What is the Church? A priest who worked as a missioner in South American tells the readers in his article in the Kyeongyang magazine the answer he heard most often on the missions: "We are the Church," and wonders whether Korean Catholics would express it this way.
Since the II Vatican Council we see the Church not as a vertical structure but as a horizontal People of God Church. No longer seeing the laity as passive, receiving orders but active, conscious of their rights and duties. "These faithful (laity) are by baptism made one body with Christ and are established among the People of God. They are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ. They carry out their own part in the mission of the whole Christian people with respect to the Church and the world" (Constitution of the Church # 31).
In many of our parishes we have divisions and conflict: an authoritarian attitude on the part of the priest, and disinterest on part of the laity."In the prevailing culture, priority is given to the outward, the
immediate, the visible, the quick, the superficial and the provisional.
What is real gives way to appearances" (Joy of the Gospel # 62). Many of the Christians are interest only in money and appearances,
The article frankly states that in most situations the laity have no voice in the parish and are to listen to the priests and religious and follow instructions. The structure of the Church, he says, is the reason for this situation and results in passivity. " Many fall prey to it, and
end up resentful, angry and listless. That is no way to live a dignified
and fulfilled life; it is not God’s will for us, nor is it the life in
the Spirit which has its source in the heart of the risen Christ (Joy of the Gospel #2).
Conflict between the clergy and the laity can't all be placed with the clergy. Life style of the clergy needs to change but also there is criticism for the sake of criticism, and lack of honesty in dealing with the clergy. With a little more love and religious faith we will have more understanding and friendship.
Small Christian Communities have to be promoted; Christians discussing the work of the Church and their place on the front lines. Priests need to give more example with their lives rather than with words. Laity need a way of being Christian no less than the clergy. Daily life of the laity and their religious life has to be one; they need to begin sharing and experiencing the Gospel message in the parish setting and bring it to the world.
Obstacles that prevent communication are many. In the Peace Weekly Column, the journalist shows how we have a lack of communication both in government and in the church and attributes the difficulty to either incompetence or pride.
He doesn't want to blame but only to speak out about the lack of communication in our society which he compares to poison mushrooms that continue to spread. Communication fails because of lack of contact but this can be remedied by contact but when we have contact and fail to communicate he sees the reason either in incompetency or pride.
Pride is one of the capital sins; not only concerned about oneself but also looks down on the other. With a proud individual we will not have communication:a change of heart is required. "Have the same attitude toward all. Put away ambitious thoughts and associate with those who are lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation" (St. Paul, Romans 12:16). In a democracy the voice of the people in most cases should be seen as the voice of God. When pride is the rule this system suffers.
When we are dealing with incompetency we need the humility to acknowledge this and make the efforts to acquire the knowledge and competency or the humility of giving the position to others with more ability.
Communication within society and within the church is an important issue. Pope Francis would like to see a culture of encounter. We know that he speaks often of dialogue but there are many who do not care for what is involved. In a recent talk to the Brazilian leaders he said: " I consider essential for facing the present moment: constructive
dialogue. Between selfish indifference and violent protest there is
always another possible option: that of dialogue. Dialogue between
generations, dialogue with the people, because we are all people, the
capacity to give and receive, while remaining open to the truth. A
country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich
cultural components: popular culture, university culture, youth culture,
art, technology, economic culture, family culture and media culture,
when they are in dialogue with each other."
MERS, and the reports received have been criticized by many for their
lack of clarity, and for the many false rumors associated with the outbreak of
the disease. Plenty of blame for the government and mass media, consequently, the priest columnist in the Catholic Times, wants us to see everything
from the eyes of the poor.
This kind of talk quickly gets
picked up as leftist, communistic rant by those who don't appreciate the great good done by our free enterprise system. Is it not an act of
simple politeness to try to understand the other in the most benign way
possible? A poor person has no standing in society and will see reality
without the prejudices that the privileged ones have of their society.
We can also see this within the church. Pope Francis is upsetting many
precisely because he wants to view society and the church with the eyes
of the poor.
Information is not always transmitted fully is a problem, but not passed on correctly is more of a problem. Mass media is influenced by ideologies, and pressure from power which diminishes freedom.
Big money and connections with big business influences the freedom of
the media. Consequently, it is difficult for the media to be objective
and neutral. Even with the MERS epidemic we see how this reality influenced much of the reporting.
The failure to report the facts does great harm to our democracy. Without all the facts the citizens are not able to make the right decisions. "Information is among
the principal instruments of democratic participation.
