himself in the other person's shoes. The case in which he was defending the driver for road rage helped him to be conscious of the  feelings of other drivers, and when he does change lanes and is helped, he is more expressive of thanks in his manner than in the past.

Success Is Doing What You Enjoy

Society is  interested in the ways we can determine a person's future by exams and psychology studies of intelligence, aptitudes, and attitudes.  Writing in the Kyeongyang magazine an educator with a great deal of experience in the  field gives her readers much to think about. 

In middle school she remembers taking an  intelligence test  and received a score of 98. Her classmates received scores over 120. She remembers how embarrassed she was, but strange as it seems  she was the best student in the class.... She later received consolation hearing the words of an authority in the field who said that the environment in which  a  test is taken makes a difference; that day everybody in the school was in the large auditorium of the school for the exam.

Up until a few years ago a person with a high IQ was considered to have a bright future. However, today we have many other facets of intelligence that have entered the picture. We have the emotional, spiritual, social, cultural and many other different elements that are as important as the IQ.

She mentions that we have three main ways of discovering a person's level of intelligence: measuring a person's mental ability, secondly a person's emotional level and thirdly she mentions Howard Gardner's 8 aspects of intelligence:   visual/spatial, verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.

She laments that in Korea student's marks in school are all that many parents consider important. Obviously the reason is because of the parent's desire to have them go on to a good college and little concern to find the student's aptitude and temperament and work to develop this.

Parents should not be limited to the classical studies in most of our high schools. There are other possibilities in alternative schools and colleges with special studies in areas that students show an aptitude. Parents spend a great deal of money to send their children  to academies to prepare them to get into a good college when in many cases they will be at the bottom of the class. Much better to prepare them for studies that they want and will do well. 

Gardner added a 9th to his list  which he called the Existential  Intelligence. This is also called the spiritual quotient.  What is the meaning of life?  What is death? What is the meaning of volition? What is happiness? Persons with this capacity  are deeply philosophical. They are emotionally stable,  understand others,  are interested in social justice.  They aim after high ideals and values and inspire others to do the same and seek to instruct others of these values.

She concludes her article with the hope that parents will understand that  a successful life is one where a person is using their gifts and enjoying what they are doing. Help your children to walk in this way. Parents work is not to earn the money for academies but to know their  child and their talents and to help them on the road to  their development.

A World Wide Vision Begun at Creation

Our present knowledge of the heavens both in quantity and quality has no correspondence  with anything in the past. We are deepening our knowledge  but at the same time ask why did the universe begin? Who/what is the absolute existence that has allowed this to happen? What is the reason for the universe?  Humans, only a dot in the universe-- why are we here?

An article in the Kyeongyang magazine by a seminary professor wants us to examine these questions. They are not the questions scientists can answer but go beyond to the metaphysical. The answers given have been vague and varied.

Our Faith goes beyond the vagueness and uncertainty with answers. We understand that God made the universe and all of us; we are the recipients of this revelation from our ancestors, allowing us to have an understanding of our destiny. God is the beginning and final object,  and the way we find meaning for our existence. The way we  understand this relationship, receive it and develop it-- determines our destiny.

Creation is the gift of God; nothing exists that is not a gift. All comes from God, and directs us to God. Our existence  comes from God and it is completed in God, and the way we  come to understanding our role in the universe. 
 
After the Renaissance with the  emphasis on the autonomy of the human, a new  spirit of the times was evidenced, pushing God to the edges. Moreover,  God became an  obstacle to human development.  Dependence on God had to be broken if we were to mature; and yet it was just the opposite that was needed-- dependence on God for our development.

Humans are made in the image of God, which gives us our dignity. This truth makes the place of humanity in creation something quite different, a dignity that participates in God. This existence is completed with a personal relationship with God. He want us to imitate him  and to make this easier he became one of us. We are called to be his co- workers in this world. In Creation, we have the blueprint and meaning for our  journey as humans, and providence, the  direction in which we are being led. 

Emptying Our Minds for Happiness

Today she spent time looking up at the heavens not because she had nothing to do, but because she was restless and uneasy. She had the habit of looking up at the heavens when happy or sad, but today the sky was filled with gray clouds making her heart all the heavier. These are the words of a woman writing in a diocesan bulletin; many of us at times have the same feeling  and look for ways to find  peace.

There is in one part of her heart, she writes, a scar that  gently pierced her self-respect.  Her body and spirit both are uncomfortable with what is happening. She is doing her best to get rid of the feeling of uneasiness. All her efforts did not help and she remained restless and she knew she was looking for some joy in her life. She was looking for something that would change her and the wise  words of a famous Buddhist  monk who wrote about the life of  'non-possession' came to mind.

"An empty mind is the absence of worldly desire.This emptiness  is  what it was originally.When the mind is filled it is not the original mind.When it is empty, we hear vibrations.Vibrations are needed for the freshness and vitality of life"

 She doesn't understand deeply  the words of the monk, but she knows that she has too much of the self-harboring inside. This is what is dirtying her spirit and makes her despondent. When she is  fighting with her self-respect,  she feels she is getting smaller  and is meeting obstacles on her way to God,making her feel shabby and embarrassed.
She is working to bring about a change in the way she thinks and wants to clean out her mind. The hope for change makes for a lightness of heart and energy to continue.From the many fairy tales, she has heard she knows that happiness comes with getting rid of what we think is important and is not. The paradox of losing to gain, of dying to live, of losing ourselves to find ourselves. With  this  change in the person we see appearance of  joy and freedom. 

When we are in control and allow thoughts to enter there is no problem, but when the mind is not trained and allows negative thoughts, we will often be overcome.