Gyodong Home of Refugees from the War

Gyodong is an island with a potential for greatness. A bridge is being built that will connect the island with Gangwha and plans have been made to build the world’s largest tidal powered electric plant. When the plant becomes operational –planned for 2015, a 8.3 km long dam will connect four islands: Ganghwa, Gyodong, Seokmo and Seogeom.

Environment groups are opposed for not being useful, and in the process destroying the sand bars. Those in charge of the project agree, there will be some destruction of the environment, but in the long run greenhouse gases will be reduced, the level of the sea will be raised, helping to prevent further destruction of the tidal flats.

Gyodong is the home of many who fled North Korea for freedom during the Korean War. Gyodong their home is only swimming distance away from North Korea, when the tide is out.

This morning a photographer and reporter from the Catholic Peace Broadcasting Station and Newspaper were here to interview members of the congregation, refugees, who have made their home in Gyodong. Each gave an account of their history, with many tears; many pictures were taken. After the discussion, the group went out to a point overlooking North Korea, where a monument was erected with the names of many who left their homes, most from Hwanghaedo. More pictures were taken and more remembrances of their long lost homeland.

This influx of refugees from North Korea has developed the island, the 14th largest island in Korea. In the old days they said the rice produced in Gyodong could feed the whole of Incheon for 5 years. The islanders have suffered a great deal, forced to leave their homes and making Gyodong their second home. The future will be materially prosperous, there will no doubt be a change in the simple ways of the inhabitants and great development, hopefully not all detrimental to the old Gyodong life. Adversity has made them strong and independent, it has been a blessing to work with the Catholics as their pastor.

Korean Catholic Bishops' Messages

The Bishops of Korea published their pastoral letters for the new liturgical year. The editorial in the Peace Weekly mentioned the Church has much to be thankful. The Church reached the 5 million mark- from 1995 an increase of 75.4 %, while the other religions have stayed the same or have decreased. This is plenty of reason to take pride in what has been accomplished. A survey taken recently by a Protestant group mentioned that the confidence in the Catholic Church was the highest at 32%.


The editorial mentioned that this may be only our perception and not the actual condition of the Church. This concern is shown in many different areas of Catholic life. The numbers of those active in the Church has not increased, the number of baptisms is down, the religious education programs are not doing well, we are getting older and the participation in society has decreased. The increase of materialism is influencing the Church.


The Bishops see that being immersed in the Scriptures is the way to overcome the onslaughts and challenges coming from globalization. There are many movements in different parts of the Church encouraging and instructing us to live with the Scriptures but this has to be a movement within the whole Korean Church.


There is the possibility of being concerned more with efforts to grow exteriorly, with more and bigger buildings, more activities, better and more successful programs for evangelizing, but if this is not accomplished with a similar efforts at deepening our commitment to Jesus and the life of the Spirit then we will not grow as a community of disciples that will change the world.


The acknowledgment of the possibilities of a fault line in our very quick growth in numbers is a very healthy reminder for more introspection, and efforts to deepen our personal spirituality, parish and home life in the years ahead.

The Beginning of the New Year-Advent

On the first Sunday of Advent, some years ago, the religious sister working in the parish decorated the front of the altar with a large feed trough used for cows. Up until that day, I did not realize,that the manger we talk about in the Scriptures, is not a stable but a feed box for animals. The word manger for me meant stable in which animals were kept. I understood the whole for the part and was blind to the symbolism that Luke wanted us to see in his retelling of the first Christmas.



From that day, all the parishes where I have been, start off Advent with a big unadorned feed trough in front of the altar. It was embarrassing to have to admit that I did not know that manger means feeding trough. We use the word crib, creche, stable, manger and adorn it in such a way that people like myself do forget what Luke was getting at with the use of the word manger. It was an eye opener to me who should have known better, but I didn't, until sister gave me a Scripture lesson I will not forget.



