Culture Helped Catholicism to Grow

At the beginning of Catholicism in Korea, with the many difficulties that the new religion encountered and with the lack of leaders, it is surprising to learn that it was able to grow and spread throughout the country as quickly as it did. One important reason why this happened was given by the Peace Weekly, in its latest article in their series on Catholicism and other religions, as it discussed the relationship of 'Jeonggamrok' and Catholicism.

Jeonggamrok, a book of prophecy, whose author and date of publication are unknown, is a mixture of divination, including geomancy, Chinese Philosophy and Taoism. It has come down from the past in many versions, and has had many followers, exerting an immense influence on the intelligentsia, who were disillusioned with the ruling elite, as well as on the lower classes. During the  last years of the Jeosun Dynasty, the Jeonggamrok was studied and debated often by the anti-establishment movement.

These prophecies also continued to influence society at the end of the Jeoson Dynasty, during the Japanese occupation, the independence movement, and into modern times. There were  ten places in Korea, named in the prophetic writings, that were considered safe havens from hunger and wars; and not a few people would  migrate to these areas, an indication of how influential the book had become.

Comparing the Jeonggamrok and Catholicism, the Peace Weekly notes huge differences. Jeonggamrok is  fragmentary, non-systematic and desultory, and yet it had a big influence on religion and politics, and prompted many to band together in secret societies that often planned insurrections.

During the last years of the Joseon Dynasty, the Jeonggamrok prophecies for the future began spreading throughout the country. At the same time Catholicism was also reaching a wide audience so they couldn't help  but influence each other. There are many within the Church who see this mixing of two ways of seeing the future as helping to spread Catholicism, even during the times of persecution. When one remembers that Catholicism was an import from outside the country, it helps to explain how it was able to put down roots so quickly in the  culture.

Why this book led to the acceptance of Catholicism in the country is not difficult to understand. We know that for many years Catholicism had no priests to lead the Christians. Their  introduction to Catholicism was not systematically possible, and those that entered were helped  by the hope that they found in the Jeonggamrok, even though much of this would be contrary to Catholic teaching.

Also helpful in the spread of Catholicism was the Nipokjeun, a book of prophecies similar to the Jeonggamrok, that circulated among members of the Catholic Church. Written in 1846, the book is believed to be the words of Yi Byok, John the Baptist, (1754-1785) who appeared in a dream to the author of the book. Yi Byok was a  leader in  the early church, and in the book he explains the principles of creation, why the first parents were expelled from paradise, and the basic Catholic teaching. He also points  out what he considers to be the errors of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism; and criticizes idolatry and the rites for parents, and directs us to  the future world. The  writer concludes that  the Nipokjeun was  the Catholic Jeonggamrok.


 

Unauthorized life" of many Foreign Workers

Few are the ways we have of appreciating the difficulties of those who are marginalized in our society. One good way, outside of being in their shoes, is to work with them to ameliorate their situation. Writing for the Bible and Life magazine, a priest who works as director of the office for foreign workers in his diocese gives us a brief vignette about a worker who was looking for help.

Chartan arrived in Korea in 2009. After working for two years in a factory, he left before the termination of the work contract. He called to ask the priest if he will now be considered an illegal worker. He left, he said, because of the discrimination at the factory against the foreign workers. Although Korean workers were given 3-4-day vacations, foreign workers had to work, and when they on their own took a day off, 40 dollars of their pay was deducted for each day, even though they were only paid about 30 dollars a day. When Chartan complained to the owner, he angrily told him  to leave and not come back.

The priest told him to report to the employment center to find out what could be done. An employee at the center called the factory and was told that Chartan left on his own. "Why would they send him away when there was so much work to be done?" they were told.  The immigration bureau was notified of his situation. Chartan kept repeating he didn't want to be an illegal.

The priest says it's difficult to believe either the owners or the workers, but he believes the workers to be more trustworthy because of their urgent conditions. He recommended that Chartan become an illegal like many others. He would then have the freedom to look for another job provided he was not taken into custody. This did not appeal to Chardan so he called the owner and asked to be taken back.

We have a society, the priest says, where many are doing things illegally. He quotes a poet who lived for some time doing what was not legally permitted, protesting what he considered violations of human rights.

The priest ends his article by noting that many with money and high positions do many things that are illegal--and get away with it--believing these things are necessary to succeed in our society. However, the foreign worker is required to do everything according to law. He wonders when the day will come when those without money and power will be able to live well.               

Maryknoll Korea's 100th Anniversary Celebration

On  Oct. 25th the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Maryknoll, the foreign Mission Society of the Catholic Church in the United States, in the diocese of Cheongju, thanks to the kind invitation of the bishop. The celebration took place in the cathedral parish with Cardinal Chong, the main celebrant, the Maryknoll Vicar General, the Asian Regional Superior, the apostolic delegate, 15 bishops, many priests and sisters, and over 800 lay people.  They were there to give thanks and offer congratulations to the Society.

