Community and Relgious Life

The writer this week in the Desk Column of the Catholic Times admits that the internet could keep him interested  a whole day. However,  there are many in the society who need the off-line  camaraderie: sitting down with others with a drink in hand feeling the warmth of  body and soul  with  human relationships. This will be more of a concern as  we get  used to the analog way of living.

This is true also of our religious life; it is not an individual or private affair. Some may think that they  stand  alone  before God but Christian teaching tells us that God is interested in the liberation of his people as a group. Christianity is a community. It is like the fingers of a hand if one gives trouble all feel it.

In the West which  has become secularized, the danger is believing without belonging tendency. The  religious heart is still there but lack of desire to belong to any institution; an individualization and self-interested  spirituality are in vogue. They consider themselves Christians but not interested in the Sacramental life; Mass attendance not considered a duty, there is no thought about community.

How about the Korean Catholic Church? The individualization from the West has entered Korea, but   Koreans have an understanding of a group orientated society; the  belonging has not disappeared from our thinking. We still have  cliques and problems with divisions, but  we  do not prefer the  independent or    the individual  approach over community.   We  still believe that the spiritual life is one in communion with others.

The problem for us, he says, is the belonging without believing. The teaching of the community does not affect our daily life. We desire to belong without following the teaching of the community. And this is especially seen in our understanding of the morality of life issues. In all the surveys that have been made, we see the big discrepancy between what is taught and what is done. The Catholics pick and choose what they want to follow.

The Church has to deal with this issue. The numbers of catechumens are not dropping off; the churches are crowded with parishioners; vocations are not decreasing by much and the friendly faces of  the parishioners  seen by the priests does not diminish the crisis that we have. To think that we need to go back and give programs that will help educate the laity is an illusion. Thought has to be given why the Catholics are not completely following the teaching of the Church. If we think, we know we will not be searching for answers.

The Church has to deal with this issue. The numbers of catechumens are not dropping off; the churches are crowded with parishioners; vocations are not decreasing by much and the friendly faces of  the parishioners  seen by the priests does not diminish the crisis that we have. To think that we need to go back and give programs that will help educate the laity is an illusion. Thought has to be given why the Catholics are not completely following the teaching of the Church. If we think, we know we will not be searching for answers.

The Oneness of Faith and Life

The Bible and Life magazine had a series of articles on the family experience of faith, recently, and one of the articles by a priest asked the question: If there had to be a choice between faith or study what would the parents decide?  Most of the parents, he believes, would come down on the side of study, because we have been programed for this choice by society. And yet the question presents us with a great challenge.

If society had a proper appreciation of the family and its role as the basic unit of society, there would be a great change in society, the priest said. Our schooling, he believes, tend to weaken the role the family should have. This is also true for the religious education of the children if it is completely passed on to the Church and their Sunday school programs. A lot of the blame can be placed on the fast-changing society we live in, but the parent's non-interest can't be overlooked as contributing to the problem.

Because of the great growth of the Church in the 80s, it has not come to grips with many of these issues. One of the most important is the separation of life from faith, the failure to engage the faith in one's life. Parents are more interested in having children seek financial success and honors than being a Christian. Without the help of the family in providing the faith atmosphere for growth, children will grow up with a dysfunctional faith life, an opposition to faith, and passivity or tepidity to religious matters. He offers us three ways to keep this from happening.

First, foster an appreciation of the parent's obligation to the children: They are a gift of God and have to be led into a relationship with God by the parents.

Secondly, Because parents are teaching by everything they say and do, they are the model of what the Christian life will be to the children.

Thirdly, the parents will need help with this, and that means a relationship with the larger community of  the Church. This requires that we change from pastoral care that focuses only on the individual, and focuses more on the family, supporting them in their efforts  to become holy.

The formation of family and faith life should be seen as one. With the separation of faith from life, this often results in a  lopsided approach to living. Children have to experience the love of God, to know they are loved, and to show  this love to others. This will require, the priest says, forming holy families and helping the Church to be a loving community--a community that will be a light and salt to the greater community of society.

A Contrast in East and West Thinking

Writing in the Kyeongyang magazine a Catholic philosophy professor cites a passage, from the 10-volume novel, Honbul (Fire of the Soul), which is an ode to earth. The professor feels that its author, Choi Myung-hee  expressed what the earth means to a Korean. Fire of the Soul  points out the importance of being of service to nature and having a respectful attitude toward life. In simple Korean, the professor calls it mental housekeeping. The following is a brief summary of the issues raised by Myung-hee that shows serious differences in outlook toward nature between the East and the West.

Millions of years ago, humanity appeared on earth and lived together with nature, giving humanity a unique vision.  About five thousand years ago words were written down for prosperity.  Both in the East and in the West we have written accounts appearing about the same time in Genesis and in the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu.

