Confession No Longer Seen As a Holy Gift--Sacrament

Most surveys of those who have left the Church in Korea show that Confession (the Sacrament of Reconciiation) has been their biggest stumbling block. A detailed study made by  Catholic Peace Broadcasting, the Peace Weekly and the Future Research Institute confirmed the survey results: The requirement to go to  Confession is seen as a burden to many Catholics.

Personal obstacles such as work, school, and doubts about the Church would be the reasons often cited in most surveys.  But when we look at the obstacles that stem from the organization of  Catholicism itself,  Confession would be cited as the most important reason for leaving the Church, followed by meaningless liturgies, being hurt by members of the community, too many financial burdens,  poor sermons, the Church having little influence in society, and the bad example of clergy. 

Two similar surveys in Seoul and Suwon had the same results. Combining personal and Church-related reasons for leaving the Church, most indicated that being too busy was the most important reason, next in importance was Confession. In another survey, when asked what can the Church do to facilitate their return, answered: make Confession less of a burden

In Korea if you go three years without confession you would be considered tepid statistically. In many parishes, twice a year a ticket is given to Catholics and returned when they have gone to confession, placing it in a basket in the confessional.  According to Church teaching, frequent confessions are recommended but there is no obligation to go to confession if one is not in serious sin. This is a teaching that is not well understood, but it is part of our Catholic tradition and Church law (Code of Canon Law #989).


Although Confession, being the Sacrament of Reconciliation, should be a consolation and settling of accounts, we have learned mostly from the survey results that many of our Catholics consider it a great burden. The Catholic Weekly, in a recent article on this subject, mentions that many who  are not in the state of grace  and  not prepared to go to confession stay away from Church.   Furthermore, many who are in the habit of sin find that going to confession is meaningless, so they also stop going to Mass; they do not feel they can break the habit of sin. The article mentions that the teaching on Confession has not always been good, nor have our Catholics understood it correctly.

Can the Church make it easier to go to Confession? Some attempts have been made to lessen the burden.  However, the difficulties of  going to Confession are also a blessing for those who can overcome the difficulties; they may come from an incomplete understanding of sin and the difference between confessions of devotion and of obligation. With more clarity on the essential nature of Confession, what is now seen as a burden might be seen as an opportunity for self-renewal, a second baptism.

Missionary Growth of the Catholic Church Of Korea

A Priest missiologist working in the Seoul Chancery writes about his experience while studying in Rome many years ago. His column appears weekly in the Peace Weekly giving us interesting facts about missions. During vacation time, he wanted to spend some time in England to learn English and prepare his thesis. Staying at a house  for missioners while in London, he met an Irish missioner who was retiring from the missions and returning to  Ireland. He  invited the young missioner to go with him and he quickly accepted.

While in Ireland he met a young man and shared an evening meal with him.  When the young man heard that he was studying mission theology in Rome, he told him about his experience in Africa with about ten others who were interested in getting first hand  experience of mission.

The youth confided that in the beginning it was very difficult getting used to African life but, getting over the awkwardness and  stress of the experience, he learned a great deal about their way of life, especially their way of eating with the hands; he in turn explained his way of eating with fork and spoon. The young man also told the Korean  how he fell in love with the way the Africans offered  Mass with dance and the drums. He explained all this with a great deal of pride and joy, confessing that it  brought change into his life.

The priest goes on to mention an Italian assistant priest who had spent a month in Africa in a student camp years before. The Korean priest was dumbfounded to hear these stories knowing that although the West  has a lack  of priests they are not only sending missioners overseas but young people are also going for an on-the-spot experience of mission. With  this experience, they get to know the life of the missions  and  another people's culture.

The priest also mentioned that the leadership of the mission groups periodically go on mission trips to different areas of the world to encourage the missioners and help them to resolve some of their difficulties. These visits have helped to give the Church of the home-country a perspective on the meaning of Church that has a more  universal understanding of the meaning of Catholicism.

The Korean Church will gradually be sending more missioners overseas. There will  be studies made of the missions and information gathered that will give Korea a different vision of  Church. The information and interest will invigorate the missioners, and those on the home front will know about the difficulties of the missions and be able to help with their prayers and financial donations. The visits of the young people to the missions will also bring news of the missions back to Korea, helping not only the missions and the home country but the visiting young people as well.

The article mentions that the missioners themselves should keep in touch with the home country to inform them of the work in the  missions;  this will increase interest in the missions and give missioners some feedback that will help them to see their work as a great gift from God. This increased interest in the missions is becoming part of  normal Korean life.

Catholic media are carrying more stories of the missions, and more dioceses are getting involved. Today we can look back on  the Korean experience with missionary help from the West as a success story. It was not long ago when Korea needed missioners and financial help--a part of history;  the Catholic Church of Korea now  has the   privilege to return what they have received.

