Korean Word for Pope

 

A pastor has asked the question of whether the word we use to address the pope in Korean is one that we should be comfortable with today. He presents this to the readers in his essay in the Catholic Times.

Many people think the title that we give the pope is not that important but the present title for the pope in Korean is: ‘Hwang’ (皇) which in Korean means emperor (皇帝, emperor). We call the king of an imperialist country 'Emperor'. If you have the opportunity to meet personally with Pope Francis, ask him: "Do you know that in Korea, you are called the emperor—‘Religious Emperor’ (the Emperor of the Catholic Church)?” The writer would like to see the expression on his face.

“Imperialism” refers to aggression that seeks to build a great nation by colonizing other countries and peoples. European imperialism colonized Africa, Asia, and the Americas, plundered, massacred, and destroyed indigenous cultures and religions. That pain continues to this day. In fact, the Pope in the Middle Ages exercised the authority of the emperor not only religiously but also politically, inciting the Crusades, and transplanting imperialistic civilization in the name of God and the Church during the ‘age of voyages’ that began in the 15th century.
 
At the Amazon Synod in October 2019, Pope Francis deeply apologized for the mistakes of the church in the era of imperialism. “With shame, I humbly ask forgiveness for the terrible crimes throughout the history of the Amazon, the crimes committed against the indigenous tribes in the so-called conquest of America, and also for the wrongs committed by the church itself.” Apostolic Exhortation 「Beloved Amazon」 Paragraph 19) And in July 2022, he visited a boarding school for Canadian Indians and once again begged for forgiveness for the evils committed by Christians against indigenous peoples and their children in the past. And in March 2023, the Vatican officially rejected the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’, which justified the colonial occupation by Western imperialist countries by papal decrees, and declared that this is “not the teaching of the Catholic Church.
 
Didn't Korea also suffer as a colony of Japanese imperialism, and the nation has continued to suffer since it was divided into North and South Korea? Is it really right for us, who are suffering such pain, to use the title of emperor as the title for the highest pastor of the church? Where in the gospel does the imperialist emperor-ship come from? The priest's face gets hot whenever he uses the word 'our emperor' when he says Mass every day. He discussed it with the parishioners and promised to call him '교종' (pope) in the parish.
 
The present bishops of Korea also prefer the present term for pope but the priest writer does not agree with the position of the bishops' terminology committee that changing the word would only confuse believers.
 
There will continue to be discussions on this point for years to come for all realize that the word now used in Korea is not following the traditional understanding of who the pope is. The word we use to address him has too much that is contrary to what we Koreans understand the pope to be.
 
If you look at Paul's epistles, the early church called believers 'saints' (聖徒). However, the current Korean church calls believers "lay believers" (平信徒) and distinguishes them from "holy priests"(聖職者). This term, which distinguishes between the holy and the ordinary, also makes us see how the Catholic Church is trapped in a hierarchical and vertical paradigm. All baptized believers are priests participating in the universal priesthood. What if we also use the title of “saints” as in the early church? The terminology needs to be changed so that the thinking can change and the structure can also be changed. At this time when we are struggling to establish a synodalitas church—A church that walks together—would it not be nice to change the word we use for the pope as ‘pope’ and the laity as ‘saints’.
 

The Illusion of Fairness

 

In the Catholic Peace Weekly, the director of the Jesuit Human Rights and Solidarity Research Center gives the readers some thoughts on education and its meaning in our society.  

A few years ago, a large-scale college admission fraud case broke out in the United States. Well-known wealthy parents spent huge sums of money writing applications, fabricating test scores, and bribing admissions officers with all sorts of extracurricular activities to get their kids into elite universities. Over this incident, there was a lot of criticism that education itself betrayed the 'meritocracy' that embodies the talent, effort, and will of the student, not the background of the parents. But why did rich parents in the US try to pass on college admissions rather than stocks to their children?

Political philosopher Michael Sandel saw in “The Illusion of Fairness” (original title “The Tyrant of Ability”) that these parents are buying something that is not as tangible as money, but that they consider to be much more valuable. At first glance, it is the value of ‘ability’ that seems fair. In an unequal society, the privileged firmly believe that their success and achievements are their own through their talents and hard work. That is why we need the ‘myth’ of meritocracy that one’s achievements are one’s own, not others’

Whether in Korea or the United States, the results of standardized tests are proportional to parents' income and wealth. High grades make me mistakenly believe that the hidden privileges behind the competition only come from my abilities. It is not that the principle of meritocracy has not been implemented, but meritocracy itself has nothing to do with fair qualifications or equality of opportunity.

