Forgiveness and Reconciliation

 

In the Catholic Times, the director of a Theological Research Institute gives us some thoughts on the military situation in Korea.

During holidays, she gathers with her friends, seniors, and juniors, who were active at the church when she was young, goes to Mass, eats together, and shares stories. Since they were friends who got married and had children around the same time, the main topic of this Harvest Festival Holiday meeting was the story of their sons who will soon be enlisting in the military or who are currently serving in the military. It seems like it was just yesterday that she was sending letters of consolation to soldiers when she was a student and now that she has a ‘soldier son’, they talked about the military for a long time, realizing how old they were.

 

A friend whose son entered the military last spring said these days, soldiers can use their cell phones during their free time, to send letters through the military communication service application, and the soldier's salary has also increased significantly, the welfare of soldiers has improved a lot, it was now possible to put aside a sum of money. 

 

Her friend encouraged her son to go to Sunday Mass when he goes to the military, and he said he would. At the training camp, he attended Mass as promised, but only two of the soldiers were Catholics, there was no church in the unit where he was assigned, so he did not go to Mass. She got a glimpse into the reality of military chaplaincy even so briefly.

 

The military story of her friend ended in his son's heartbreaking experience when he was injured in training and was hospitalized for over a month. At that time, the fatal accident of a corporal of the Marine Corps made the news. [Marine died during search and rescue operations for victims of torrential rains earlier that week] Hearing this news he rushed to the unit and it was then he heard the news of his own son's accident and hospital stay. The son did not notify the family not wanting to cause them worry and only told the father the news after his son was discharged from the hospital and returned to the unit. 

 

Her friend said that he realized how much it meant to be ‘discharged at full service as a sergeant’, which is given to those who have completed their military service safely. He asked us to pray that the son would safely complete the remaining period of his service. 

 

In the past, it was taken for granted that a man should serve in the military but after hearing these stories, she felt sorry for the situation of men in their 20s who were born in this divided land and have to bear the heavy duty of national defense.

 

This year, the Armed Forces Day event featured a street parade with large-scale troops and weapons equipment mobilized. It is said that this is the first street march held in 10 years in response to North Korea's military provocations. A budget of 10 billion won was invested. Rather than feeling proud of our military power and weapons, people thought: 'This is a scene we have often seen in North Korea.' 'But' was the first thought that came to many minds. She doesn't know why a country that already spends more on its military than North Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) would make such a show, with the international situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula in such an unusual condition. She feels uncomfortable because it feels like we can go to war at any time. 

 

Even before the Armed Forces Day event, flight training took place over downtown Seoul for a few days, and even though she received a notification text message from the city of Seoul and knew that this was a training situation, the sound of combat planes flying low in the middle of the city made her feel scared. It is obvious that as military tensions rise, the military life of soldiers will become more difficult, and if war breaks out, the lives of our sons on the front lines will be the first to be endangered.

 

The motto for this Armed Forces Day event was 'Peace through Strength'. The teachings of the Catholic Church state that peace through force only encourages the arms race.  "The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts the development of people. Over armament  multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 2315).

 

Even though people around the world believe that strong military power can bring peace, we believers who follow the Catholic Church’s teachings on peace must remember that "true peace is only possible through forgiveness and reconciliation" (Summary Social Doctrine, Paragraph 517). 

 

Drug Rehabilitation Centers In S. Korea

 

A Professor in the Social Welfare and Addiction Department, of  a Catholic University of Korea gives us the work done for those who are addicted to drugs of one kind or another.

Korea is a  high stress society and the government has acknowledged the problems and is working in the area of crime and punishment but the mental health and rehabilitation centers are still few. 

On July 20, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) began operating the Addiction Rehabilitation Center in Daejeon. Addiction rehabilitation centers provide counseling and rehabilitation programs to drug addicts and provide mandatory education that drug offenders must receive. There were two government-run addiction rehabilitation centers in Seoul and Busan, but the number increased to three with the opening of the Daejeon Center.

 

In particular, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that it will operate the Daejeon area center 'customized for youth'. In a reality where the number of youth drug offenders is increasing recently, the opening Daejeon  area center deserves positive evaluation.