Participation without an understanding of the situation of the political
community, the facts and the proposed solutions to problems is unthinkable. It
is necessary to guarantee a real pluralism in this delicate area of social life,
ensuring that there are many forms and instruments of information and
communications. It is likewise necessary to facilitate conditions of equality in
the possession and use of these instruments by means of appropriate laws. Among
the obstacles that hinder the full exercise of the right to objectivity in
information, special attention must be given to the phenomenon of
the news media being controlled by just a few people or groups. This has
dangerous effects for the entire democratic system when this phenomenon is
accompanied by ever closer ties between governmental activity and the financial
and information establishments" ( Social Compendium of the Church #414).
Religious
people need a sensitivity to discern; from the flood of information
that surrounds us we need to select the correct information. The
columnist stresses we have to read and see what is presented with the
eyes of the poor. News that incites us to progress and development and
inflames our greed we have to suspect. On the other hand, information
that cares for the poor, appreciates the solidarity of humanity,
respects workers is serving the common good.
We need to
criticize the information that is false, and slanted against the poor.
No matter from where this kind of incorrect information comes, citizens
have to speak out,entering into the debate and speaking in the public
square. This shows we are a mature democracy: teaching the social
gospel, and acting as mature citizens and Christians.
Abuse in the family, physical, emotional, economic, and sexual are
serious social problems. An article in the Kyeongyang magazine written
by a professional, who has worked in the field for many years, informs
the readers of this serious issue which is not disappearing.
Violence against women in the home
has many faces, and she gives us an example of a couple married for
over ten years, who were ordered by the court to go for counseling after
the woman reported the violence to the police.
During the first session the husband made it clear that the wife was the cause of the violence: her actions warranted his response. She talked back, did not keep her promise, did not do the cleaning, she was lazy, and he was trying to teach her what to do. Verbal abuse follows physical abuse which remains with the person for a life time, and engenders suicidal thoughts.
Husband
does not feel any guilt and the wife who has to live in this situation
trembles in fear, and her only thoughts are how to prevent the next
beating. Children are the reason she is not able to leave the situation.
Children without a mother is worse then being beaten and prevents
her leaving the abuse. Society considers the abuse a private issue
located in the privacy of the home, no one wants to get involved, but
the writer makes it clear it is not a private issue but a social issue.
Patriarchy
considers family like a possession. One does not find
it easy to talk about the abuse and the shame the wife feels is part of
the reason eradication of violence is not doing well. Society sees the
mother as the sign of sacrifice, service, and devotion, if she
doesn't live up to this ideal imposed by society she will be criticized,
consequently the shame she feels and silence.
Violence
in the family is not seen as violence by many: a reason for the
failure to eradicate it. Many hearing the screams from a
home will pay no attention, and let it pass as a family matter. There
must have been a reason for the beating, if this attitude changed and
persons would report the abuse and knock on the door of the offending
house, she says, we would see a decrease in numbers.
When abuse is reported, we have perpetrators reflecting on what they
have done, and with the counseling both privately and in groups we see
change in behavior and the women receiving counseling also feels less
pain in her ordeal. There is no reason whatsoever to
justify this violence. Efforts are necessary to make the families basic
communities of love and places where growth in body, mind and soul is
promoted and evident.
Children
after birth are given a name which in many cases contains a wish of the
parents for the child. Much meaning comes with the name and this is
also true of a country. An article in the Catholic Times, addresses the
topic for the readers on the 70th year of the division of the country.
Korea also has a name.The South is called the Republic of Korea,
and the North is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Is that
what we call the two areas or is it North Korea and South Korea? Or do
we call North Korea the Puppet Regime and South Korea a colony of the United States?
If
we want communication to proceed we know the need to be sensitive to
the feelings of the other party, otherwise we face each other as enemies
with no hope of progress. The columnist remembers the time in the
seminary when he and his classmates worked as volunteers helping the
refugees to prepare for qualification exams, and were concerned on what to
call the children. Would it be defectors or new migrants? They decided
to call each one by their name, accepting each one of them as
individuals, without giving them any label that would lessen the respect
and love that they wanted to show to each of the students.
When
we pray for the reconciliation and unity of the country, we are not
recognizing the wrong headed philosophy or refusing to see all those
who are hurting under the system. Catholicism has difficulty coexisting
with Communistic materialism, and we are not asking those who suffered during
the war to forget all that transpired, but to think over what happened
and learn from the history. However, if we are not able to look beyond
what we experienced there is no hope for peace.
June 25th is the day we remember the Korean War and pray for peace. We Christians should be the leaders in this movement.
Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the
maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Rather
it is founded on a correct understanding of the human person and requires the establishment of an order based on justice and charity. (Compendium of the Social Gospel of the Church # 494).
Prayer is an important issue with those with religious belief. We
have many ways of praying. Catholic traditional ways of praying and
stages of prayer go back centuries. We hear about vocal, meditative and
contemplative prayer. St. Teresa of Avila had the nine stages of
prayer. However, one does not expect to find a column in the secular
press treating five stages of prayer. A columnist in today's Chosun
Ilbo introduces us to his five levels of prayer which he says he
gathered from those who do a lot of praying.
His first
level is asking for favors: money, health, promotion at work. Prayer
to meet the person's needs: prayer begging God for help,
which the columnist doesn't find surprising. When fire falls on one's
foot the response is to do everything possible to put out the fire.
All self-esteem is put aside, and one cries out for help, and the
mental faculties do not enter into the picture.
The
second stage is paying attention to what God or the heavens are saying
to the person. No longer asking, but listening quietly to what God is saying.
Thanksgiving
is the third level. No matter what happens: failure in business,
sickness even the death of the individual, the response is thanksgiving.
To reach this level he says requires one to be at least in his fifties.Everything is in God's providence which the person acknowledges, and gives thanks.
Fourth
level is praise. In everyday life all becomes prayer: eating,
talking to family and friends, involved in work all is prayer. Even
though he is not making any effort to pray, the prayer is automatic.
Lastly we have the stage in which there is no desire to pray and not even conscious of God.
As
Catholics we can see that the columnist was very ecumenical in
gathering his information on prayer, and putting it into five stages. We
may quibble over some of the expressions but there is a great deal in
what was expressed that we would nod in agreement, although we
would not express it in the way the columnist did.
He concludes the column
by telling us that prayer begins with the first level, From the third
level on we are dealing with persons who are very comfortable with prayer, and the ordinary person would not find it easy to enter.
He also
feels the place of prayer is important. A place with many rocky cliffs,
and mountains is conducive to prayer. In the famous monasteries of
Europe they are nestled in the rocky mountain areas of the region, very
similar to the topography of Korea. He also tells us that where a Saint
has prayed in the past the prayer will be more effective. On a visit to the home of
St. Francis of Assisi, the columnist noticed the
areas was encompassed in light.
Today, in many of the Masses throughout the country we prayed for reconciliation and unity on the peninsula. The division of the country came after the end of the Second World War in 1945-- ending the colonial rule of the Japanese, and turning over the peninsula to the trusteeship of the United States and the Soviet Union, in time to become independent, which never happened. On June 25th 1950, we had the civil war between the two divisions where two million died, and 10 million were separated from their homes and relatives, and in 2015, still without an armistice.
Catholic media has visited the problems that we have with the divisions of the country and asking for prayers for the unification of the country.Kyeongyang magazine, has a number of articles that give the readers an understanding of the problems and difficulties that are faced.
The North has changed much during the 70 years of separation. Hunger has brought change and the movement away from some of their socialist principles have been adapted as we have seen in China and Russia. North Koreans are open to information from the outside world and one of the articles mentions they enjoy watching some of the dramas from the South. Also, free to purchase many products in the market even those from the South. This will continue to bring change to the political structures.
National Security Law in the eyes of many is a big stumbling block preventing steps for unification. In the world today freedom of thought and speech is understood and Korea is still under the National Security Law. One of the articles mentions how the political parties and even academia are not speaking out. From the time of President Syngman Rhee it continues to do great harm to the process for unification. "Any person who praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti government organization, a member thereof or of the person who has
received an order from it, or who acts in concert with it, or propagates
or instigates a rebellion against the State, with the knowledge of the
fact that it may endanger the existence and security of the State or
democratic fundamental order, shall be punished by imprisonment for not
more than seven years ( taken from Wikipedia).
How do we work for unification and peace on the Peninsula? One article reports the agreement between the North and South in the Kaesong Industrial Region which is operated with the North. South Korean companies employ North Korean labor in a joint venture, but there continues to be squabbles, and it has never reached the potential that was envisioned when they started in 2002. Efforts expended for unification by organizations and religious groups are many, but they do not last long because of the political reality.
One of the most serious obstacles is the way the citizens see the situation with the North. You have the humanitarian position that wants to help the North to raise their economic level and make the transition to unification easy, while the second group waits for the North to collapse, and then will help them to unite with the South. The Church is very much on the side of the first group, but not all the Catholics would agree. We need to have a win-win scenario but this is not easily achieved.