The Cardinal, in his sermon, recounted the history of the Korean Maryknoll presence from its time in North Korea to the present--a total of 88 years, with 15 Maryknollers remaining in the country. Two priests of the Brothers of St. Luke Hwang Sok-tu Mission Society were present and  said they will be following the spirit of the Maryknoll Society and the zeal shown by the missioners. 

Bishop Chang Gabriel gave a plaque thanking the Society to the Maryknoll Vicar General and a candle to our local superior commemorating the 100th anniversary celebration.

The editorial in the Peace Weekly mentioned that in comparison to the Jesuits and the Paris Foreign Mission Society,  Maryknoll has a brief but unique history. It was established to work in Asia and went through the trying times of the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and the control of China by the Communists: a time of persecutions and martyrs.
  
Maryknoll founded the dioceses of Pyongyang, Cheongju, and Incheon, and also was present in other parts of the country. The editorial mentions that the society worked in Korea under the occupation  of the Japanese and the Communists, which made for a very difficult working environment.

In the Peace Weekly interview with Fr. Hammond, the Maryknoll local superior, he recalls an incident while he was a student in the seminary. " Maryknollers have a feeling of sorrow and regret," he said, "when we think of Pyongyang. Monsignor George Carroll, who had spent years there before being forced out, later during a talk to his seminary students  broke down crying. I remember it still very clearly," he said. "When we think of the division of the country and the war our hearts become heavy."

Maryknollers would like to see, as would all Koreans, a unified Korea again. The feelings of sorrow and anger continue to show in the different attitudes toward the North when it comes to dialoguing with the North and giving aid. What can we, who are not directly involved, do to bring about better relations with the North?  We can pray and make efforts to heal some of our own mental and emotional scars that remain since the partition of the country.  

The Turtle and Learning

Once frightened by a turtle you will be frightened by the lid of a kettle. What we feared in the past, the look-alike will do the same in the present. With these words, the desk columnist of the Catholic Times introduces what he calls the learning syndrome: what has been learned in the past, if similar to what is being learned in the present and the connections and differences are not noted will greatly influence our present actions.


For example, learning to operate a machine will facilitate the use of another machine later on, each learning experience bringing about a change that prepares us to respond more efficiently for the next learning experience. Even the most primitive of people when seeing a recurring natural event such as black clouds have learned to 'read' the signs and go to high ground.

A recurring modern example, and a chronic problem in developed societies, is speculating in real estate. We have learned that the price of real estate in our country does not decline but steadily moves up, which encourages even more speculation.


As members of the Church we have learned many things about the disciples of Jesus. The columnist wants us to focus on the rich young man mentioned in Scripture. According to the standards of today, he would be an outstanding example of youth. However, he is shown to be one who missed the central teaching of life. He lacked love. He was like the farmer who never harvests.

In our society, we have an excess of those Christians who have more than what the rich young man enjoyed. They fear that giving up material possessions will result in losing everything worth having. What makes matters worse is that they think they are in the right, even though they are doing the opposite of what Jesus taught.

We have heard that a little learning is a dangerous thing, a reminder that we often deceive ourselves by thinking we know more than we know. The columnist finds fault even with the leaders of opinion in the Church for making it difficult to go deeper into what we believe. Without the necessary correct  learning, it will be difficult to live the true Christian life.

However, even correct teaching from experience is not always followed by correct learning and living. This has too often been seen. Not learning to be vulnerable and surrendering to God prevents us from accepting all that God wants us to learn.

The "Peters" in Our Classrooms

Attending a program for leaders in nursing, a religious sister, president of the Catholic Nurses Association, reflects on the words of a middle school teacher who was present, and whose words made a lasting impression on her.

The teacher mentioned the difficulty of keeping order in the classrooms; students show no interest in learning and reprimands are as useless as is punishment. "There are now in our classrooms," he went on to say, "many students who are like the protagonist Peter in the novel 19 Minutes. The Peter in my classroom, after continual bullying by his classmates, stabbed one of them with a mechanical pencil, making him cry. He never considered what he was doing to Peter, but during lunch break threw a chair at Peter and beat him."

(19 Minutes is an American novel that recounts the events leading up to a high school shooting and its aftermath. The killer is one of the students with the name Peter. The novel shows his deepening alienation from his family, his neighborhood, and his classmates because of the bullying, until his feeling of being an outsider causes him to snap and he begins his killing rampage.)

The sister recalls a newspaper story about high school students who, without being provoked, routinely interact by using abusive language, a practice also common among students in grammar and middle school. She  tells us about a father's violence and abusive  language that caused a mother to come to her for advice; her child had stopped speaking and his behavior was becoming belligerent. The sister also mentioned that her own niece, when in grammar school, had dreamed of being a singer but now in middle school has lost that dream. She hears this often. Who is at fault? she asks. Who should take responsibility? Will anyone acknowledge the anger in our children, help them to clean up their speech, heal their wounds, sooth their crying, and give them something to dream about?