 

Some adolescents have substance use problems severe enough to require therapeutic intervention. Therefore, since most adolescents can be seen as having the potential to have problems, intervention with preventive rather than therapeutic goals is more appropriate for adolescents. In addition, youth use of technology, tobacco, and drugs is highly likely to lead to substance use disorders in adulthood, and the earlier the age at which substance use begins, the more likely the problem will become. Therefore, it is important to prevent youth from engaging in alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. In addition, intervention for youth who already have problems the money spent and effectiveness have not been efficient.

 

Domestic education sites also recognize the importance of prevention and provide prevention education to students. According to the status of education on prevention of drug misuse and abuse, including narcotics, over the past three years, almost all elementary, middle, and high schools are providing education on prevention of drug abuse. Between 2019 and 2021, an average of 98-99% of schools provided prevention education to students.

 

However, even though almost all adolescents receive education to prevent drug misuse, adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs is increasing. According to the 2022 Youth Health Behavior Survey, youth's current e-cigarette use rate (proportion of people who used e-cigarettes on more than 1 day in the past 30 days) and current drinking rate increased compared to 2021. Also, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the number of teenage drug offenders increased four-fold in five years from 119 in 2017 to 481 in 2022.

 

Even though the youth prevention education completion rate is close to 100%, the rate of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use is increasing, suggesting the need for diagnosis and improvement in prevention education.  

 

The current drug abuse prevention education time is only 10 hours. School-based prevention education is known to be more effective when it consists of at least 15 sessions. In addition, current prevention education is biased toward using videos to inform people about the negative consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. This is a traditional prevention model, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention education based on this model is very negative. In other words, overall improvements are needed in the operation period, operation method, and content of preventive education.  

 

The Life Skills Training program is a representative youth drug misuse prevention program. The operation period of this program is 3 years, and it is a program operated in a manner based on the interaction between students and program facilitators (e.g. teachers), and several studies have proven its effectiveness.

 

The best place for these programs are the schools. We hope that schools will create an environment in which prevention education can be provided to students in an effective manner and for a sufficient period of time, and that the Ministry of Education and related organizations will actively invest in the development and evaluation of highly effective youth drug misuse prevention education programs. 

 

Discrimination Is Not Allowed

 

The Peace columnist  in the Catholic Peace Weekly describes the problems of immigrants seen as an immigrant professor in an American University.

Her legal status is a migrant worker. Until she received permanent residency a few years ago, she  had to worry about immigration documents. This is because if you cannot maintain your visa, you could become an ‘unregistered resident’ at any time. Some people would have called her an ‘illegal immigrant.’ After obtaining the documents, she was free from the threat of crackdowns and deportation. However, many people she knows miss deadlines and opportunities, and without the  documents, become ‘illegal’, and endure discrimination. Their stories are rarely heard. This is because "the farther away a being is from power, the less it is talked about."

 

Because of this situation, we pay close attention to the images of immigrants represented in Korean media. The 'Gukppong' concept, (국뽕) is a Korean satirical phrase meaning "intoxicated with nationalism". As a result of extreme nationalism, it becomes negative for others

when it promotes national pride through the experiences of foreigners classified as elites and experts living in Korea. 

 

Asian immigrants do not appear in these programs. They are represented as murderers, agents of violent organizations, human trafficking brokers, servile service workers, kind but ignorant people who do not know their rights, irresponsible and lying women in international marriages, and female victims who are always in need of help. Moreover, their appearances follow a set formula. Either get completely beaten by the main character and be discarded like rags, or be forgiven by the generous indigenous people, repent, realize who you are, and live on. Unable to accept this  perspective of the indigenous people, she gets upset and changes the channel.

 

It was five years ago that the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination expressed concern that the racial discrimination situation in Korea was already serious and could lead to a national crisis. However, Korean society does not yet recognize discrimination against refugees and immigrants as racial discrimination. Racism in Korea takes the form of a racial hierarchy that looks down on people of color while viewing white people as superior. Its roots are racism, mental colonization, and internalized Orientalism stemming from modern and contemporary colonial history and the Korean War. The mechanism that encourages and justifies that discrimination is the law. Since most immigrants of color believe they are  in the country, without following legal procedures, it's only natural to be discriminated against. Discrimination is most dangerous when it feels natural.