What to do with Korean Rice in Storage?

Nahnews,  in their article on the plight of North Korea, was very hard on the Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole. We  recite daily: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"  but how this is lived out in the daily lives of Christians is not readily seen. Is this a sign of our inertia? So begins the article on their website.

There are over 5 million Catholics in Korea, but the writer asks what have they done? If there were 500 sacks of salt  stored in warehouses, and the salt was not used for the purpose intended, those who pass the warehouse would wonder greatly. The government is now buying rice from the farmers and has so much that it has to store it in warehouses using the citizens' hard earned money. This is not something that can be seen with indifference.  Our brothers and sisters in the North are dying of hunger, and we have rice piled high in warehouses, a sign, according to Nahnews, of the meanness and pride of the South. How will heaven punish us. This  is a worry and a shame.

The article mentions a survey that determined that the number of  Christians in the National Assembly and those who are high ranking civil servants in the government make up two thirds of the assembly. The Protestants in the Natonal Assembly number 118, 40 percent of the total, and Catholics number 78, 26 percent of the total.

When the Christians in the National Assembly say," Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" are they seeing the conditions of the country correctly? Or are  Christian members Christian only when voting time comes around? The writer knows some assembly men who are daily Mass-goers and exemplary Catholics,  but they show themselves differently in the assembly. Why is this? How will God look upon this?

He concludes by focusing on Catholics, mentioning that if the many lay groups in the Church would take the words "God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven" seriously. even though the 5 million are not all participating Christians, it would make a big  difference in doing away with the discord and bias in society. However, if the Catholics are only outwardly Christian then having all that rice in our warehouses leaves us open to criticism.

Recent  reports say the   government is planning to ship rice to the North, news that will make many happy.

Extreme Difficulty of Fraternal Correction in Our LIves

In American culture, we often hear that speech is silver and silence golden. Silence can be a great gift we give to another when we truly listen, says a columnist in the Catholic Times. But it can become a torment to the listener, he reminds us, when a conversation turns into a monologue. 

He tells us about a person who was always ready to enlighten those he was with by recounting whatever he had learned or experienced, often Xeroxing and passing out interesting articles and talking enthusiastically about a good movie he had seen or a good book he had read.  At first, this information was welcomed, but soon, within a month for some, they would begin to avoid him. Others would stay with him longer before becoming frustrated by his non-stop speech and wanting no more to do with him. As painful as this was for him, he did not get the unspoken message; he would simply go on to find others who would listen to him.

The columnist, having heard about his behavior, met him for lunch with a friend, and soon learned that what had been said about the man was true. It was a simple lunch but he and his friend received a thorough education on the foods being eaten, their proper preparation and their origin. During the meal, he also heard  about finances, politics, society, and culture.  It was like listening to the news of the day being delivered by someone very knowledgeable and interesting.

After the meal, accepting his invitation to a tea room, they heard him give a detailed account of the history of the tea room. When he was interrupted briefly by some words of their own, he would soon return the talk to his own reflections and take over the conversation once again.

The columnist returned home having heard too much and having little empathy for the man.  In all that was said, he was the main point of the talk. He had no idea of what those who were with him  had in their hearts and  didn't seem to care. Thinking of what others have in their hearts and encouraging them to share that is as important as what one has to say to others; it is the  secret of growth in human relations, the columnist believes.  This sympathy for the other's words and the sharing of what each one has to say is what makes for a lasting friendship, the columnist concludes.

In a stereotype of this kind, it is easy to see the waywardness of the man.  One would think that as part of fraternal correction someone  would have brought his disturbing behavior to his attention. If it is not a mental disorder, it seems something could have helped him. Fraternal correction, considered years ago a high form of charity, is nowadays not so readily accepted as a viable way of showing love for another. And yet, although silence is the better part of wisdom in many cases, silence can be a  failure to love.

"Spirituality of Smallness" in the Evangelization of Asia

At the recent Lay Leaders' meeting in Seoul, 400 delegates from 18 countries came together to discuss the role of the Catholic Church in Asia today, the nature of their work and prospects for the future. Since the Catholic population in Asia is small the theme for the six day meeting, "Proclaiming Jesus Christ in Asia Today," was an attempt to address the difficulties of evangelizing in this part of the world, including the need to deal with the lack of religious freedom in many  of the countries. 
 
The editorial in the Peace Weekly mentioned the worry  of the preparation committee for the program, but  the praise given by the Cardinal representative from Rome changed the worry into great joy.

At the beginning of the 6 day meeting a representative from  each of the countries gave an introduction of the work and prospects for the future.

One of those countries, Turkmenistan, unfamiliar to most delegates both in name and location, has one priest, Fr. Andrzej Madej, serving a community of 95 Catholics. Though the community is extremely small, it is nearly a 100 fold increase from the time, 13 years ago, when the country had two missioners and one Christian, an Iranian, as a congregation. The priest who worked with him has been changed, but he will be joined by another Spanish priest soon.  

