Public Opinion and Truth

The Daily paper yesterday reported on a survey of public opinion made by a Protestant Group on the 'good feeling' that Koreans have toward Protestantism. There was a slight increase in the numbers from 18.4% to 19.1% from the past survey. On the numbers that have a 'bad feeling' towards Protestantism the numbers dropped from 48.3% to 33.5%. Part of the lack of good feeling towards Protestantism was the hostage situation in Afghanistan back in 2007 which got a lot of bad publicity.

These surveys do serve a purpose- vox popoli, if truly a reflective voice of the people, have a lot to tell us, but in most cases determined by the situation in the country and the way incidents are played up in the media. Many years ago in our mission station the Church's attempt to help the poor did not work; the failure did inflict pain on those involved and the Church was scarred for many years to come.

In Korea one of the aspects of the Catholic Church that many hear, either in their Churches or by word of mouth, is that the Catholic Church is Mary's Church. We have statues of Mary in homes, in front and in Churches. The media shows grotto's with the Statue of the Blessed Mother and people praying, and even on this site there is the Statue of Mary the Mother of Maryknoll. It is not difficult to go from what they see to make the Catholic Church the Marian Church and the Protestant Church, Jesus' Church.

We can state the obvious that we do not worship Mary; respect her for being close to Jesus and desire her help to know Him better. She is the disciple par excellence, given to us as mother from the cross; we desire to imitate her way of following our Lord. To every one of the reasons for respecting Mary there is always an easy rebuttal. The discussion gets no where. And yet it is possible to know what the Catholic Church teaches about Mary.

It is surprising with all the word of mouth negativity that the Catholic Church gets in Korea as Mary's Church the results are not all that bad. Public opinion is what sways most of us but it is not an objective criterion of truth. The politicians, the financiers, business people, and even the medical establishment often act determined by polls, surveys, and public opinions, but if that is the only standard used to arrive at truth we have serious reasons to be pitied.

"The Happiest Mother in the World"

There is a very heart warming story of a family of two twins who both had developmental problems in the recent front page of the Peace Weekly. The mother told God " to cure her two sons if not let her remain until they get married."

In 1998 she was diagnosed with colon cancer and given 6 months to live. This came to the mother like lighting from the blue. Her twins were 16 years old. They operated and with chemotherapy three years ago was told there is no trace of cancer.

The twins have grown to be robust young men. One of them showed genius talent in music and studied the piano and is now in graduate school studying musical composition. The other showed extreme talent in mathematics and is now an assistant driver for the school from which he graduated.

They are both very faithful in their religious life. Even more so than the parents if that can be said. The mother tells how at the second birthday they still couldn't say any words. She brought them to the doctor who told her to see a psychiatrist. She was told that they were autistic but she had no idea what that meant and thought that if treated they would be cured.

She took the children to special schools and since they lived in a one room and the husband was a taxi driver, did not have much to live on. Up until the age of 5 they could not speak and did not react with others. She notice they had musical talent and bought a piano into their one room house. She also gave them woodwinds to study and got them to study composition and harmony. They attended competitive contests for the handicapped and received big prizes on a number of occasions.

They both attend morning Mass and one twin is a Legion of Mary member and the other plays the organ for the young peoples' choir. They are very busy young men. At the end of the interview one of the twins ran to his mother laughing- "Mom,I told you not to worry." At that moment , the interviewer tells us "she was the happiest mother in the world."

The Collaborators with the Japanese?

It is the victors that write the histories that we read, much of it doctored by those who write it, sometimes knowingly and sometimes not. The way the Japanese write about Korea is quite different from Korean understanding of itself.

During the years 1910 to 1945 of the Japanese occupation 4,389 Koreans, are listed as collaborators in a new Encyclopedia that was printed. In the words of the publishers: " they inflicted physical, material and mental damage on Koreans."

In the list were 7 Catholics, one bishop, 4 priests and 2 layman. The bishop was the first bishop of Seoul, (Paul) Ro Ki-nam , (John) Chang Myon was prime minister from 1960-1961 a Catholic lay leader. The publishers mentioned that a major consideration of listing the collaborators was how much they actively, voluntarily and consistently cooperated with Japan.

Working in the country I remember hearing about members of the parish who worked as policemen under the Japanese. They were often leaders in the community but there was always some one to tell me of their past. It is important that we look for the truth and make this known. Autopsies are unpleasant but at times necessary, but as with all things it is the prejudice of the truth tellers that often colors what is said and often the reason for dismisal of what is 'uncovered'.

It is important for a country to be honest about its past but it is human nature to hide what is embarrassing to the country and speak loud and clear about what is its glory. This is true of all groups be they family , church, societies or countries.