The professor contrasts the  thinking of the East with the West. The West has the understanding that humans are to conquer and  subdue the natural world, and he quotes Aristotle being of the same mind: "Humans have been made to perfect nature"-- words similar to those used in  Genesis. However, Lao Tzu in his chapter 25 says:

Man models himself on earth.
Earth on heaven,
Heaven on the way,
And the way on that which is naturally so.

In the East, we have a living together with nature: we are to use nature as a pattern, earth as a mirror of life. The professor acknowledges that there is a new way of interpreting the words of Genesis that give new meaning to conquer and subdue, changing them to stewardship and care for nature, though the professor prefers using the word 'housekeeping.' Humanity has been created, he says, to be in rapport with all life, and was given the ability to do the housekeeping.

Korean ancestors saw everything moving, nothing was static being, everything was becoming--a coming into and out of being. Humanity was to keep pace with all of life, which was in constant motion; those who did were living the good life; those who who did not were the losers. 'Becoming' was understood as an emptying of oneself.  Their foundational thinking was not 'being' but emptiness. Everything disappears into no-thing.

Koreans, in contrast to Westerners, see the law of life in nature: sharing oneself, emptying oneself to enable others to live. This is equally true, says the professor, for the amoeba to the plant sprout; they give, in order to grow.  Without sharing there is death, he says. We are all to disappear into the potency of the universe. The last step of this division is emptiness.  In the West, there is a drive to satisfy our personal desires. In the East, there is the ideal of throwing oneself into the emptiness of the universe to receive new life. We take the example of God, in his absence, to share and empty ourselves.

Those who refuse to share, to open to others by emptying themselves, are working against life. It is this sharing and emptying, the professor says, that is  'the housekeeping law of the universe.'

50th Aniversay of the Guadalupe Missioners in Korea

This year marks the 50th year of diplomatic relations with Mexico and also 50 years during which the Guadalupe Missioners have been working in Korea.  Both Catholic Papers are profiling the society in a series of articles introducing us to  their work.

The first superior of the Guadalupe Society was the Maryknoll bishop Alonso Manuel Escalante. The first mission territory was Japan, Korea the second.  The missioners arrived in Korea in 1961. Two missioners were assigned to Pusan, at the invitation of the bishop. In 1963 two priests were assigned to the Kwangju diocese as a result of a meeting between the archbishop and the superior of the the Guadalupe Missioners during the II Vatican Council.

The Guadalupe Fathers worked  to acculturate Catholicism into the Korean culture. The article tells us about the efforts of one priest to inculturate the Mass into Korean, but it was not adopted by the bishops. The society also sent their seminarians to attend the seminaries in Korea, both in Kwangju and in Seoul. They were one of the first to build a Church distinct from the buildings  of that time and always willing to take on the difficult assignments and to go to any place where there was a  need.

The Mexican Church received help from the Spanish Church and, in gratitude, the  Guadalupe Fathers wanted to go to  other countries to do the same. Many worked on the missions  from Mexico but there was no umbrella group in Mexico to facilitate the work.  The  need was felt and some Mexicans studying in Rome, with the help of some  bishops, began discussing the issue, which resulted in two bishops starting a monthly magazine publicizing the idea.

Opposition to the idea was strong. The recent persecution of the Church (1926-1936) influenced the thinking at the time; Mexico was still trying to find its place in society. There was a lack of priests in the country, and the national financial situation  was not good.  However, despite this situation the bishops decided to have a national missionary assembly. It was at this meeting that they formed a committee to prepare plans for the foreign mission society, which was realized in 1948, received  approval from Rome, and they went on to build the first seminary.  Maryknoll Bishop Escalante, a Mexican,  was their first superior. In 1949 the Society celebrated the opening of the seminary and accepted the first students.

The first superior, the founding inspiration for the movement, worked in China for 10 years and though his primary interests were with the Orient, the Society today has missioners in Africa, Hong Kong, Angola, Peru, Brazil, and Cuba. They have 180 members and 90 working in mission countries of the world.

Fighting for the Culture of Life

The cultural movement against life that continues to grow can't be directly confronted only by the medical profession, but has to engage the help of all sectors of society. An article in the Catholic Times mentions that the beginnings of life and its definition are all concerns that are understood differently by many. The Research Institute for Life and Culture at Sogang University is searching for some answers.

For two days, the Institute dealt with the topic of how to define life. In their international academic meeting this year, scientists and sociologists from many nations looked at the issue with religious eyes: What is life, its value, the culture of life, and what  should  it be?  They saw the harmful consequences of an outlook on life that ignored or denied its sacred dimension, and how that could result in a false understanding of human nature and of our natural environment; discovering solutions to this issue is considered an urgent matter.

The head of the Institute, in his inaugural talk, said that from the beginning the Institute has fought against the culture of death and has given a vision of what the culture of  life should be. He wants to devise a  systematized plan he hopes will  spread to other parts of the world.

