Mission Stations and Catholicism in Korea

Some years ago on Kang Hwa island there were 10 mission stations visited once a month. A mission station is a community in which a priest does not reside and where the catechist takes care of all the services and would act like a permanent deacon. Today 4 of these have become parishes. The importance of the mission stations in the growth of the Catholic Church in Korea would be hard to ignore.

There was an interesting article in the July issue of Kyunghyang Catholic Magazine on the Life in the mission stations during the persecution. It was the place where a new life was nurtured, the seed bed for inculturation ( Inculturation is a term used in in the Roman Catholic Church, referring to the adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian) and maturing as Catholics. It gave them the strength to follow the way of martyrdom before religious freedom arrived. Below is a summary of the articles with some quotes from some of the missioners.

(St. Anthony Daveluy, 1818-1866) wrote in his diary:
All the people although poor were able to help the poorest. They took care of the widows and orphans. During these hard times the expression of love was something that was never seen before. Some older people gave all of their goods to help others. Those who had more education than others entering the Church thought it their duty to help to teach others the prayers and the catechism. Those who gained some influence in the community because of their knowledge, personality and reputation, moved by the spirit, devoted themselves completely to the difficult task of building up the Korean Catholic Church .Even after the freedom of religion this way of acting continued in the mission stations, in the Chollado area.

Paris Foreign Missioner Baudounet, 1859-1915 wrote: Seeing the working together of those entering the Church is marvelous. Among them we have an exceptional practice of virtue, a show of love and devotion. Although there is a lack of material goods they share the little they have. When I look around the mission station I see the early apostolic Church. The Christians are living like those in the Apostolic Church, they expected nothing from this life and followed the example of their elders in the Faith.

The example that the French Foreign missioners saw in these mission stations allowed them to give themselves completely to the work and it gave them great joy and pride.

(St. Pierre Maubant , 1803-1839) traveled to the mission stations from September to June of the following year. Choi Thomas mentioned that he walked almost 1700 miles from January to September. Whether it rained or snowed he walked 20 miles a day. When his health began to take its toll he walked about 14 miles a day but even that year he walked close to 3,300 miles


The writer of the article concludes that even though at that time the social position of each was extremely important and strict the Christians did not feel restrained by it. They were building a new society. They were moved by love and detachment. Their daily lives and spiritual life were one. This life of Faith became a part of who they were and gave them the strength to face death.

This faith of the Christians ennobled the Missioners; it gave them the strength to face death. They helped each other to be people of Faith. The author wondered if without the mission stations we would have had the number of martyrs, the growth and the inculturation of the Church in Korea.

MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING

Today, Wednesday the 15th week of Ordinary Time, the first reading in the Divine Office was about the seizure of Naboth's vineyard by Ahab the king of Samaria. Ahab was willing to give Naboth a fair price for the vineyard and even exchange it for another vineyard to his liking. I am sure he would even have made the deal extremely attractive. Naboth however, was not interested. " I will not give you my ancestral heritage." was Naboth's answer. Ahab was so upset that he took to bed and would not eat. His wife Jezebel arranged to have Naboth killed and solved the problem without much trouble. (I Kings 21)

There is a similar problem in the Seoul Archdiocese with the Kajwa Dong parish: they are asked to give up the Church for redevelopment of the area for a New Town. The Redevelopment Co-op is willing to give the money necessary for relocating and building, but the community is not interested. A struggle between the Church and the Co-op is well advanced. The feeling of the Church is that they are not a commodity that is bought and sold. There is much more involved here than money.

The society that we are living in today is one that sees all problems easily solved with money. I suppose that Ahab and his wife had the same feeling with the vineyard. It was close to the King's house and he wanted the vineyard to make a vegetable garden, a very praiseworthy desire, but Naboth had a great deal of sentimental feeling about that vineyard. It was his history and money, no matter how much, would entice him to give it up.

The Parish Community has begun to collect signatures; they have 16 thousands at present and will approach the other parishes in the deanery for the 50 thousands necessary t0 bring it before the court of law.

There are many things in life that do not have a price and we tend to forget this in our world of commerce.

Church of Korea's Legion of Mary

There was a news report that mentioned a Legion of Mary presidium in Pusan with 100% attendance for 10 years starting from March 2000. An extraordinary fact, very hard to pass over without a comment. There were 12 members of the presidium and most of them are over 73 , the majority illiterate. This is an indication of the place of the Legion in the life of the Korean Church. There is possibly no country in the world that has a Legion of Mary as active and as large as the Korean Legion of Mary.

