Catholicism and Equality of Women

The Catholic " Now Here News Site" gave an account of a lecture in Taegu on the influence of the Catholic Church on the lives of women. It's a series of talks by professor Kim Theresa: "Women  Encountering  the Catholic Church: The reason for the enthusiasm  of the women of the  Joseon Dynasty."

Why were the women of the Joseon Dynasty enthusiastic about the Catholic Church? The professor starts by telling us the  advice given to  women going to live with their husband's family: to act as if deaf, dumb  and blind for three years. They were not able to live an independent life and be respected as an individual in that society. Coming in contact with the Catholic Church was truly spreading the Gospel--the good news.

Progress was being made in every area of life when the Church entered Korea, but even though the thinking remained the same, society received a new concept of equality. And, in addition to welcoming the material progress, there was the intellectual satisfaction experienced by those who accepted the Church.

During the liturgy, both men and women answered the prayers together. In the marriage preparations, both men and women were asked the same questions. However, more importantly, the Church did not allow concubinage, which shocked many. The culture had no difficulty with the practice, since widows were not allowed to marry, this fostered the practice.                            

This change in the thinking of women came at the close of the 19th  century, when the Catholic Church was gaining acceptance by large numbers of Koreans. The professor makes clear that not all recently baptized Catholics understood the faith as presented in the catechism of the Church. Even before the entrance of Western material civilization, there was the influence of modern thinking in society through the Church. Women were given responsibility in the Church and were asked to respond to this responsibility which was not readily accepted by Korean society.  

The professor mentions that all these reflections mean little to us today, but if you go back into history the acceptance of Catholicism  required a great deal of courage to overcome the cultural difficulties. The efforts of women to enter the Church were more difficult than it was for the men, but the men also believed, evangelized and practiced their faith.  It's easy for us to consider this insignificant, not knowing the difficult times they lived in.

The article concludes with the professor expressing her hope that women turn their dream into reality by helping to free us from our conflicts and lack of communication, and, ultimately, to change  our society, so all can enjoy the benefits of the equality of the sexes and of all humankind. Also, to make clear that God is giving his grace to all, desiring that we spread this love to all--just as the women ancestors in the faith did so well.

Love Should be a Verb not a Noun

A columnist in the Kyeongyang Catholic magazine writes on the importance of leisure in our lives, and urges us to find time for leisure and to enjoy it now. Written by a member of the Seoul Diocesan Office for Family Matters, he quotes Tolstoy: "The most precious time is now, the most important thing is what I am doing now, the most important person is the one I am talking to now.

The columnist would like to change the words of the quote somewhat to: The most important time is the time with my spouse, the most important thing is working with my spouse, and the most important person in my life is my spouse.

Most would agree with this assessment but finding time to put it into practice is a problem. From the time of Aristotle we have heard that to live most fully is to be fully at leisure.  We work to make time for leisure. The columnist points out that the origin of the English word 'school' comes from the Greek to the  Latin word 'schola,' meaning leisure. The word was used to describe the relationship of the teacher and student in the learning process, which was to be done in an atmosphere of leisure.

He divides time into work time, family time, and leisure time. When they complement each other we have, he says, the best situation: harmonious relationships. Spending quality time with the family and spouse is necessary for a satisfactory family life. It is also a great help in living a healthy life, more so than exercise or going to a health club.

The columnist feels that one of the first things to be done in order to spend more time with your spouse is to control the time watching TV.  We can cheaply watch drama, sports, entertainment, news, education, among other things, but  concludes that with TV the bad points exceed the good ones. We are ignorant of the negative points, he says, because we are not familiar with the long range  studies of  the effects of watching TV.

Koreans spend, on average, slightly more than 3 hours watching TV. Which means that persons living, let's say, 80 years would spend 10 years watching TV. To increase the love in the family, he recommends not watching TV while eating, when in bed, and when talking to family members.  Love is not a noun, he says, but a verb--the doing of something. We do not need a ton of knowledge to know love and its effect on our lives, only a gram of action would be sufficient.

Korean Foreign Brides

Korea, in its text books for grammar school  children, describes the country as racially homogeneous.  This is disputed by many, even historically, but the emphasis on this homogeneity is done with eyes on the North and future unification. The immigrant's  transition to a new life in Korea is made difficult by  this  reference to  their Korean oneness.

A religious sister in this month's Kyeongyang  Catholic magazine revisits the issue of  foreign brides in Korea.  These young women have come to Korea for marriage. This started back in 1970 with the importing of foreign labor. In 1990 the Unification Church, with its international marriage ceremonies ,turned the attention of the people to these marriages. Because of the unequal development of the farming and fishing parts of the country, importing of brides became a part of life. It started with the ethnic Koreans from China, and then the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Mongolians, among others. With the lucrative possibilities of this new trade, business enterprises got involved and this has increased the numbers and the problems.There are now over 130,000 foreign brides in Korea. 