Not long ago, the government's order to exclude 'killer questions' from the CSAT caused great controversy. This was not said out of a sense of desperation to address the educational inequality that makes Korea the most unfortunate country on earth. If so, the enormous impact of institutional change would have been observed very closely. Policies, deliberations, and agreements are not orders or shouts.  

For the privileged parents of Korea, education and housing (land) are living “gods.” So the problem lies not in the utility or fairness of the testing system, but in a much deeper abyss. We need to rethink what our life achievements are and question our socially constructed capacities.  

As long as the vain ideology of success and ability is left intact, private education and the ranking of universities will never disappear even if the exam system is changed. Why are we educated? Education has an 'inherent value', which is good in itself and not because of anything else. It is to achieve human welfare and happiness by cultivating knowledge, skills, attitudes, and inclinations that are helpful not only for myself but also for others. The power of education enables us to grow and change, and to become people who contribute to the well-being of others. This process is dynamic in that not only schools but also families and communities as a whole are involved in education.The face of education is the face of society.  

When we see education as a tool to determine status rather than its original aspect, the face of society changes completely. In an environment where only a few are winners and the rest are losers, everyone ends up in an unhappy society. If we've experienced these failures, shouldn't we go about changing it now?

Pope Benedict XVI made this request. “The educational field is the place where God is with us and gives life to our work. Here our young people find the joy of entering into Christ who exists for others. It is moving from 'I' to 'we' and becoming a member of God's people.” ('Meeting with Catholic Educators', April 17, 2008) How far is the distance between the person who insists on claiming his talent as mine and tries to pass it on at any cost and the person who considers it a privilege that is owed to others? Between the two there is a world of difference.

St. Francis de Sales and Spirituality

In the Peace Column of Catholic Peace Weekly, the director of an Apostolate for the Laity gives the reader his thoughts on the laity's spirituality.

There is a story that has been around for a long time about the spiritual or religious life. Contemplation, prayer, or activity—What comes first? Those who argue that contemplation comes first base their arguments on Jesus' words to Martha and Mary. "Martha, Martha! You worry about many things. But only one thing is needed. Mary chose the better portion" (Luke 10:42). On the other hand, those who insist that action comes first, are based on: "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:17).

Traditionally, it seems that the argument is that contemplation, that is, prayer comes first, has a relative advantage over activity. And this led to the idea that contemplative monasticism is better than active religious life. In addition, the life of religious and clergy is a higher calling than that of lay people. However, the Second Vatican Council made it clear: "Every Christian, in whatever state of life or position they are called, is called by the Lord in 'everyone's own way' to reach 'full holiness', just as God the Father is perfect" (LG 11).
 
Despite these Council teachings, many lay people still place the priestly or religious life above the lay life. Certainly, a layperson with all kinds of worries about their daily life would at times yearn for the life of a religious. This is even when they want to spend time alone in prayer. In this reality, they wonder how they can lead a spiritual life in which prayer, work, contemplation, and activity are harmonized?

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Annecy, who died 400 years ago, offers an excellent prescription for this. The saint explains: "Contemplation itself is better than action or life in action. But better still if you find a deeper union (with God) in a life of action." Do not separate contemplation and activity, but seek unity with God while offering the activity itself to God

These words of a saint are in line with those of American human rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King (1929-1968). It means putting your soul into your work. If you are a street sweeper… Clean the streets like Michelangelo painted… Clean the streets like Shakespeare wrote his poems. Sweep the streets to such an extent that the myriads of heaven and earth are forced to stop and say, 'Here lived an excellent street sweeper who did his job well'.
 

Saint Francis de Sales further explained false piety in this way: "Some who are devoted to fasting… think themselves faithful because they do not eat. While some would not let even a drop of alcohol or water wet their tongues, and yet have no difficulty with gossip and slander. Others will consider themselves sincere because they recite prayers all day long, not paying attention to their evil, proud, hurtful words. Another is willing to open their wallet to give alms to the poor, but cannot find the meekness to forgive their enemies. All these good people are generally considered faithful, but they are not.

On Dec. 28, Pope Francis issued his Apostolic Letter, "Everything Belongs to Love," to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Saint Francis de Sales' death. The full text of this letter was translated into Korean and posted on the Bishops' Conference homepage on June 14th. It is about 10 pages long, but it is a document full of nourishment for this age's spiritual life. He recommends all believers read it thoroughly.