 

No immigrant wants to become an undocumented resident. The reason they are unable to register is not because they are involved in crime, as the media portrays, but because of institutional racism that leads to unequal administration. Under current law, migrant workers cannot change workplaces unless the employer is at fault. In other words, you cannot change your workplace without the consent of the company. Even if  permission is obtained, movement is only possible within the same industry and within a certain area. They leave the workplace to survive and thus become ‘illegal’.

 

Moreover, if a child is born as an unregistered resident, the child is also placed in a blind spot of basic rights and legal protection. The government has expanded the scope for granting status of residence from 2022 to guarantee the right to education of undocumented migrant children, but migrant families are having difficulty applying due to various barriers such as access to information and language. In addition, apart from improving children's rights, unregistered parents are subject to departure from the country. Racism in Korea is stratified by class and is passed down from generation to generation. Discrimination centered on race has become class stratified and is being passed down to the next generation.

 

 "In terms of basic human rights, all forms of discrimination, whether social or cultural, or based on gender, race, skin color, social status, language, or religion, are contrary to the will of God and must be overcome and eliminated." This is the teaching of the church as specified in the Catechism. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1935) 

 

There is no person in the world who deserves to be discriminated against. The gospel leaves no room for compromise on the need to love unconditionally. Opposing discrimination is not simply about showing mercy. It means acknowledging the minimum share that should be given to everyone, sometimes giving up one's own share, and even reclaiming the share of those who do not even know they should be given it. All humans have the right to be respected for the sole reason of life. Because God is breathing through that life.

 

Our Country of Korea

The general secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission of the Korean Bishops gives the readers some understanding of separated families from Japan in the Unity and Reconciliation column of the Catholic Times.

Not long ago, the priest general secretary received a call from a Japanese priest he knows who was visiting Korea to help separated families. He ministers to immigrants in Shimonoseki and also works to help people with Korean roots among his compatriots in Japan. However, this time, it was concerned with an ethnic Korean family from China. These ethnic Koreans who were expelled by the Japanese government were currently residing in Korea and their young daughter remained in China.
 
Her parents, who were born and raised in a border town between North Korea and China, said they moved to Japan about 20 years ago to make money. The two worked hard and lived as a happy family until their daughter,  born in Japan began attending middle school. However, their illegal residency status eventually brought misfortune. When they reported this to the government expecting leniency this became the source of trouble. They wanted to proudly settle down in Japanese society, but the result was forced eviction.
 
It was difficult to suddenly go to China, abandoning everything and the daughter who had grown up knowing only the Japanese culture. The father, who became a repatriation evader, had to spend four years in a concentration camp. His daughter, now a high school senior, is staying with her grandparents in China, but she cannot speak any Chinese and cannot attend school. Their dream is for their family of three to live together in Korea. However, unlike the ‘Chinese Korean’ parents who were able to obtain residency status, the issue of staying in Korea for their daughter born in Japan is the problem.
 
We met with the staff of the Tokyo Catholic Center, a Japanese priest, and the child's parents who had accompanied them for several years, as well as our diocese's immigrant pastor. Although we all knew that resolving visas would be difficult, Korean and Japanese priests and activists decided to continue their efforts to reunite separated families, feeling like they were grasping at straws. In the car on the way back, the columnist thought he should say something to thank the Japanese activist.  ‘Thank you for helping our people" but the voice of the Korean-Chinese mother who was interpreting seemed to tremble a little. At her parting, she said in her hushed voice, ‘Thank you for calling us the same people.’
 
 Although the term 'nation' seems to have gone out of fashion, not least because of the frozen inter-Korean relations, there are still people who feel warmth in the word 'nation'. This Chuseok, let us pray more earnestly for the comfort of the Virgin Mary to be conveyed to our scattered people.
 

Caterpillars Become Butterflies

 

In the Catholic Times, a novelist writing in the Sunday Chat column gives the readers meditation on the growth of Caterpillars.

She is sometimes asked what she regrets the most in her life. She used to answer: that she wished she had put more pressure on her children in their religious education.
 