The sister mentions that even in the best of marriages there are difficulties of personality, environment, and thinking, which couples try hard to overcome. With international marriages they have to overcome also the problem of language and culture, made worse by the marriage brokers who  are interested only in being paid for their services.

In their advertising, these marriage brokers emphasize the obedience and faithfulness of the foreign brides, and use fantasy to entice the Korean men with sexual and  racial stereotypes. The men, for the most part, feel that because they have paid money to buy these women, they have earned the right to consider them their possession. 

There have been many sad stories of some of these marriages in our society. These women, unlike the men, have their backgrounds in another culture, and will be giving birth to second generation Koreans with a new way of being Korean. The ministry of health and welfare has reported that half of these couples live in poverty.

At present, 2.5 percent of the population is from another culture.  Koreans  are not conscious of this reality because of the  racially homogeneous and "pure blood line" thinking handed down from the past. This is making these new immigrants the newly alienated in society.

The sister ends the article by telling us that plant life needs only  0.2 percent of the sun's energy to live. Humans, she says, need just 0.2 percent of a dream to live. What is this dream?  She says it is hope. That is why these women came to Korea. The time that they will be living in Korea is longer than the life they lived in the country of birth. And the reason that we want them to realize their dream  is that they will be mothers in Korea.

A New Beginning In the Taegu Diocese

As we know, because of circumstances, environment, education and personality and many other factors, everyone tends to see the world differently. Members of the Catholic Church are no different. There is  always the dream that with our common Scriptures and Tradition we will have unity in essentials, freedom in accidentals, and charity in all things. But what is essential seems to elude us.

For  many years, the issues of justice and peace have been put on the back burner by some; others want you to see little else. While the teachings of the Social Gospel are not in doubt--they are an integral part of the message we have been given--there have been disagreements over the place and importance of justice and peace issues in our teaching.

To celebrate its 100 anniversary, the diocese of Taegu inaugurated a Justice and Peace Committee for the diocese All the other dioceses have in some form a Justice and Peace Committee. Taegu was the last to join, celebrating  with a Mass and  by reading a letter of congratulations from the head of the Bishops Justice and  Peace Committee. Below is a summary of the letter.

Congratulations on the beginning of the Justice and Peace committee in Taegu, and thanking God.  He thanks the ordinary of the diocese and all those connected in some way to  the committee. The Church with the  Gospel message  and mission to spread this message does so in a variety of ways but the justice and peace committee is an official structure for working  in the light of the Gospel.  Taegu in many ways has  promoted the Social Gospel but now with the new structure they will be more active in this area.

This new structure began under the prophetic leadership of  Pope Paul VI in 1967. It was during his visit to South America and seeing the poverty and injustices there that he  decided to begin  a Justice and Peace Committee  at the Vatican, and have it spread  throughout the Catholic World.

The Catholic Church in Korea, under the leadership of the Pope, began in 1970  its own Justice and Peace Committee. Gradually this spread to the different dioceses and during the  totalitarian rule of the army  these committees worked for human rights and democracy. These committees also worked in  areas of labor, finance,  politics, community, environment, life issues and international issues. They also taught the Social Gospel and gave them a means to judge the morality of what they saw in society. In 2004 the Church published, in Korean,  its Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

The bishop goes on to say in his letter that he  hopes that with this new start there will be more study of the Social Gospel and implementation of its teachings, helping our Christians not only to rest in their individual  piety but to  consider the common good, justice, and our solidarity in life as Christians.To be the salt and light of the world, he said, much is being asked of us.  And he again congratulates the diocese of Taegu, and prays that their efforts will be blessed by God.                                                                                         

Living the Paschal Mystery in Our Daily LIfe

A Catholic Times columnist recounts an incident that happened recently on a shopping trip to a market with his family. He told the children he would buy them the toys they wanted. But one of the children would not part with the toy when they arrived at the cashier counter to pay for them.

The older girl had no problem in giving the cashier her toy so she could see the bar code, but the younger son would not part with his no matter how they tried to convince him. They finally had to lift him onto the counter where the cashier could take the reading.

The child was afraid the toy would be taken away from him, prompting the father to reflect on his own problem in this area. To give up something we have now for something better is not always easy. Jesus, from the beginning of his life, gave up everything to become one with us. Kenosis is a word we often hear that expresses this emptiness. It is a prerequisite for us to be filled with God's gifts.

The columnist tells us that the Greeks have three important elements that teach them about life. The first is the railroad station where they learn there is a last station. Secondly, the ocean reminds them that there is a world out there bigger than the one we know.  Thirdly, when they see flowing water it reminds them not to get attached to things of this world.