The Legion is the largest lay Catholic group in the Korean Church with about 300,000 active members and about a similar number of auxiliaries, and over 30,000 Presidia ( individual groups). There are very few parishes without a Legion. There is even a group in the mission station at which I am in residence.

The Legion of Mary is the most successful lay apostolic group in the Korean Catholic Church. It has made a tremendous contribution to Church development. It has helped Catholics mature in their faith, motivated them to participate in the work of the Church, gave them a taste for small group activity, helped them to understand the life of prayer and gave them a desire for learning and motivation to improve their life of Faith.

A chaplain for the Legion is quoted as saying that: " we can't think of the Korean Catholic Church without the Legion of Mary, and Korean lay Catholics' spirituality can naturally be thought of as the spirituality of the Legion of Mary."

The Legion can and often does go along without the direction of the priest although this is not what is desired. In some parishes you have over 20 different presidia and a curia that helps them to coordinate their work. The prayer and effort they expend in apostolic works is truly impressive. They are expected to spend 2 hours each week doing some missionary activity with another person: women and men, young and old learned and illiterate, a cross section of the Korean Church.

The Legion has a problem, however, with many within the Church for not changing their handbook which is pre- Vatican II; much of the spirituality is not attractive to many within the Church. Some do not want to tamper with something that is not broken others want to see more freedom and fewer regulations. This will be a point of contention for many in the years to come. It will be interesting to see the changes that will be made. It has been a force for good and hopefully after the discussion and changes, it will continue to be a force for good.

Church building : a tent or a tabernacle

A fellow Maryknoller, Fr. John Cioppa, who celebrated his 50th Anniversary of priesthood has a book of reflections on his years of work in Hong Kong. I found his thoughts In His Own Words to be very wise and could translate many of them very easily into the Korea situation which I will do in coming blogs.

Sometimes in conversation with Catholics they complain, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a real church here?" I am not so sure. I am convinced more than ever that having a small temporary "church" or Mass center ... has many advantages. Let me explain.

I guess we should start with a consideration of just what a church building really is. The church building is the place where a group of believers come together to pray, worship God and through the liturgy it transforms into the "true presence of Christ". Vatican II has made it very clear that the "Church" is the people of God, a community which accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior. The church (building) is the home of the Christian Community.

For Many centuries churches were designed with the Blessed Sacrament as the focal point. They were constructed in such a way that the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the most prominent place in the building- usually in the middle of the main altar. This was to accommodate the principal devotion of the people, namely the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Have you noticed that in all of the churches today , both old and new, the Blessed Sacrament is now placed on a small side altar like those in ...

The emphasis now in church design is to create a favorable environment for the Christians to gather and pray. Both church design and the liturgy itself are reminders that we are a community on a journey and that this earth is not our permanent home. So the best symbol of our "Church" is not a massive, beautiful structure of marble and stone, not a place that is fixed, secure and solid, but rather a TENT, a symbol of travel, impermanence, change and simplicity. This is the primary image of the Church of the millennium: a TENT not a tabernacle.

The church is a place for people to gather. The liturgy is not a state. It is a series of feasts in dynamic relationship. We begin with Advent and Christmas, move through Lent and Easter to Pentecost and finally to the end of the year with the feasts of All Saints and Souls reaching a finale in the celebration of Christ the King. In the liturgy we bridge the world of the present and the world to come; earth and heaven; the secular and the sacred. We come to the liturgy not as passive observers, but as active participants to be transformed. We come to church not to feel comforatable, secure and "at home". We come to church to realize that this world is not our permanent home, that we are people on pilgrmiage with our feet on the ground, but with our eyes fixed on the Kingdom...

From reading the above we can see that Hong Kong is less traditional in viewing the liturgy. I personally prefer the tabernacle in the sanctuary at the main altar or very close to the main altar. I would see our Churches both as TENTS and TABERNACLES. However the point that I like is the idea of temporary. I do think that we spend too much time and money trying to make our churches into monuments and miss what is most important. This obviously is an area of much discussion and difference of opinion but a fruitful area for debate.

Exhibition of Paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Seoul, Korea, July 2009

An exhibition of the paintings of

Pierre-Auguste Renoir,

“The artist who never painted tragedies.”

Rosy cheeks, chubby limbs, flowered frocks:

“A picture has to be

Pleasant, delightful.” The man himself declared.

No potato-eating farmers, no soldiers,

No arrow-pierced Sebastians,

No gaunt Saint John in camels’ hair.