One participant said they had discussed vigorously the ethical  beginnings and end of life but had been slow in examining the results of this in society. In order to be more effective in spreading the culture of life, he said,  there needs to be a more comprehensive effort  in making evident the moral context when discussing life issues.

Another participant mentioned the impact of materialism and consumerism on issues of life. How these attitudes marginalize humans, and lead us to destroy our environment. It is by being considerate of the other and controlling our desires, he said, that we will solve our problems and be happy in the process.

A participant from India pointed out that without concern for all species of life, our own lives are jeopardized. Another mentioned that globalization, without more sensitivity to the needs of others, can result in more disparity between those who have and those who don't, leading to more problems with the  environment. A solution suggested was to have more dialogue between scientists  and philosophers.

He also regretted that the movie culture of today fills our consciousness and dominates to such an extent that it makes forming correct moral judgements on the information received difficult. He emphasized the importance of utilizing our imagination in more creative ways to help solve the current impasse over how best to address these difficult issues.

Cassock no Longer Awkward

Priests in Korea are not opposed to wearing the cassock in their parishes but seldom do so when outside the parish. A prison chaplain writing in the Pastoral Diary of  the Peace Weekly explores the benefits of wearing it while working in correctional institutions.

In the beginning it was awkward, he said, since most inmates were not sympathetic to religion, but with the passage of time he felt more comfortable, and experienced much that was new.

Now when he enters the prison wearing his cassock he's immediately recognized as being a Catholic priest, which was not the case when he wore only the roman collar.  There are ministers who wear roman collars, but with the cassock all know who he is and many more  greet him than in the past. Buddhists also find it easier to greet him when he wears the cassock.

A prison officer seeing him in a cassock came up to him and said she is not a Catholic but has seen priests in cassocks in movies and wanted to introduce herself. On one occasion a foreigner, who saw him dressed in a cassock at a restaurant near one of the prisons, found it strange to see a priest in a cassock and came up to greet him.

In one of the correctional institutes for the young, some of the Catholics asked him a number of questions:  "What is that black dress called....Why do you wear it....Can we also wear it....Why are there so many buttons?" The cassock brings out questions of this type.

Wearing the cassock has many benefits, he said. Most importantly, "I become more faithful."  It takes more effort than wearing the roman collar and makes for more earnestness in my work, he added. The inmates at first found it strange but in time it became something very natural. The Catholics, especially, liked to see him in a cassock. "It has been a long time since I have seen a priest in a cassock" is a common response of the inmates.

Even nonbelievers, when they see the priest dressed in a long black dress, find it strange and look at him curiously. The prison chaplain does not go only to the prison to say Mass but also to introduce the Catholic Church to the prisoners. Everything the priest says and does has the possibility of bringing the prisoners closer to a better understanding of the Church.

In the summer, wearing the cassock can be uncomfortably warm and in the winter somewhat cold, but it makes the Catholics happy, introduces others to Catholicism, and helps the priest to examine himself as he makes the rounds of the prisons: three favorable results with one effort. He plans to continue this approach in the future.

No Place for Racism

The editorial in the Catholic Times brings to our attention a Filipina, who became a naturalized Korean, a member of the  National Assembly as a proportional representation candidate when the Saenuri Party (New Frontier)  won a majority in the recent parliamentary elections. Reason enough to have her attacked on the internet with all kinds of racist remarks. The editorial does mention the brutal killing of a woman by an ethnic Korean Chinese worker at that time,  helped to inflame  the hate talk, but it admits that Korea has this deep feeling of aversion for the foreigner embedded in the society.

To express feelings of racial discrimination is not Christian and goes against our teaching. We have the words of our Lord, in Matt 25:35, "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me." We are urged to deal kindly with the immigrant. This attitude of dislike for the foreigner is not only against our humanity but also contrary to our faith.

We, as Koreans, in our recent history have been the victims of this kind of discrimination, both directly and indirectly. From the time of the Japanese occupation, we have experienced scorn, contempt and persecution. Emigrating to American and Europe, Koreans have experienced great sadness because of the discrimination and the emotional scars still remain with us. The very thing that we have experienced we now see evidenced in our society.

That a single incident can tarnish a whole people lacks all reasonableness. This kind of hate is violence by society. Clearly, to prevent crimes from happening efforts have to be made, but they should not be motivated by prejudice toward the foreigners.

Agencies that have made a study of these problems have shown that the crime of foreigners is much lower than those of Koreans. Therefore there is no justification for the dislike of the foreigner.

Efforts by the Church, both nationally and in each diocese, have been made to take care of the difficulties foreigners experience in adapting to a strange culture. This is not only done because of our similar humanity, but because of  the mission that we have as Christians to make a just society. This requires that we have a correct attitude towards the foreigner, and because of their marginalized status make them one of our first concerns, and not be miserly in our efforts to welcome them into our society.