 

The Culture Of Life

A Catholic University philosophy professor wants the readers of the Catholic Peace Weekly to do something about the culture of death that he sees all around us.

The encyclical 「The Gospel of Life」(1995) defines modern culture as a culture of death and emphasizes the duty of Christians to restore the culture of life. Pointing out that "the culture of death and various unprecedented threats to human life are increasing." The writer emphasizes the need for a gospel about the greatness and nobility of life. Although this encyclical points out the cultural phenomenon of death faced from various angles so also the crisis that life faces is many-sided.

As the Encyclical points out, "new forms of threats to human dignity are spreading along with the new prospects made possible by the development of science and technology" (The Gospel of Life). In addition, capitalism and the liberal political economic system, which brought us unprecedented economic prosperity and enabled us to enjoy political freedom, are also destroying human life.

Almost 30 years after the encyclical was published, the phenomenon referred to as the culture of death is growing out of control, rather than decreasing. Are we, as Christians, properly fulfilling our God-given task of life? Rather, aren't we living while abandoning the task of being a Christian, being seduced by the material success and abundance that modern society has brought us?  

In Greek philosophy, which verbalized life, this word life distinguished between organic life (zoe) and life (bios) that we are living. Of course, this word is used differently depending on the era. (can we say that life seen obectively is zoe, and bios is the  life of the physical body, or the psychological life of the human soul).

Therefore, the professor was able to understand the soul that makes life by connecting it with breath. The Spirit of God is the breath of God, meaning the wind of life. The soul is the breath of life (pneuma), and it refers to the principle and substance that makes life life. Life without a soul does not exist. The soul is the power that gives life life, its essential principle, its purpose, and its meaning. 

Humans, who embody life itself, are beings with organic life and the reality of life, and furthermore, have the duty to make their souls give life. Life can only be life when all these dimensions are integrated. Also, only at that time, human beings can carry out the task of life given by God, the duty to protect the reason for the existence of all life on earth by naming it.

However, human beings are now destroying the foundations of life and driving life itself to destruction. This warning of destruction is not just a warning of ecological crisis or extinction of life. Looking back at Korean society, various indicators related to life are at the bottom of OECD countries. The low birth rate, which does not change even after spending more than 100 trillion won, and the youth suicide rate, which is the highest index, have not changed for several years. Social inequality is an important cause that threatens the dignity of life. Nevertheless, the understanding of spirituality is difficult to find.

We have to make a U-turn. Pope John XXIII said: "If you want peace, change your life!" If warnings about life are overflowing and life is moving towards a culture of death, this path needs to be changed. If the soul of life is dying and we are not responding to the voice of the soul, the spirituality of life must be restored. To save our existence and the lives of all beings, we must listen to the sound of life.

 

 

 

Remembering Chernobyl

In the Eyes of the Clergy column of the Catholic Peace Weekly, we are given some of the facts behind a few items in today's world news.

Alla Yarosinskaya, a former member of the Supreme Soviet of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, used a 600-page report on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident that the Soviet Union had thoroughly concealed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The report described how the Soviet Union fabricated and concealed the truth about the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine. Yarosinskaya, who obtained the report, exposes the truth of Chernobyl in a book titled "Chernobyl, The Hidden Truth" (Crime Without Punishment) long after the nuclear accident.
 
According to Yarosinskaya, at the time of the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet authorities knew the damage was serious, but thoroughly concealed it. The standard values were manipulated to reduce the number of radiation exposure victims and changed to deaths from natural causes. With the state's lies, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion looked like a small accident, but the people suffered greatly. Diseases such as cancer and leukemia have led to a great increase in premature deaths and numerous birth defects. Alla Yarosinskaya, who faced the truth long after the nuclear accident, confesses: "The most dangerous material from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is neither cesium nor plutonium, it is a lie."
 
The discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has entered a countdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company has virtually finished the construction of the water tunnel from the nuclear power plant to the sea and has begun sending seawater into the water tunnel. Experts expect that Japan will begin discharging the water after the final investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency this month. Currently, 1.33 million tons of contaminated water are stored in the tank, and once discharged, the contaminated water will flow into the sea continuously for the next 28 years. Ahead of Japan's discharge of contaminated water, we repeat Yarosinskaya's point. It is the lie of the state.
 