Luke uses the word manger three times in the retelling of the Nativity; for us Catholics a very telling word for it reminds us that Jesus came to be our food both in Word and Eucharist. From Luke's telling we have as the center of the nativity scene this feed trough and nothing else. It is important to his message and some of us forget the central message distracted with all the other elements that we have added to the Nativity scene. That feed trough draws our attention to the Mass - liturgy of the Word and Eucharist: a symbol of great meaning for us during Advent.

In Search for the 'Good Life'

Advertising is a great way to sway public opinion. It works, that is why companies, of all types, spend thousands of dollars to put their products before the eyes of the public. From 1962 the Korean government started convincing the Koreans that there are too many of them in the southern part of the peninsular. The results were spectacular!

After the Korean War in the 1950s the birth rate was 6.5. In 1962 the government with new laws, started pushing to reduce the births. In the old Korea many births were considered a virtuous social act. The government started giving out contraceptive tools and pills at the public health centers, subsidies for vasectomies, permitting abortions even though illegal, benefits for those who participated in the birth control programs with wage benefits, housing privileges and respect from the public. Posters, radio, television electronic signs and every possible public media was in use without much vocal opposition by the general public and churches.

In the '70s it went down to 4.53 per woman. The slogan was: 'irrespective of boy or girl raise two well'. The preferring of son to a daughter began to break down, the birth control mothers group pushed for a 'no birth year' in 1974. In 1978 another drop to 2.83 and in 1980 the slogan was changed: 'two is too many raise one well'. In 1994 the birthrate was 1.59. And the government decides to shift gears and stops giving our free condoms and contraceptive pills but the birthrate continued to drop until Korea has now the lowest birthrate of of 193 countries with 1.2. It was a well organized movement with results that exceeded expectations.

It is sad to see how successful the program was among Catholics, understood to be against artificial birth control.The program to lower the birth rate has over reached its goal and now the government, private groups, churches and even gynecologists are beginning to work together to raise the birthrate.The good life even though it demands the work of two parents has become the goal of many . If this demands fewer children so be it. We have made a society that to raise and educate children demands economic wealth. Will socialism be the answer? Some will not be interested in being taxed to support another person's child. Will the efforts expended increase the numbers? Economics is important and with technology we wont need the numbers and the fewer will make for an easier life it should be an interesting experiment. How much of this thrust will be compatible with Christian thinking remains to be seen but the prospects are not good. The whole movement on the part of the government seems to be motivated by economics, until we start changing the way we understand the meaning of the 'good life' change will not come easy.

The Family of the Second Korean Priest

In the recent Peace Weekly there was a report of the academic symposium in the Suwon Diocese which dealt with the Catholic Sirisan Shrine and the father of the second Korean Priest, Saint Choi Kyong -hwan (Francis).

What is somewhat unusual is the mother Lee Seong Yea (Maria) has not officially received the title although the mother did suffer martyrdom. The reason,treated in the symposium, was the mother did briefly deny her faith; at that time it was thought it would leave a bad feeling in the memory of the Christians to pursue her cause, even though she died a martyr just a few months after her husband.


This is a good indication of the thinking of that time. Lee Seong Yea was the mother of a seminarian studying for the priesthood in Macau. She had five more children after Yang-op was born. It was this mother's love that she had to contend with that prompted her to briefly deny her faith, she regretted this and withdrew it and was martyred on December 29, 1939. However, the brief denial of her faith by the mother of a future priest was the apparent reason for not pursuing her cause.

The members of the Sirisan community all apostatized except the father and mother and a relative of Choi Yang-op (Thomas). This was a big cross for St. Francis Choi to witness. They do not have much information about the mother of Choi Yang-op but they agreed that she should be together with her husband and son on the rolls of the saints.

Over the years I have met people who remember that some of their forebears were Catholic. When one reflects that these martyrs in Korea lost everything it is easy to understand how the children of those who denied their faith felt towards Catholicism. "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Faith" a conclusion readily seen in the history of Catholicism in Korea. There are 21 descendants of St. Francis Choi who entered the religious life as priests or religious.

