One of the questionnaires that was sent out in preparation for the
synod on the family was the question on how accepted is the teaching of
natural law when it comes to matters about family. A Catholic Times'
article brings this issue to the attention of the readers. The answer
from the bishops of Korea: Confucianism is the basic understanding of
society which accepts marriage as a bond between one man and one woman,
a natural law understanding of marriage similar to the Church.
However,
moral questions in society: abortion, marriage, family, sex and related
issues are not as clear cut-- relativism, hedonism, individualism and
feminism, prevents many from accepting the teaching on natural law.
Although the direction of society is not to accept homosexual marriages,
the future is far from certain.The international attitude towards
homosexuality is changing and the recent decision of the United
States Supreme Court to legalize homosexual marriages will bring about
discussion in Korea. A movement is already active and wants to see
homosexual marriages legalized.
Natural law in Catholic
teaching is fundamental in its teaching on morality
but it is, according to the article, not easily accepted by society, and
there are many who say we need a new way of explaining what is meant
by natural law. One of our bishops returning from the synod wrote an
article for the Times in which he said: The church needs to use new
words to explain the teaching on natural law: making it understandable when speaking about contraception, and related moral issues.
At the synod it was shown
that many felt that a new tone, attitude and way of teaching was
necessary if the teaching of the church was going to resonate with the
people who are listening.
Natural law and Scripture
are the two sources of Catholic teaching on morality. A German legal
philosopher, Erick Wolf was quoted as saying the concept of natural law
is diverse, and one of its functions is for the natural law to
critique positive law and its imperfections.
Reason gives validity to the natural law, consequently, whether you have
a belief system or not, there should be universal validity to our
natural law thinking easily grasped by all. There are all kinds of
thinking in the areas of marriage, sex and life issues. We are faced with relativistic thinking and ideologies: absolutes
are not looked upon favorably, so efforts have to be made to use words
that will speak to the people in today's world.
Spiritual worldliness is a word seen often in our reading of Pope
Francis. In an article in the Kyeongyang magazine a priest professor
explains in detail what this temptation to spiritual worldliness means.
We
have many problems in society and we who are Christians often pay
little attention to what is happening. We are afflicted with a great
case of apathy. We are taken up with ourselves and our needs, too much on our own plate to be concerned with others.
He
uses the Sewol disaster as an example of this apathy. Certain elements
in society have heard enough talk about the tragedy, and when it comes
up they coldly dismiss it: the very word is odious to hear and makes
them tired.
Last year within Catholicism was a petition
to gather names of those who wanted to make known the truth about the
Sewol tragedy. The priest shows that only 130 thousand participated out
of the 5 million Catholics. Since only about 20 percent attend Mass on
Sundays that leaves only about one million 150 thousand that practice.
With these figure he says the 130 thousand that participated are only
about 11 percent of the number of practicing Catholics. However, he understands for one reason or another, many did not see the
petition so raises the number of those who would have
participated to 20 percent of the practicing Catholics. This
tells us a great deal about our Catholicism, he laments.
Pope Francis
has made clear in his visit to Korea that there is no neutrality when faced with suffering. We have to go outside our own
interests to the poor and hurting. He wanted the Korean Church to see
the temptation of prosperity and being concerned only with oneself, and not see the ones who are crying. We can't be the Church of
Jesus if we have a spirituality of the world.
Wolves
are all around us seeking an opportunity to approach. No longer are they
seen as ugly but are refined and attractive with the cloak of
efficiency, success and prosperity. Our eyes should be turned to our neighbor but are turned to ourselves. When we are concerned with the needs of others we are not ignoring ourselves but more concerned about ourselves. St. Ignatius said that when we are far from self-love, self-will, self interest and our rights, we grow as persons and spiritually.
Across from the pharmacy, a woman for seven years was a one person picket with her placard. The pharmacist in Bible & Life writes about his thoughts
on the woman who wanted to say something to all those who passed her
way.