When the children were young, she said: "Wouldn't it be better to let them make their own choices when they grow up?" Did she think faith was similar to a hobby? At the same time, she forced them to learn Korean, memorize multiplication tables, and get vaccinated, saying it was no use crying. If she had to go back and choose again now, her priorities would have changed. If only she had known then what she knows now.

Although it has already been more than a decade, she managed to persuade adolescent children to go to church. It was an achievement obtained with all kinds of conditions and nagging. But they didn't go very often. The classes at the academies are a problem she was told by the assistant priest of the parish.

She doesn't completely agree with him but it wasn't that she didn't have the same pressure of studying for the college entrance. As the priest said, she does have the bitter memory of not encouraging her children more.

Sometimes, when young priests tell her: "Even if I allow girl group songs, the kids don't come" She doesn't like to hear that and gets angry and laughs because she feels she is getting old.

Even in her childhood, she had tutoring and various studies at the academy [after school study]. What kept her going to church during those years were different impressions she received and was affected in ways this world was not able to do.
 
They packed their bags and went out to the parish church early Sunday mornings. She left for the slum by bus with packages of clothes, rice, ramen, soap, etc. that she collected for a week. In the afternoon, she visited orphanages, nursing homes, and hospitals, and sang songs, and it was night when she attended the Sunday evening Mass. She continued this activity until she was a high school senior. It was not because she had good physical strength, nor was it the wish of her parents. What she did was followed by feelings and impressions never experienced outside of what she was doing within the church.
 
The fundamental questions and answers were not present in the songs of this world but were present in the songs she sang at the Focolare Meeting.

She loved it and was fascinated by it all. At that time, were there any other possibilities that would have had the same results? She doesn't think there was.
 
Mitterrand of France, the left-wing president who abolished the death penalty in Europe was an atheist. He asked his friend Father Pierre in a hospital bed before he died: "Hey, is there really a God?"  

Father Pierre replied: "Of course, do you remember when we were young? There was a beggar on the way, so we gave him all the money we had. And yet we were happy. Even after doing that stupid thing. That's the proof that God exists."
 
She is not interested in going to a church where they have more girl groups singing. That's what the world is much better at. If you compete with the world, the world wins. The church will always be second-rate.

Someone said. The growth of a caterpillar is a butterfly. Not being a bigger caterpillar.

The Abbandoment Of Religion In Society

 

In the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times, a pastor gives his reflection on what he sees happening in the religious life in Korea.
 
Have we really entered an era of 'dereligionization'? According to a recent survey by a Protestant research institute, only 4 out of 10 Koreans consider themselves religious. If we look more specifically, in our country, religious people are 37% and non-religious people are 63%. Compared to the past, the decline in religion is serious.  
 
Twenty years ago, in the early 2000s, religious people accounted for more than 50%, but since 2012, the phenomenon of 'dereligion' has accelerated in all religions, including Buddhism, Protestantism, and Catholicism. Of course, the negative impact of COVID-19 may have also played a role. Moreover, only 19% of the young generation, especially those in their 20s, are religious. Only one out of five young people consider themselves religious.
 
According to these statistics, the percentage of Catholics decreased from 10.1% in 2012 to 5.1% in 2022. In other words, the number of believers has halved in 10 years. If this trend continues, it is expected to decrease to 2.5% in the next 10 years. He can't believe this phenomenon. Since this is a statistical survey focusing on the current status of Protestantism, he wonders about the accuracy regarding Catholicism but feels anxious.
 
We introduce information that can be used as a reference in the statistical survey on Protestant churches. It is said that the number one reason Protestants gave up religion was ‘because they were not interested in religion.’ It is said that the second most common reason for abandoning religion was ‘distrust and disappointment in Christianity.’ However, an interesting fact is that the top reason given by non-religious people for not believing in religion was ‘not interested in religion’, and ‘distrust and disappointment in religion’ were also ranked second. I think that if we Catholics were to conduct a survey, similar results would probably come out.
 
The fact that the biggest reason religious people abandon their religion is ‘because they are not interested in religion’ means that times have changed greatly. As our country has now entered the developed world and its social, economic, and cultural standards have increased, our way of life has changed greatly. As the 4th Industrial Revolution occurs, digital culture is evolving into robots and AI, and various sports and entertainment are influencing the world. Therefore, regarding the phenomenon of 'dereligionization', a scholar's statement that “we are increasingly less inclined to agree with the transcendental nature of religion” seems very credible.
 