Still with no building of their own, they have to use whatever building is available. But an encouraging development was recently registering with the government which gives the Church legitimacy. Not all parishioners are native born; besides the Iranian, there are five Koreans who attend English Mass. He has a special fondness for them and hopes the Korean Church will soon send missioners to the country.


The Catholic presence in this country of 5 million (89 percent Muslim and 10 percent Orthodox Christian) is a stark reminder of the difficult task ahead. Working with very small Catholic communities in most Asian countries, the Church must now be content, said the Cardinal of Seoul in the final address to the delegates, to work with a "spirituality of smallness."

Perceptions of Korean Catholicism and Protestantism

In Korea, why are the numbers of Catholics increasing and the numbers of Protestants decreasing? A candidate for a master's degree at the Jesuit University in Seoul decided to find out, and wrote his thesis based on the results of his research. The results were picked up and published recently by the Yonhapnews Service in Seoul.

What he found out was that Catholicism as seen by most Koreans was more magnanimous, more lenient,  compared to Protestantism, making the Catholic Church a more attractive option for many desiring to join a Church.

 Korea is a land of  many religions and no religion, and did not  provide the writer with a reliable measuring standard for the data he had collected;  he turned to the United States and  the  distinction often made there between "strict" --authoritarian, doctrinal purity, obedience, enthusiasm for the teachings--and "tolerant"--relativism, pluralism, readiness to dialogue over differences.

It was obvious to the writer that  in contrast to the United States, the perceived tolerance  and magnanimous spirit of the Catholic Church here greatly helped recruit members for the Church. Excluding Catholics,  when Protestants, Buddhists and non-believers were asked  about Catholicism; 49 percent responded favorably, 13 percent responded unfavorably. Asking  Catholics, Buddhists and non-believers  what  they   thought about Protestantism, he found nearly a 20 percent favorable response, a 37 percent unfavorable response.  Based on this data from his research, the master's degree candidate concluded that in Korea, believers and potential believers prefer a tolerant and magnanimous Church over a strict Church. This, he believes, is the reason for the decrease in the numbers of Korean Protestants in contrast to the United States, where Church strictness tends to increase membership.

The news report ends by summing up the conclusion of the thesis: " Catholics in Korea in their faith life are lax and not unfriendly to the larger society;  a tolerant  Church is their trait while  Protestants come across as emotionally tight, not friendly to the larger society, a strict Church. This is the reason for the increase in Catholic membership."

Taking the two factors he chose to work with--Church strictness and Church tolerance--most researchers would probably find evidence to support the conclusion of the thesis. But there are other factors that enter into the  thinking of most Koreans which go unnoticed. The perception Koreans have of the Church no doubt helps the Church increase in numbers; the numbers of those who fall away may also indicate that what they thought Catholicism was like turned out to be different than expected. 
 
The  Catholicism that is perceived in Korea does not seem to ask as much from Christians;  a fact that is readily seen compared to  Protestants: no smoking, no drinking, tithing obligations, no traditional rites for ancestors and many more scheduled meetings, gives the impression of a very strict Church. Hopefully, the Catholic Church interest beyond the personal and to society will not be construed as being lax but will be seen as something integral to Christianity.

Summer Camps for Senior Members of the Congregation

In Korea most parishes have summer camp for children. Older children--grammar, middle and high school students--usually have separate programs and attend camp at different times. Occasionally, family camps are provided so parents can go with their children. Now there are camps for those over 65 who are in good health.


A  priest writing for the priest bulletin mentions that it was the 6th time such a program was being offered, and this year 60 attended. Religious sisters were responsible  for the program which consisted of Mass, talks, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and visiting martyrs' shrines, and many other activities were available. It was a time to recharge their energy level, to look over their lives and to see themselves with new eyes.

Our parishes, both in the country and city, have an aging population. These Christians have been instrumental in the growth of the Church, and efforts should be made, the priest says, to make their later years profitable and prepare them for their twilight years.

Many of them--grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers and mothers--remain on the farms while the children have gone off to the cities to work and live. The parents continue to farm and do the daily chores, and wait for the occasional visit of their children. It is for many of them a lonely time.

The priest would like to change this situation by having the diocese and religious orders take a more active interest in the unique problems and concerns of seniors. Helping them to continue to find meaning in life without their children would be a worthwhile goal.

There is no questioning the Koreans  respect for seniors, but many times it is hands-off-respect. Programs usually have a cut-off age limit: age not health determines who may attend. We do have retreat programs, but they are not welcoming to the seniors,  and  the older people  know  their presence will not be good for the atmosphere that is desired. Having programs specifically for seniors, the priest advises, would be a wise move on the part of the Church and would be welcomed by all seniors.