Giving Thanks for Adversity

Today is Thanksgiving Day in America. The Koreans have their own days of thanks which are much more ritualized than our own ways. The Koreans give thanks more with acts than with words although we have ritualized Thanksgiving with turkey and cranberries.

There is much in our lives for which we are thankful; usually fortunate occurrences that happen to us-lucky things. We may not be quick to thank God for the adversities in life and yet that is a constant teaching of the Scriptures. Things are not what they seem. Even the teaching of the first pages of Genesis tell us that the disobedience of our first parents, in the Church's vocabulary is called the 'Happy Fault'. A strange way of looking at the first sin of human kind.

Here in Korean we have many ways of expressing that good often does comes from misfortune. We see this in our history, in our literature and even in our own lives. God writes straight with crooked lines: " We know that all things work for good for those who love God."(Rm. 8:28)

A few days ago I read an essay in the Chosun Ilbo, written by a Korean resident in the States who gave us a reason for why the suicides of Koreans are so high. She tells us that it is not only in Korea but also in the States we see the same problem. In New York she says on average there are 5 Koreans who end their own lives every month. She says it is 4 times the average. In Los Angeles, suicide as the reason for death among the Koreans is 25% of the total.

She speaks from her own experience and concludes that Koreans have a high level of self control, but that can be the problem, for they do not seek help nor talk about what is bothering them. It is interesting that her Christian Faith was not very helpful. We have Jesus as our mentor and he is the example of what it means to be thankful to God in all circumstances.

Adversity comes into the lives of all of us and we should try to see some good even when we are immersed in so much that is bad. We can look upon what is happening to us from many different angles. There "is a silver lining even to the darkest clouds" in our lives but it does require a preparation to see what for us is all black. One good way is to see how in our own lives the unfortunate events in retrospect have not been all bad. To be able to thank God for adversity is a good sign that we have been able to subdue our egos and can see life not situated in a valley but from the mountain top. Hopefully that will be part of our thanksgiving this Thanksgiving and always.

Learning From Those That Preceded Us

On one of our retreats some years ago we heard about the watermelon man. The small village was going to have a new pastoral worker. He was young and saw that there were many problems in the village. It did not take him long to see how superstitious they were and in one particular case were afraid of a watermelon patch on the outskirts of the village.



One day when he was passing the watermelon patch he gathered a number of the villagers entered the patch and began eating the watermelon. From that day on they were afraid of him.
He was not able to function any more in his capacity.



Another man came and started to live with the people daily . Went about his pastoral work and began to gain their respect. After a good period of time as they were passing the watermelon patch he got the group to join him and very nonchalantly took one of the watermelons, broke it open, started eating and gave it those with him, from that time on the fear of watermelons disappeared.



This is a very simplistic telling of a teaching story that has ramifications in a great deal that we do. I have heard stories of priests who when on an assignment have decided to get rid of some of the statues in the church,without any consultation, and had great difficulty with the congregation from that time on.



A priest in Korea after being assigned to a new parish decided to get rid of the imported furniture that he had in his bedroom. He was very much for living the simple life and the virtue of poverty. This prompted many of the Catholics to get very upset and showed it in their relationship to the priest. We can discuss at length, I am sure, if what he did was really living the life of poverty.



Missioners can make many mistakes in a new culture and even lose the respect of the people. They told us when we went to our first assignments not to change anything for 6 months. The older priests also told us to keep our mouth shut for 6 months. I often wonder why these very wise positions are no longer considered to be warranted. It was telling us bluntly, find out what the lay of the land is before you begin expressing your opinions on the work or make changes in your parishes. In the postmodern world there is no blue print for our actions, so no need to worry about the opinions of others. Yes, that may be true but it will save much time and energy if the past can be a sign post to the future. Life is easier on the shoulders of those who preceded us.