On a cold day when she began her picketing she entered the pharmacy to buy a warm drink.He asked her why didn't she forget about the picketing on such a cold day. With a smile, she said she didn't notice the cold.
Except
for weekends, from morning to 1:00 pm, she was in her place before
the clothing exporting company she worked for, after leaving the
country, and coming to Seoul some 15 years earlier. In her position before the door of the clothing company she stood with her placard:
"Its unfair all I want is to work." Each day her one-time follow
workers and bosses would pass her without a word.
It
was a small company, her first job after arriving in the city after
graduating from a girls' commercial high school. The company was small but
solid. With her salary she was able to help educate her brother and
participate in the life of the city. She married and had two children.
The atmosphere of the company was changing and a labor union began.
She was involved in the forming of the labor union. Her apartment head
warned her that participating would have a deleterious effect on her
job rating. One day on coming to work her job had been changed, and no
reason given, shortly after she was laid off.
She was
responsible for a family of three. Her husband died in a traffic
accident so she was the sole support of the two children and had to take
care of the monthly rent for her villa, about 400 dollars a month.
She had taken pride in her job and when she was fired unfairly she
didn't want to leave in disgrace, and took to the street.
Her
picketing came to an end without any benefits. She was in debt and had
to send her two children to her parents in the country. She worked at
anything that came her way: as a janitor in a bath house, domestic
help, selling juice on the street, tending the sick, in a welfare
center and office help-- one day coming out of a restaurant where she washed dishes,
she met her old boss who fired her; he had been promoted. The news
bothered her for some time.
The pharmacist
recommended she sell rice cakes in the spot she had been
picketing for all those years. She did so, and did very well for there
were many who remembered her from her years of demonstrating. Laughing, she was sorry she didn't stay longer at
the picketing; she would have a bigger clientele.
The
pharmacist also had a time in his life when he fought against
injustice, and he learned a lot from the fight although he did not win,
and the women also has no regrets in the battle she undertook. It has helped her to grow and the pharmacist concludes: marketing her rice cakes shows how the nutrients in her life have given dignity to life.
On April 16th we had the first anniversary of the sinking of the
Sewol Ferry. The tragedy is now well know throughout the world and Korea
is still looking for answers. 476 passengers and crew were on a trip
from Incheon to the holiday island of Jejudo-- 11 hours after leaving
Incheon it sank killing 304.
Bishops' Mass Media
Committee and the Seoul Diocese sponsored a forum on the sinking of
the ferry and the Church's role in dealing with the wounds caused by
the tragedy. The topic continues to be contentious for only small
steps have been taken to appease the anger of the parents of the
victims; the independent inquiry the parents want is still far from
a reality.
The movement to 'live correctly' was one of the
presentations at the forum, and what can be learned from the tragedy.
Progress and development are positive goods but they also come with some
serious negative results if we forget who is meant to benefit from the
progress. The professor recalled the corruption that was involved, the
lack of concern for people in the pursuit of financial profits,
selfishness, greed, taking the easiest way to the greatest benefits,
forgetting responsibility and the need for competency, unfettered
competition with no concern for the damage that results prepares for a
man-made disaster.
One of the presenters mentioned many
of the Catholic laity did not show an interest in the aftermath of the
tragedy for the victims.
We need to break down the narrow mindedness and concern only for our own
needs, and our failure to go out to others who are hurting.
A
mother of one of the victims mentioned many individuals showed
solidarity with the victims and parents. Solidarity was shown from below
but she lamented that the government showed little of this concern.
A psychology professor mentioned at the
port closest to the place of the disaster there was a lack of
sensitivity shown to the victims and the families by some of the
government civil servants, which left a lasting wound on the families of
the dead.
Cardinal Yeom, who gave a talk of
encouragement to the forum members mentioned when the ferry sank,
many of our values and societal trust went down with the
ferry and the victims. He hopes the tragedy will be a light that will
show us our future direction.
Transparency is a
difficult attitude to attain for it allows the truth to appear no matter
the harm done to the individual or group. Most of the time it is not
something a person or group permits to happen without outside pressure.