His nudes are milkmaids, sweet girls,

Not images of Venus or Diana, or St. Agnes,

Or Catherine martyred on her wheel.

A small group of us went to see his works.

We were a bit distracted, trying to remember

What the building looked like the last time we were in it

Thirty years ago and some,

Before the place was gutted and the old Supreme Court building

Morphed into a museum of art.

The stone façade, forbidding then,

Is draped in banners, now,

Of golden-haired French children

And jeune filles in their flowered gowns.

Through that once awesome entrance,

Our little group went one April morning

To attend a solemn hearing:

Death sentences passed upon eight men

At a very questionable military trial six months before

Were to be reviewed that day;

Revoked, perhaps, reduced

Or possibly confirmed.

The courtroom filled with family members.

In due time we stood, the judges,

Thirteen of them, paraded in

Sat in their high backed plush red chairs.

A short statement, read aloud,

Confirmed eight sentences of death.

Later in the day, the state-controlled

Communications, press, radio and television,

Told the world the news.

One T.V. station, D.B.S., Renoir-like

Sanitized the situation thus:

With a thirty-second voiceover,

The camera scanned women weeping silently,

As they had before the judges entered.

It ended with the close-up of a priest,

Smiling.

Renoir, who never painted tragedies,

Would have approved the editing.

Truth was that pandemonium erupted;

The eight women and the priest

Along with many others stood up and shouted

Their disapproval of the verdict.

A goon squad of plainclothesmen rushed in.

They cleared the room,

Forcing all down four flights of stairs.

Thirty four years later

There isn’t any dark back staircase anymore,

Large glass wall panels welcome in the sun,

The walls are bright and high,

Fit for hanging paintings.

Eight men were hanged at dawn,

Just eighteen hours after the reading of the verdict.

Wide hallways now, and well-lit landings,

A spacious, incandescent place for art.

But about the visitors today,

The widows and the priest,

There hangs an aura of discomfort,

Disorientation, as they view the works

“Pleasant and delightful”

As Renoir had wanted life to seem.

The Distancing of Two Korean Priests

The Pastoral Newsletter for priests had an interesting take on whom we become because of environment. It was about the breaking down of a friendship between two priests, after one of the men was assigned to a poor parish and the other to a wealthy parish. Since the author of the article was close to one of the priests he was told that the break down of the friendship was the difference in the environment in which they worked. It had nothing to do with hurting each other in any way. One of the priests was relating with the wealthy the other with the poor. One was reading a newspaper that sympathized with the poor the other with the rich. With this different input the meetings of the two men lessened until they ceased altogether.

He mentioned how a politician in the old days walking the dirt roads had no sympathy for the automobiles that would occasionally pass. This was at a time when there were few cars on the road. However, one day a car passed that stopped whose driver recognized the politician. He was pleased with the ride and his thinking changed. In time when he had his own car he was often upset by those who did not quickly move to the side as he passed.

His conclusion was that it is not concepts and thinking that determines a person's actions but the environment. Change does not come easy but because of our environment we are changed. Reading a good book and thinking is important, but more so, would be those with whom we relate and what we do. We must pray and have empathy for those who are alienated but we must also see those with difficulties, the blind walking, to have compassion for their plight. We must look at those who are marginated- the alienated, who are surrounded by all kinds of obstacles and then we will be searching for ways to bring about justice and truth.

It is difficult to be objective and the above is a good example of what happens to all of us when we are sympathetic to a certain group. We may not be seeing things as they are but the Catholic Church's emphasis in recent history is clear. We should have a preference for the poor and even if this is not being objective it is what Jesus showed us by His life.

The Church in Asia

Here is another reflection from Fr. John Cioppa's In His Own Words that was written in 2000.

The greatest challenge to the Catholic Church today is to become inculurated in Asia. The future of the 21st Century is in Asia. Asia is home to over 60% of the world's people with more than 40% under the age of 15. The five countries with the largest populations are : China, India Indonesia, Japan and Bangladesh. Both China and India have over a billion people.

Different from the West, Asia is a mosaic of different cultures, ethnic groups, social, economic and political systems and the homeland of three great world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. 85% of the world's non-Christians are in Asia.

There are around one hundred million Catholics in Asia or about 2.9% of the population. If we exclude the Philippines, the percentage drops to less than 1% . However, the Church is growing continuously. In 10 years the number of Catholics increased by 25% with a growing number of priests and Sisters.There are presently 32,291 priest in Asia and more than twice that number of Sisters. Asia has 617 Bishops out of 4,400 bishops in the world.

