Korean Credit Union Movement

Catholic Peace Weekly has an article in the beginning of the credit union movement in Korea. Sister Mary Gabriella (1900-1993) a Maryknoll Sister started the movement on March 19,1960  in Pusan with a three-week  course which explained all the elements of the movement, and how different it was  from the Korean mutual aid groups.

Holy Family Credit Union was the first credit union and began with 27 members on the Feast of St. Joseph, May 1st 1960. The members were employees of the Maryknoll Hospital, Catholic Relief Services, and members of a Catholic parish. Two months later, a credit union began in Seoul  established by Father Chang Dae-ik (1923-2008). This was composed of members  from parishes in Seoul.

Under the Japanese,Korea had financial associations,  which had little trust among the citizens and was replaced with the credit union movement. In the 60s, Korea was in great poverty and was receiving surplus food from the States. In the farming areas if you borrowed one bag of rice within a year's time you would have to pay it back  with  two bags. In the private lending of money  interest was as high as 10 percent monthly.                  

Starting the credit union required a great deal of trust when you are dealing with great poverty but the efforts were made and proved successful. Both Sister Gabriella and Fr. Chang took notice of the Antigonish movement in Canada, affiliated with St. Francis Xavier University, they both attended the Coady Institute for the necessary education on Credit Unions which they imported into Korea. 

From these early beginnings, the movement spread quickly in Korea. This year is the 55th year of its inauguration in Pusan. There are over 5 million members in 920 credit unions. Korea has the 4th largest credit union in the world.

An accompanying article has the  story  of a president emeritus of a credit union  who says in the article that his life was changed by meeting Sister Gabriella. He was a bank employee. His life was comfortable but meeting  sister he left his work and went after a dream.  Sister needed young people to work with her, and he found something to do  he found satisfying. He gave talks in the seminars in which they establish  credit unions and  prepared leaders for the movement.

At that time, Pope John 23 published his encyclical Mater and Magister which he says gave the movement a great deal of strength and energized them. The credit union movement helped to eradicate high interest rates, influenced the growth  of democracy in Korea, and was a good influence on the other cooperative movements in Korea. He hopes they don't  lose their identity, work to implement the  credit union principles, and not become like a bank.

Religious Education Programs in the Parish

Most of the teaching in the parish Sunday school programs for the elementary, middle, and high school is  done by college students. The education programs for our students are important for the future of the Church. This was made  clear in the Declaration of Christian Education from the Second Vatican Council. 

A priest writing in the Catholic Times reminds the readers of the importance of education both in the schools run by the church and in our Sunday school programs. However, he sighs, when he thinks of what is  happening in our formation programs for the students in the parishes. 

College students are busy preparing for employment after graduation. This requires preparation in getting their special training to meet the expectations of the different work places. They have to take aptitude  tests  for the different places of work, they even    have  academies to  prepare the students for these  exams and interviews. College  students  who have their eyes  on a civil servant job will need to prepare for these exams. Many need to work part time to  pay the tuition; colleges have become places to prepare for employment. 

This kind of environment society is asking college students to accept is making it difficult for them to prepare to teach in the Sunday school programs in the parishes. Problems are not limited only to one segment of society but the blame has to be shared by the churches, industry, colleges, and politics. Problems come from the choices made. Structures of society  are making it difficult to prepare for the future with the necessary religious knowledge that students need to have.

This is true for the college student teachers and those they are teaching. This is one  reason for the secularization of the Church and the members. The formation of our Christians for the future is not being done properly. He wants us to reconsider the whole issue of education for our young people and find ways to solve the problems.

Envrionment And Laudatio Si

In both Korean Catholic weeklies we have articles and a interview with a  married couple who are  well known in environmental studies. Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim who are co-directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, and are giving lectures on ecology, while here in Korea. Both are disciples of the well known Thomas Berry, a priest who was a leader in the field of ecology, and who felt the whole issue was a spiritual one.

Why do you think the Laudatio Si  was an important encyclical?

Mary: The  encyclical is an important milestone in our present history,and addressed to all humanity. We have the three Es: Equality,Ecology and Economy that have been joined into one. She mentions the popes have been stressing the concern  we need to have for the  universe and  mentions how the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew has called the harm done to the environment a sin.

John:  Laudatio Si gives us a new way of seeing-- a new perspective. We can find happiness without the unlimited consumerism of our society. This is the reason Pope Francis talks a great deal about poverty and simplicity. It is not a return to the stone age but the way to raise up those who are in extreme poverty. We are looking at the universe as a whole.

What is necessary to make the message of the encyclical have universal validity and be persuasive?