The former prime minister, himself was a pro-nuclear power plant proponent who pushed for nuclear power, but after he learned the truth about nuclear power, he confesses that he has now become an anti-nuclear activist. Despite numerous Japanese declarations of conscience, including the former prime minister, we do not fully know the truth about the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
 

Buddhist monks visited the Japanese embassy to condemn Japan's discharge of contaminated water, and Catholic nuns visited the Japanese embassy to urge an official apology for the comfort women issue. On the spot, the monks and nuns who are working with truth prayed together. The nation marched together to tell us not to lie and to tell the truth and apologize if we did not. I don't know if it's because the nuns read the lies of the state that covered the truth, from comfort women, and the monks from the victims of Fukushima and Chernobyl.
 
Therefore, the discharge of contaminated water is an ethical issue. Our judgment on whether the state is lying or not is important. We must look at the discharge of contaminated water in Fukushima with reverence for the life given by the Creator. The writer wonders if the people who have improved their environmental knowledge with RE100 should be the ecological ethics experts in our society. [RE100 is the global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity]
 

Hikikomori: A Social Problem

 

On March 29, the issue of this present blog was visited and will continue to be a problem for the individual and society for many years to come. The Catholic Times visited the problem in a recent featured article.

The son, who never disobeyed his mother and studied well, did not come out of his room during the summer vacation of his third year in high school. When she knocked on his door the only reason he gave for not going to school was because he was sick. His mother, who had to work hard to earn money to keep her home, felt it was her fault for not being able to take care of her young son, and it broke her heart. A week, a month, a year, the son who had not come out of the house was now in his mid-30s. The pain of a child who was cut off from the world due to unspeakable wounds and locked the door becomes the pain of parents and of society. How can the church accompany the pain of families who are going through a time of suffering in so many unknown places?
 
'Reclusive loners' is a collective term for people who have not communicated with anyone other than their family members for six months or more, have refused any social relationships, and rarely leave their rooms or homes.
 
In Japan, this phenomenon had already emerged as a social problem in the 1970s. Students who were tired of the competition for entrance examinations refused to go to school, and by the 1990s, teenagers and young adults who did not leave the house were called "hikikomori", which means "locked in at home". A Japanese psychiatrist who first coined the term “hikikomori,” defined hikikomori as "a case of not participating in society which lasts for more than six months, but it is difficult to think of it as a mental disorder.  He pointed out that the hermit-type loner phenomenon is not a problem of individual psychopathology, but of social structure.
 
The term was first introduced in Korea about 20 years ago. At the 12th World Psychiatric Association held in Yokohama, Japan in 2002, the Samsung Social Mental Health Research Institute reported that a hermit-type loner phenomenon had occurred in Korea. It was known to the academic world 20 years ago, but there has never been a nationwide fact-finding survey at the government level. The perception that people who spend time in their rooms playing games instead of going to school or work has caused people to regard reclusive loners as a personal problem
 
The issue of seclusion and loneliness was difficult to recognize because the person concerned was not appearing in society and awareness of the issue was missing; consequently, the problem that our society should contemplate together as it was linked to crime was slow in coming.
 
At a seminar held in August 2020, it was mentioned that the period of first starting seclusion was 16-18 years old (39.8%), followed by those 19-24 years old. They left society because they were unable to bear the weight given to them at important times in their lives, such as college entrance and employment.
 
The most common reason for being secluded was "mental difficulties such as depression" (43.4%). Others stopped coming out of the house because of ‘not getting a job’ (31.0%) and ‘because of human relationships’ (25.3%). ‘Study interruption and college entrance failure’ (7.2%) were also cited as the cause.
 
In Japan, where hikikomori spread in the 1990s, those who were young at the time were unable to come out into society and entered their 40s and 50s. The "80-50 problem", in which the number of middle-aged hikikomori dependent on their parents in their 70s and 80s is increasing, and emerging as a serious social problem in Japan along with young hikikomori.
 
Institutes that study reclusive loners estimate that there are more than 300,000 reclusive loners in Korea. Experts diagnosed that complex factors make adolescents and young adults secluded. It is an analysis that the overprotection and over-expectation of children that appeared along with the nuclear family made the child helpless and unable to develop the strength to overcome trials. Also, teenagers who were exposed to fierce competition or experienced school violence could not adapt to school life and hid in their rooms. In the case of young people, experiencing frequent failures in the process of finding a job, they lose their motivation and cut off relationships with their surroundings, becoming a hermit-type loner.
 