If one were to shrink the world population into a village of 100 people, 57 would be Asians, 21 from Europe, 14 from the Americas and 8 from Africa.There would be 70 people of colour and 30 would be white. 67 would be non-Christian and 33 would be Christians, Out of 100 people 70 would not be able to read; 50 would suffer from malnutrition and only one would have a university education.

One of the greatest challenges facing the Church in this Century is to evangelize the people of Asia and have Christianity become truly an Asian religion. Missionaries and all Asian Christians have to be creative, innovative, able to dialogue with different religions and be open to different approaches to Gospel proclamation. As the Bishops told us at the Asian Synod-we will learn a new way of being the Church in Asia. Our greatest reason for hope is Jesus Christ Himself, who said, "Take heart it is I: have no fear... I have overcome the world." And we shouldn't forget that Jesus Himself was born in Asia.

Below is the statistical report for the Catholic Church published by the Catholic Bishops of Korea.

According to the Statistics, as of December 31, 2008, the number of Catholics in Korea amounted to 5,004,115 or 9.9% of the total population (50,394,374). It indicates an increase of 130,000 (2.7%) from the previous year.

With regard to dioceses, the Archdiocese of Seoul had the most number of the faithful as 1,384,238, followed by the Diocese of Suwon (718,638), the Archdiocese of Daegu (442,794), the Diocese of Incheon (427,960) and the Diocese of Pusan (409,587).

The rate of Evangelization comparing with the population came to over 10 % in the dioceses of Incheon, Suwon, Cheongju and Cheju, along with the Archdiocese of Seoul, which hit the highest rate of 13.6%.

The Statistics indicated that the number of the newly baptized was 32,124 in the Archdiocese of Seoul, 18,411 in the Diocese of Suwon, and 10,275 in the Diocese of Incheon. The Military Ordinariate recorded 28,213 newly baptized, who were mostly young soldiers.

By age group, the male faithful in their 20s had the highest number at 18.9%, followed by those in their 40s at 17%, those in their 30s at 15,6% and those in their 50s at 15,2%, while the largest group of the female faithful were those in their 40s and 50s. The Statistics also categorized the faithful by sex (male 41.6% and female 58.4%).

The Statistics also indicated that the number of clergy in Korea amounted to 4,204, including foreign missionary priests. Among them, 3,477 were diocesan priests and 726 were religious and missionary priests. The total number of Korean priests were 4,026, which showed an increase of 101 from the previous year, while the total number of cardinals and bishops were 31.

By diocese, the Archdiocese of Seoul had the highest number of the clergy as 701, followed by the Archdiocese of Daegu (406), the Diocese of Suwon (371) and the Diocese of Pusan (315). The dioceses of Cheju, Andong, Chuncheon and Wonju had 35, 74, 95, 96 priests respectively.

However, the number of seminarians was 1,413 in 7 Seminaries, few change from the previous year (1,403).

The number of parishes was 1,543, an increase of 32, while the number of mission stations was 1,037, a decrease of 47 from the previous year. The number of the faithful per priest was 1,190. The parishes were only 50 in 1908, but they have continuously increased, so that they amounted to 500 in 1976, 1,017 in 1995 and 1,511 in 2007.

With regard to men and women religious, there were 1,445 men religious, including novices, religious in temporary and final vows as well as foreign religious, which showed a decrease of 19, while 10,401 women religious were counted in 2008, an increase of 186 from the previous year.

The number of the celebrations of the Sacrament of Matrimony amounted to 26,182 in 2008, of which 15,324 were marriages between a baptized and non-baptized, which accounted for 58.6%.

With regard to devotional associations, the number of Legion of Mary members was the highest with 261,610, followed by Cursillo members (8,898) and the members of the Marriage Encounter (7,488).

The number of Sunday School attendants (from the age of 7 to 19) amounted to 647,159, of which only 11% was counted regular attendants. The Sunday School teachers were counted up to 17,775, and Primary and Middle & High School students attending Sunday Mass were reported respectively as 132,895 and 71,452.

The rate of participation at Sunday Mass reached 24% on average, which means that one of four faithful attends Sunday Mass. The number of faithful, who received the Sacrament of Confession as Easter duty and Christmas duty in 2008 was 1,052,729 (29.5%), and 1,116,053 (30.6%) respectively. It was figured out that the faithful received the Sacrament of Confession as duty once a year on average, while they received the Communion twenty times on average in 2008.