Mary: As a couple we wrote the book: Journey of the Universe. When we realize how long it took humanity to appear on the face of the earth, we can't help but be amazed and see the beauty and be renewed in wanting to naturally protect this life-- wondering at the beauty of life.

John: According to Fr.Thomas Berry who speaks about our relation to the culture, in each culture there are common and different elements. When religion and culture meet they don't  become one but they replenish each other to  become  more complete. It is our task and challenge to show the universal validity and persuasiveness of this thinking. 

What is the responsibility of the Church?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Mary: Without regard to existence or non-existence we are a part of nature. Once we understand this our thinking will change.  Forests, fish, mountains and many aspects of nature have taken billions of years to appear-- why do we want to destroy them we belong to them?

John: Three persons were carrying stones to build one of the Gothic Cathedrals and were  asked what were they doing. One answered he was carrying stones. Another  said he was building a wall and the third  said he was building a cathedral.  We should also see the big picture we are not just recycling and protecting the environment but helping the planet.

We are related but what do you think should be our Asian perspective and our Asian theology?

Mary: Asia  modernized very quickly. We need to examine what this quick development has done to the environment. Two thirds of the world's population lives in Asia. What is done in one area is going to affect the other areas . The pollution in China is a concern of Korea.  The central theme of the encyclical is the oneness of ecology. In Asia we have  heaven the father, mother earth, and humans. In Asia we do not have divisions but participation in the universe.

John: Many Eco-theologians in their own way describe our relation with nature and the universe. We save the things we love. In answer to all this one can respond: we only need to go to church. However the times in which we live  are  asking much more:   climate is changing, oceans are rising, and we are destroying the top soil etc.;  we are called to get involved. 

Eucharistic Unity

Religion should unite--one of the attributes of Catholicism should be unity. Today, we no longer see this as something obvious, more an ideal that should be, but rarely seen. Liberty of conscience and being one's own person seems to have become all important.

On the spiritual page of the Catholic Times, we have a column  in which the writer, a priest and head of a research center, sees an aspect of this unity in something very insignificant, and gives thanks.

He was entertaining some guests who worked as volunteers with his research center some years before. They came back to see how he was doing in his new location. They told him what they have been doing since leaving the center: active in their parish with scripture study and as members of the Legion of Mary in their parish. He also brought  them up to date on the work he was doing at the center.

Outside it was raining hard, and they decided to take a bus to the nearby town for a meal. They went outside to wait for the bus but no bus. A driver stopped his car and asked if he could take them to where they were going. He apparently recognized the priest and was from the neighboring parish. The priest was not in the habit of imposing on others, but he had his guests, and the bus wasn't coming; he accepted.

As they were on the way they began talking of their plans for the evening, and the priest told the driver, they were going to the next town for a meal. The driver who was with his wife said would it be OK if they  joined him since  it was time for the evening meal. The wife gave her husband a jab in the ribs when he spoke, but the two guests quickly responded it would be great. The priest was not too happy with the turn of events.

The evening they spent time together in  a Chinese restaurant talking about what each was  doing in an easy manner, while eating their jangjangmyen and chanpon. When he heard his guests  talking about their work in the parish, he listened only with his ears but the couple were truly interested  in what they heard. Even though they were meeting for the first time they listened carefully and even offered advice. This surprised the priest for it was a sign that  having to know a person for a longtime to speak at a deep level is not necessary.

Returning to his room, he began to think of what happened that evening. He wondered what made for almost  instant rapport with persons they met for the first time. They could  speak about spirituality and matters of deep value so easily. He concluded that it was the Eucharist which made it easy for the five of them to freely and naturally share themselves with others. 

Participating In the Divinity of Jesus

As Christians we know at baptism we became  the sons and daughters of God. Many of  the Church Fathers  expressed this belief in a dimension that vastly exceeded this. St. Athansius said:  “God became man that man might become God.”  St. Thomas Aquinas and many other Saints have expressed this same thinking in different ways. Writing in Bible & Life a Korean pastor writes about this divinization and wants us to meditate on its meaning.

At the offertory of each Mass when the celebrant pours the wine into the chalice he will then pour a few drops of water into the wine which is a sign of our humanity joining the divinity of Christ represented by the wine. While doing this the celebrant recites the prayer: "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity."

This is said quietly at the Mass and since the congregation is usually singing at this time few are familiar with these words. What we do in symbol we believe happens at each Mass:  we participate in God's divinity and at the Communion we approach the altar to receive him in the Sacrament. Once this sinks in we can't help but be absolutely astonished  by what we believe.

One day when saying Mass he recalled thinking that  when he was pouring the water into the wine he was being mixed in with the wine.  The few drops of water would be embraced by the wine He prayed that he and his life would change by the happenings on the altar. 