In parish work I can remember stories of those who sympathized with North Korea and how many of them suffered at the hands of those in the South. Communism was the devil and this was so much part of the thinking that many atrocities were committed in the name of anti- Communism. This was after the defeat of the Japanese and the division of the country into North and South. Many of these were independence fighters against the Japanese with strong sympathy for the North.

As Catholics it is always a problem on how to balance forgiveness with truth. Knowing all the truth makes it easier to be merciful but most of the time we only know partial truth. We have been taught to forgive and when wrong doing is acknowledged, this is not difficult. Some of those who are listed in the book of collaborators can't say anything to defend themselves and how many of them would in a court of law be acquitted is anybody's guess. It is part of our Korean history and there is much more of that history that we are still not prepared to face. The time is still not ripe.

Schooling for the Returnees to the Farm

Years ago while working in the country, a family moved into the parish- a college graduate who came to live on a farm. It was a strange sight for many were moving to the city to find work and here was a college educated person who wanted to live and work on a farm. He was different in many ways, very creative and surprising many of us in the way he wanted to live.

The Peace Weekly had an article on the 4th farmer's school in which 36 received certificates of graduation. The program covered:

1) The value of living close to the earth.
2) Our farms, the situation of farm life, and returning to the farms.
3) Eating in the country, and taking care of health.
4) Listening to lectures on different facets of farm life.

The farmer's school is sponsored by 'Save the Farm Program' of the Seoul Diocese. It is an attempt to show the value of farm life. One of the leaders of the movement who is also a poet said: "We who are Catholic at least should not indiscriminately handle food or throw food away, it is dealing with life and it is like treating God in that fashion who has given us life."

The program is to show that we have come from the earth and will return to the earth: giving us a new appreciation of the earth, soil, water and air, and the totality of God's creation. There have been 142 graduates and some have already returned to the country.

The farmers in Korea have always had the respect of the populace. They were important members of society and up until the industrialization composed about two-thirds of the population.

Korean farms are very small in comparison to other countries and with the imports it is difficult for them to make a living without the government subsidies. Most are in debt and have low morale because of what they hear of the future, many have opted for the city.

The farms will be left for those who want to leave the competitive life style of city life. It will probably be people who have lived in the city and after retirement want to return to the country. In this small island I have heard it said that over half the land is owned by those who do not live on the island. The city dwellers have bought much of the land and in the future many will return to live the gentleman farmers' life.

In Korea we have people who have what they call weekend farms. They rent a piece of property and over the weekend come with the family to farm it. They see the beauty of living close to the land; this taste for beauty and God's creation will take hold of many who in the later years will return to the country, be content with the little income, but good working conditions.

The movement towards organic farming is growing strong. It is non-polluting, good for health and preparing for the future. The government is there to help. Daewoo, a Korean conglomerate tried to lease half the arable land in Madagascar but it was cancelled by the new government. This is another sign that it will only be the big players who will win in this 'one world'. It will be those who don't accept this way of thinking that will be attracted to the small farms in the years to come.

Lay People's Sunday In Korea

In 1784 , a Korean with his scholarly friends , through reading, became acquainted with Catholicism. This Korean Yi Seung-hun (Peter) was sent to Beijing China to be baptized, and on his return with his compatriots started the first community. Today's Catholics are very proud that their start was not by foreign missioners but by their own lay people. This means a great deal; an image they remember in their life of faith.

Yesterday was Lay People's Sunday in Korea, a day given to reflect on how faithful they have been to the example they have been given by their fore bearers in the faith.In our small community the catechist gave the sermon which is the one day of the year that they are expected to be in the pulpit.

The Lay Apostolic Council of Korea sent sermon material to all the parishes, addressing the 5 million Catholics in the country. A point that is being made, editorialized in both Catholic papers, is that the Korean lay people are very generous and active in their prayer life and service to others, admired for this by other countries but one of the weak points is that there is a spilt in their religious life and daily life. They may have concluded that it is sufficient to be doing works of charity and forgetting that they have a responsibility for the life of the society in which they live. In the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul he expressed it very clearly: "A new state of affairs today both in the church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time render it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle."

It is easy for one to think that he enters the community of faith to pray and to have fellowship but this is not all that we are called to do and most of the blame has to reside with the pastors of the communities for not making this clear. The Peace Weekly ended the editorial on this note.

The Catholic Times in a similar vain emphasized lay people should be on the front lines. They hold the key to the Church's life and strength: a bulkhead against the excessively materialistic world, rampant individualism... the break down of the family, contempt for life, this can't be stressed enough. In a word lay people are to enable all of us to live a fully human life- this is the main responsibility of the laity.