It all begins in the family, she emphasizes. That is where character is formed.  What they receive from the family will determine their future. Just because the family next door is sending their child for extra studies does not mean that is necessary for their child. Many times it's not the child who is being considered when these decisions are being made, but the desires of the parents, whose desires have become more important than the desires of the child.

Parents and teachers should work together, she believes, teaching the student what is proper and improper action. It's not punishment but the 'rod of love' that is needed. Fear, insecurity and violence, as well as the abusive language directed at the Peters of the world can be eliminated or reduced if parents, teachers and other adults showed our youngsters more understanding, respect and love. She ends her column by reminding us that Jesus hugged the children and put his hand on their heads and blessed them.

The Social Gospel in Korea

How do we respond in a Christian way to troubling situations in society with a Gospel understanding?   The response of the bishops, when they convened for their autumn general meeting, was to establish Social Gospel Week, following Human Rights Sunday, on the second Sunday of Advent.

By formally proclaiming this special week and by observing this week each year, the bishops intend that the Social Gospel will find its rightful place in the essential teachings of the Church. They hope that by applying the teachings of the gospels to social behavior, we will begin to change how we look on disturbing social issues we have come to accept as normal, and begin to practice what we believe in our daily lives, becoming what we have been asked to become: the salt and light in society.
The bishops will publish a text book on the Social Gospel that will be a help to the catechumens and to all parishioners. As well as presenting the core teachings in one place, it will undoubtedly sensitize our awareness of the injustices in society, and to the fact that they are an offense against God as much as are the sins of an individual.

The president of the Bishops' Conference hopes that each diocese will use the Social Gospel Week to educate the Catholics on how we should respond to current social issues, and to continue to do so. This teaching, he goes on to say, was thought by many to be a matter of choice, that you could choose to follow or not follow the social gospel. By setting aside one week of the year to remind us of the importance of the 'social message' of the gospels, the bishops intend to correct this misunderstanding. The message that needs to be realized can be summed up by a few words from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done on earth...."
 
The editorial in the Catholic Times praised the bishops' decision to set aside one week to bring more attention to the social teachings of the gospels. Discussed for many years, the need for more emphasis on the ethical teachings concerning social behavior has finally been addressed, and will be welcomed by many. Also needed to help undo the misunderstanding of many is a clear description of what constitutes a just society and what role religion should take in helping to develop such a society.

These questions and others that the Social Gospel Week will undoubtedly generate will be discussed by special programs during the week and follow-up programs in the future.  Everyone will not only be informed about the teachings of the Social Gospel but have a better understanding of why the Church becomes involved in social issues.

NGOs In Korea

Korea has more than 10,000 NGOs (non-governmental organizations ) influencing our society. The director of the Seoul Caritas Volunteer Center writes about NGOs in the opinion column of the Catholic Times.

A member of the Korean Non-Profit Institute and busy with her own work at the Seoul Caritas Volunteer Center, the writer was intent on resigning from the Institute but the chairperson, during the last meeting, upset at the poor attendance of the trustees and the non-payment of dues, reduced the number of the trustees and selected her as one of the new trustees. She decided to accept and then reflected on why she has continued as a member of the Institute for the last ten years.

In her column, she mentions that she wrote her doctoral dissertation on the  Korean NGOs and their importance in society. What do the NGOs actually do in society? she asked herself. Several answers came to mind: there is nothing that they are not able to do; they search for what the body politic is not doing; they advocate for what the body politic doesn't want to do; they reform what the body politic is doing wrong, and they lend support to the body politic when it doesn't have the ability to do what needs to be done. In short, the non-profits intend to uncover the problems that accumulate in society and to alert our citizens to the problems and help solve them.

With the advance of democracy in the 20th century, the limitation of market capabilities, the spread of pluralism and the change of the government's role in society, many areas of concern  have  come to the attention of the  non-profit groups. In the West, the role of the non-profits has done much to advance society.  England has a history of charitable institutions. France  is known for its cooperatives. In South-East Asia, Thailand and the Philippines are far ahead of Japan and Korea in their development of non-profits. Korea has only recently realized their potential in humanizing our society.  In Korea, different names are used to identify the non-profits. Besides the NGO, there is the NPO (non-profit organization) and the NVO (private voluntary organization)--perhaps a sign, there is a difficulty in coming to an understanding  of the work.

Authorities in the field say non-profits are helping to make a better society; that without them, we would have a less humane society. They also believe there should be more effort made to improve the capabilities of these non-profits.However, we should not rely on a few non-profits to supply the necessary know-how and do what we have always done. A broader outreach of many non-profits is needed, each developing its own special area of concern within the constraints of available funding. Also needed is for more of society to acknowledge the importance of these non-profit groups, and to help them continue to do their much-needed  work by contributing financial aid.