He wants us to reflect on whether we are holding on to something too tightly. It could be my experience, my management of life, my knowledge, my record and results. We should practice, he says, putting them down. This should be our habitual practice to make a place for what God wants to give us.

In this season of Easter, living the  Paschal Mystery again becomes the perspective with which all is seen.  We have the example of our Korean ancestors in the faith who did not fear death but hoped for a new beginning. This is the rhythm of the Christian life. The mystery of all mysteries: to die so we can live. No Easter without  Good Friday. We die daily, practicing for the last death that is the transition to a new life, getting  rid of something so we can grow to greater maturity. This is the life Jesus showed us, and we renew it in every Mass we attend. This is the way of metanoia, this is the way of freedom and joy.

Ecumenicism Doing Well In Korea

Toward the end of May, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, visited Korea for meetings with Buddhist, Confucian and Protestant communities, and representatives of other religious groups. He was accompanied by Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, the secretary of the Pontifical Council. They were invited by the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue.

Korea gets high marks in efforts to be ecumenical  and having  respect for the different religious groups within the country. A brief conversation with the Cardinal was written up in the Peace Weekly.The archbishop responsible for ecumenicism and inter-religious dialogue for the bishops of Korea  was with the Cardinal during the 5-day visit.

The Cardinal noted that the world today is faced with  discord and factional strife among religions. There is no  reason, he said, to reject others because we are different. As a people, we have a great diversity in how we approach and see life, and religious people should acknowledge this difference and be able to work with it.

"Religious people," the Cardinal said, "should open their hearts and go in search of the common good, and work for the happiness of humankind. Dialogue means discovering  our differences and our  common points and fine tuning the differences so that we can come to some sort of agreement. The aim of religious dialogue  is to find a common understanding that will help bring happiness to humankind."

This dialogue is not only for religious leaders but for all religious people. All should be concerned with the problems we are facing and with our efforts to arrive at a common viewpoint which will help make a more just society. The Cardinal believes that the religions in Korea  already have a common understanding of family and the value of life.

He was impressed with the open mindedness of the Korean people to other religions. At the same time he was happy to see the pride they had in their Catholicism and hopes they will want to spread it to other parts of Asia. He also hopes that we will be able to form our communities so they will be attractive to those who come in contact with them.

The Church in Korea takes seriously this  dialogue among religions; the bishops realize this is an important issue in preparing for peace. A journalist who commented on the visit of the Cardinal said Koreans often say there is a similarity in feelings and an area of rapport between Buddhists and Catholics and with the Confucians; except for the ancestral tablets, the Church has no difficulty with the celebration of the rites. There is much in Korean Catholicism, he said, that should help bring us to a shared understanding among the different religions.

Where Is True Happiness To Be Found?

A professor at the Seoul University school of Education, who served in the past government as the minister of education, has some thoughts on happiness he wants to share. Writing in a Catholic magazine, he says that we all live with happiness and unhappiness, and the standard used to judge is different for each person. In most cases, the parents pass their standard of happiness on to the children. 

Nowadays, parents think that children will be happy if they have nice clothes, do well in their studies, and have  exceptional capabilities. More troubling is that some parents want their children to play only with the rich and not associate with the poor, also suggesting they stay away from problem families. It is reported, he said, that some grammar school children use as their standard for making friends how fine an apartment and car other children have.  

Material standards can only be temporary. Some parents see nothing wrong in cheating if you benefit from it. There  is a happiness that follows, but it is the selfish kind. If  by chance, after all the trouble in comparing yourself with others, you lose in the competition, you are left with frustration.

The writer mentions that as a child he spent most of his time at the church. This is where he studied and played; it was the meeting place in town and the only place where you could have fun. They gathered in groups of two and threes to play, and now, looking back, he sees it as his first experience of happiness that gave meaning to his life.

Happiness he tells us can be divided into three different categories. The first comes when when you have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and clothes to wear--satisfying  our natural instincts.  The second is the happiness that comes with the accumulation of money, honors, and success--the satisfaction of achieving material goals. The third is the happiness that comes when serving others--the satisfaction that brings joy and fulfillment in life. There are many who are examples of this way of life.

The professor feels that  society has been overly taken up with the first two: the pleasure and satisfaction of achieving personal and material goals in life. These are all good, he admits. To eat tasty food, have an abundance of financial security, and achieve your personal goals of self-fulfillment do bring happiness. They may give temporary bodily pleasure and emotional delight, but  do not satisfy the search for meaning in life--the craving of the inner life. With temporary satisfaction. we are always tempted to look for different ways to be satisfied, leading us into a vicious circle of failed attempts. 

When we are moved by an altruistic desire to help others, however, this is a value that does not disappear with time, as happens with most of our personal goals. The impressions of a mother raising her children , he reminds us, do not disappear with time but actually grow stronger. The professor ends his article by urging parents to teach their children where true happiness is to be found.