At each Mass we are not only offering up the bread and wine but we are putting ourselves on the Paten. Each Mass is a time for a change in our lives. After the resurrection  we see the big change in the apostles. They were afraid, all the doors locked, and with the encounter with Jesus all changed, Death was no longer fearful, the apostles really became what they were meant to be-- men on fire with the Gospel message.

Each Sunday at Mass we offer not only bread and wine but also our monetary gift which symbolizes our sweat and difficulties of life,  they also go into the basket. He concludes the article by wanting us to remember that Jesus became man to enable us to participate in his divinity.

Words of Consolation Not Easily Found

Many times in our lives we are in a situation where words of consolation are in order. It may be a letter which carries our attempts at comfort, an e-mail, a telephone call, or the meeting of the person hurting. Bible & Life has an article by a pastor with the  pastoral responsibility of workers in the diocese. 

He asks the readers what words of consolation have meant the most to them. What words or ours have been helpful to those in pain who have come to us for words of comfort? His article considers the injustice  a woman experienced that left her lonely and dejected.

He was approached by the woman who wanted to speak to him after they finished the meal at the work place. They went to a nearby coffee shop to talk. As soon as they sat down she began to cry and shake. She explained how her boss scolded her for something she did not do, and will have to leave the company. Moreover, they both belonged to the same religion making the situation all the more intolerable for her.

What was he to say to her? Glancing at the woman  he was wondering how to respond. He tried to recall some Scripture quotes that would be appropriate. No-- would it not be better to simply tell her to be strong and trust in God? He finally decided what to say but his head and heart didn't agree. After she finished talking she excused herself and went to the bathroom. He was confused and the coffee was getting cold, as he continued to finger the cup.

In prayer he asked God to either help him say the right words or in some way console the woman. In his grumbling he open his carrying bag and took out a memo pad and began writing what was in his heart very slowly. "Sister, hearing your very difficult situation I do not know what to say, but I will keep you in my prayers." He inserted the paper very carefully in her purse.

Returning from the bathroom she told the priest she  had an appointment and would have to leave. They went out together and with the parting salutation  each went their own way. He had a heavy heart returning to his office where he received a text message from the woman. " Father,  thank you for listening to me and I will also remember you in prayer."

The article concludes with his knowing that he is not going to have the necessary words that people need to hear when they are hurting. However, at night before going to bed he remembers those who have entrusted themselves to him in prayer, those who are facing problems and those who have  annoyed him, and he brings them to the attention of God.

"Go the Mass is Ended"

How many priests give good sermons? In the opinion of a retired professor of humanities, writing in With Bible, at the most two out of ten.He is not talking about revivalist preaching or eloquent sermons, but a sermon that connects the Gospel to life, and helps  listeners to reflect on the words and motivates them to put the words heard into practice. These kinds of sermons are rare, and is it not the reason we have many reading the parish bulletin during the sermon?

Priests consider the homilies at Mass important but some spend time giving theological explanations and some just give a perfunctory sermon. He says he doesn't know how they teach homiletics in the seminary but listening to the sermon he can make an educated guess.

Liturgy is important for we are given the message of the Gospel, God's love in the liturgy, and the sermon is the key to this message. Young priests read a prepared sermon very carefully, and the older priests speak very confidently, without help, but  they don't deal with the problems Christians are facing. When we just hear theology, talks about attitudes, and Church news, they are not helpful in our daily lives. What is happening in society and the way it impacts the Christians is an aspect of the sermon that can't be overlooked, although some Christians have difficulty with this side of the Gospel message. He feels the Church should take notice that many of the clergy are not doing a good job in their homilies. Parishioners besides Communion do not see the importance of the other parts of the Mass. He would like to know how many are moved by the Mass and have tears come to their eyes.

Homilies should prepare people to receive our Lord in Communion and be changed. Each day we need to be born again and is this not taking part in the death and resurrection of Jesus? He feels that this element of being changed by what happens at each Mass is not a big part of the Church's concern. A big reason is the lack of homilies that fit the situation in which the Christians find themselves.

He admits that he has to come to a new understanding of his life as a Christian. Our present times he feels could be gloomier than the time when Jesus was on earth. Love is what is able to break through the darkness which we face. We need homilies that make us understand our lives and help us to live as Christians.

In his talks to the seminarians he tells them to be conservative in what they believe but progressive once they become priests in what they do. If the priests do not prepare the congregation to receive our Lord in Communion they should blame themselves. A priest  who doesn't see what is going on in the world may be a good high priest but he is not a prophet. The sermon is what lights the fire. At the end of Mass we have the Sending: "Go forth the Mass is ended" we are meant to live the Mass and be the hands and feet of Jesus to others and the world.