One of the parents a CEO of the Korea Reclusive Parents Association, founded the Korea Reclusive Parents Association to save her son, who had cut off social ties for over 10 years, said that "parent education" is the first priority to solve the problem of reclusive ones.  "First of all, the children have to come out to receive counseling or support, but the biggest problem is that they cannot even start because it is difficult to access the person concerned. When children open their minds through parents, conditions can be created for agencies or counselors to intervene."
 
The CEO who struggled to raise her son alone after divorcing her husband, said: "If I knew how to take care of my son emotionally, my son might not have lived in isolation for so long." She did not know that those times would leave scars on her son. She has created an association and is working hard to educate parents in the hope that other parents will not suffer the same pain as she did. Her son, who has been studying youth counseling since a few years ago, said: "If I had at least one adult who took an interest in me and said 'it's okay' when I was having a hard time, I would have been able to come out to the world sooner."   
 
Through the words of the two mothers, we can find out what role the church can play. It is to convey the value of love. A priest working with these young people said: "Parent education, which is already being done by the church, is one of the church’s roles necessary in our society where the family is disintegrating." He also added: "Finding the essence of the church through constant catechesis can eventually be the key to solving the problems that plague our society."
 

What Division of the Country Does?

The Vice Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of the Seoul Archdiocese gives the readers of the Catholic Peace Weekly Diagnosis of the Times Column some thoughts on the divided situation of Korea in its 70th year.

On May 31st, citizens in the Seoul area started their morning by hearing loud noises. Since North Korea's reconnaissance satellite was launched on the morning of the same day, the Seoul Metropolitan Government issued an alert at 6:41am. The contents of the emergency disaster text were quite frightening. It was a message to be prepared to evacuate as a warning has been issued in the Seoul area and to allow children and the elderly to evacuate first. There was no guidance on what had happened and where to evacuate, but the message that came early in the morning accompanied by sirens echoing through the apartment complex made many people nervous.
 
Many people thought that something really serious had happened when even the portal site went down due to people flocking to search for news. Some wondered whether they should return home while driving in the middle of Olympic Boulevard, and at home, they were at a loss as to whether they should wake up their sleeping children, and if so, what and how to prepare. Of course, there were people who passed this situation indifferently, but loud sirens and emergency text messages also affected Memorial Day, June 6, a week later. The siren that sounded that morning was a signal of silence for the patriotic martyrs, and even told them not to be surprised this time.
 
Regardless of whether Seoul overreacted to North Korea's previously announced satellite launch or responded appropriately to the crisis situation, the emergency disaster message on the last day of May did not only come into our ordinary morning routine. It reminded us of the fact that we are now divided, and that division is still present in our daily lives.
 
In fact, the confrontation between the two Koreas is not something surprising. Even though hundreds of thousands of soldiers and weapons systems with tremendous firepower are concentrated around the Military Demarcation Line, our daily lives are oblivious to the situation. We worry about rising electricity bills and are sensitive to the reduced quantity and number of basic side dishes at regular restaurants, but issues of inter-Korean conflict or peace on the Korean Peninsula are far from our daily lives.
 
Parents who have to send their children to the military or visit border areas such as Paju or Goseong remember that our country is still at war. However, despite this insensitivity, the reality of division is part of our daily lives. The culture of taking sides in a company or community where you constantly want to question whether the other person is on your side or not is one of the signs of our culture of division.
 
For more than 70 years, we have been taught to doubt whether the people around us are friends or enemies, and doubt creates boundaries, and boundaries create differences. And taking sides has brought about a rigid dichotomy in which one must belong to one side. It is not possible to respect various choices and tastes and be comfortable when opinions are unified, stances are unified, and even menus are unified. Diverse thoughts and positions make the community complicated and dizzy and feel diversity is uncomfortable. However, a rigid society represented by the logic of taking sides and dichotomies takes away our composure and blocks inclusiveness and hospitality.
 
The siren should sound a little longer. Not the air-raid siren, but the siren that informs us that the culture of division is making our hearts sick. Peace can be achieved by uncovering the culture of division hidden in everyday life and finding ways to overcome it. We need to awaken our senses to why our society is rigid and why we find it difficult to accept our neighbors and respect their thoughts.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the ceasefire in the Korean War. Peace on the Korean Peninsula will cease to be a slogan only when we wake up to the division that operates hidden in our daily lives. Only those who are uncomfortable with conflict will walk the journey to create peace for they realize how serious the harm of division is.