I have found that in Korea a great number of priests are very active on the front lines trying to improve the life of our citizenry and part of the reason for their activist role is that our Catholics may be too interested in the workings of the Church and not taking their part in the battles in our society.

A Man in Love with the Poor R.I.P.

This past Saturday our small community was represented at the 20th anniversary of a Maryknoller who died, while working in Korea. The bishop of the diocese celebrated the Mass with over a hundred Catholics. Even though most of the Koreans are busy making their kimchi this time of the year, the effort was made to be present at the grave site.

The Maryknoller was born in affluent circumstances; probably the reason for his single-mindedness when it came to helping the poor and alienated. The quote on the head stone was very apropos of who he was: "What you have done to the least of these you have done to me."

He was in his approach to the problems that Korea faced not very Korean. He wanted to shock and felt that was the only way one takes notice. He wrote a book that was confiscated by the government during the days of dictatorship; Cardinal Kim of Seoul recommended the book only for the non-faint hearted. His work for the laborers and alienated is still remembered and has left footprints in the Church's memory and in the hearts of many.

A problem one always has in following our Lord and Church teaching is how much can and should you say when you know it will turn off others who feel strongly on the issues and belong to the same community? Sometimes it is not content but the means used to express the position. And sad to say sometimes it is the very content that upsets. At least in theory it should be less of a problem the closer we are to Jesus. Below are a few paragraphs from the preamble of the book that was confiscated.

We are conscious Lord , the centuries of "progress and development" are like spiritual cataracts blinding our inner eyes so that we no longer see your image and likeness in the person of the poor.

The children cry for bread and we give them pious words; they plead for justice and we urge resignation.

Our wealth and industrial power, our weapons and high standards of living are like spiritual barnacles on our souls. We no longer feel the presence of our brother Jesus behind the dirt, hunger and ignorance of a Third World child. Why do we insist on crucifying Christ time and time again?

Why is Good Friday a 1900 year long day with you, Jesus, nailed to a cross of poverty, prejudice and neglect?

You still cry out, "Why oh why hast Thou forsaken me?" Yes, we-not God- have forsaken you. Pleasure and wealth have closed our ears to your plea. Forgive us, God, for we know not what we do.

We drown your gentle whispers to our hearts with barrels of liquor, tons of chemicals, nights of vice , and days of avarice and greed.

Do not abandon us, even though we have abandoned you. Prod us, reprove us, punish us, enlighten us, flood our soul and eyes with your light and vision, that we may awaken from our sleep of centuries, and look out upon the world with truly Christian values, Christian eyes, and Christian hearts....

May he rest in peace, and may we also like him, have a greater love and desire to help those who do not have the blessings of a normal human life.

A New type of Pilgrimage

We live in a very fragmented world and few seem to want to put the pieces together. Religions are not known to help and often are given much of the blame for the walls and divisiveness. When it comes to religions, many go back into the past to haul out some of the horrific stories and those they see in our present times, and do little to situate the events in the history of the times; it is what they are doing today to unify human kind that should be of as much interest.

A diocese in the southern part of Korea is involved in an experiment which in the words of the bishop is unique. The Buddhist, Won Buddhists and Catholics with the different civilian magistrates of the areas have staked out a pilgrimage route of 180 kilometers ( 112miles), that walking for 8 hours a day would take 5 nights and 6 days to walk. They stop at the Catholic sites, Buddhist temples and the cultural land marks along the way.

This was highlighted by the Peace Weekly in the recent edition. The bishop of the diocese joined 1200 pilgrims on their inaugural pilgrimage; the sponsoring group has been incorporated and these three entities will work to develop the route: the religions, the civilian magistrates and the cooperation.

The bishop gave the talk at the Buddhist temple and the Buddhist monks gave the talk at the Catholic shrine. Because of rain on the second day only 200 continued. The bishop stayed with the group for 2 days and finished before he left with a Mass two days from the start. How this will develop, no one knows, but it is a dream of becoming closer to nature, becoming more of what they would like to be , and respecting each other in the process.

Pope John Paul did give us an example of breaking down walls and the Diocese of Jeonju is showing that it can be done in Korea. It is showing respect for other religions in a very religious way: to maintain your convictions and respecting the convictions of others, should not interfere in being brother and sister to the other.

The Korean Civilian Magistrates are not opposed to helping other faith groups if the citizens are helped which is a different way of looking at the relationship of State and Religion. There will be many praying for their success and looking to see how this can be spread to other areas of life.