The church must learn how to persuade critically orientated modern humanity of Christianity. That leads to the task of new evangelization or cultural evangelization. I believe that the future of the church will depend on whether or not the church provides an appropriate alternative to this task. In addition, we must reflect on the second most common reason for abandoning religion, ‘disbelief and disappointment in Christianity,’ from the Catholic perspective and reflect on this.
 
Last week, the statue of Father Andrew, Kim Taegon, Korea's first priest, was installed at Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the first for an Asian in Catholic history, serving as an opportunity to raise the status of Korean Catholicism globally. Nevertheless, he is concerned that internally, we are in a ‘league of our own’ that cannot escape the boundaries of the church, closed and church-centered.
 
I think one of the ways for religion to survive despite the inevitable trend of the abandonment of religion is to realize the ‘public nature of religion.’ The values and meanings presented by religion must be able to give meaning to the times and people's lives. To that end, he believes that only churches that are open to the community, churches that communicate with the community in various ways, and churches that can play the role of care and healing as a field hospital at any time will be sustainable in the future.
 

The Culitivation of the Garden of Our Hearts

 

The Catholic Peace Weekly in the Golden Faith Column, the priest columnist gives us a meditation on the seed planted in the garden of our hearts.

We live in an age of consumption. It seems that everything has become an object of consumption. Even spiritual things are being commercialized and sold. However, we often forget that the consumer culture we enjoy leads to the production of waste. Since the seminary was preparing a retreat for sponsoring members, there was talk of lunch boxes to serve as many as 500 visitors, but due to the waste problem, the school decided to prepare soup and rice themselves. Although it was just  soup, kimchi, and radish he hoped the sincerity and love contained within it would warm the hearts of the retreatants.

 

As we live in an age of consumption, there are times when religion is also considered an object of consumption. However, faith is not an object of consumption, and a church is not a service center. The difference between believers and consumers is that believers are spiritual beings who continually develop and pursue change and growth. In this regard, the ‘parable of the sower’ (see Mark 4:1-9) gives us much to think about.

 

The sower sowed seeds, and some fell on the road, some on rocky ground, some in thorn-bushes, and some on good ground. This parable can be understood in terms of the various aspects of people, but if we consider Jesus' pedagogical intention, it can also be understood in terms of the various stages of our own lives.

 

Faith can be said to be the process by which the word of God is sown in people's hearts, sprouts, grows, and bears fruit. However, as we live, we may forget the Word immediately after hearing it, stumble due to tribulation or persecution, or fall into the worries of the world and the temptation of wealth and fall away from faith. However, after going through these times, we may receive the Word anew. Good soil is not something that exists from the beginning, but rather a heart that has become fertile enough to sprout and grow by accepting the Word in the  various moments in life.

 

On the other hand, Jesus' parable also tells us how important the environment is for faith to grow. In order for seeds to sprout, there must be a good combination of temperature and humidity. However, no matter how good the environment is, if the seed is not prepared, it cannot sprout. In order to germinate, seeds must accept moisture and wait for the moisture to penetrate deeply. And finally, you need a moment to open and break yourself. You could say this is the process of dying to yourself.

 

What is the environment of our lives like? Television, smartphones, consumption and the leisure cultures... some may enrich our lives, but others may prevent the Word from taking root in us. What we most require in order to create an environment for the Word is silence. He recalls seeing the words of Buddhist monk hanging on the wall of a retreat house run by a convent. "In order to become something, we must learn the silence of the seed dying in the ground." Just as a seed breaks itself, sprouts, and takes root, we must also take the time to empty and abandon ourselves in silence, the time to break ourselves.

Jesus adds one last thing: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mark 4:9). In order to bear fruit, we must be prepared to listen and become seekers. If you don't find it, you can't make anything your own. On the other hand, the future is open to those who seek, who open their hearts, wait, and prepare for a better life and a better world.

Now let's ask ourselves: Where are we in the clearing of the garden of our hearts?