Hopefully the truth of the Sewol disaster, which is mostly known, will be
allowed to be part of Korea's history and a lesson to future
generations.
Today is the Feast of Peter and Paul, two leaders of the early church. Meditation in the Daily Mass booklet for the feast centers on the reading of Matt 16: 13-19. Church can be understood in many different ways and thanks to Cardinal Dulles we have his six models: institution, communion, sacrament, herald, servant and community of disciples. Besides these six there are many more ways to see the Church but the model that begets the most opposition and loathing, and not only from those outside the community is the institutional understanding of Church.
In the Gospel for the Mass we hear: "I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven." These words bring to mind a fence, repugnant to many in our society.
We speak about the universality of Church-- why do we need a fence? We are Christians, is the answer given in the meditation, but can believe and proclaim what is not Christian. In the world in which we live there are many elements that threaten the Christian life. Not a few in the Church who are zealously active and use the Scriptures as their witness, propose teachings that can't coexist with the teachings of Jesus. Often not realizing this is the reality.
For many in the history of the Church, the institutional model had great meaning. Much of society has lost trust in institutions, but we still have Catholics who have a great love for the institution, with its failings and weaknesses. Seeing the church only as a human institution, there is no organization or institution that has done more for humanity. A rudimentary familiarity with world history and a willingness to be objective and see the bad with the good in the context of the times will permit a person to acknowledge that the Church has been a beacon and given hope and meaning to much of humanity. It continues to be a conscience to the world even though few are listening.
The meditation ends with a reflection that the Church continues to preserve us in the visible unity of faith. We who are descended from the Church of the apostles, he hopes, will continue to nourish a love for the Church as institution, but to remember the Church is much more than an institution.
"Father, my child has become a cult member." Laments of this
kind are common, says a priest authority on cults, writing in the Kyeongyang magazine on the
new religions and their dangers. How to deal with the new religions is
no easy task. Numbers of those involved in the new religions is well
beyond what we imagine.
Catholicism has no counter
measures in response. We hear often the Church is the breeding grounds for the new religions, meaning that members often come from
Catholicism. We don't think it deserves our
attention, consequently, lack of interest. However, when we meet those who have been involved in cults,
we realize it should be a concern, for it shows our failures to be
a loving community of faith. Our true character as a community appears, and serious problems in the way we have instructed our Christians.
When he
receives a request for counseling his first thoughts are a feeling of
helplessness in dealing with the 'new world' they have entered. Parents often get
angry but this is of little value. Once the person has been brained
washed the chances of success in convincing them of the error of their ways is far from certain. Much better is
preventing them from getting involved with cults.
Those
who have become cult members, more than the teachings they are captivated by the community they have entered: the upright life of the members, zeal, they are impressed with the community they have joined, and moved to give assent to what they are taught. They respond to their cult leader like the apostles
followed Jesus; they remember with great happiness the days of
instruction. There is a type of addiction and love-sickness response to
their attachment.
Many of those who become involved
in a cult have a history of problems in family life: lack of self-esteem, confidence, and looked forward to a future with gloom and
alienation. Joining the cult they find themselves, and gain confidence
for the future. They find new meaning in the virtual world they have
entered. Even when one leaves the cult there remains the problem of identity.
The cults tell us a lot about
ourselves. We are not on fire as Christians or believe what we
say we do. We live our faith life without passion, and mission. Pope
Francis mentions that we have a worldly spirituality. Those who have
accepted the cults have usually not been members of their parent's religious community
growing up. It was easy for them to give up their faith for it meant
little to them. We will continue to have many of our Christians living
their faith by habit. Which means we will continue to see large numbers leaving the church. We have to be more concerned in the way our
Catholics are educated. There is a need to draw up a new way of
instruction that will meet the needs of the world they will enter.
We all have to take an interest in making our communities vehicles
that will instruct the members in what it means to be followers of
Jesus.
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.
