The Fox Knows

View from the Ark of the Catholic Times introduces the readers to a parish priest's reminiscences of his love of books during his early years of schooling. He remembers the joy of reading and would read everything that came his way. Comic books introduced him to the fanciful and the world of imagination.

Books on great men gave him a longing for the impossible (?) and the classics and literature as a whole such as Ivan Turgenev's First Love allowed him to dream. During the 80s when the society was chaotic, he read Korean history. Since there was no object or reason for the reading it was a smorgasbord. He was young and not able to connect what he read with the life he was living.

If there was one thing that he learned later on from his reading was that not everything that hits the eyes is all that there is. Many are the books that left him with an understanding of life and one in particular was The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

With money life is comfortable. Science and civilization have modernized our lives, machines have advanced greatly our way of living and made it comfortable. Buildings are tall and strong. Traveling with computers we  live with illusion and the way smart phones are evolving is difficult for us to imagine. Schools of higher learning are being build continually, increasing the educational level of the citizens. The GNP continues to rise but so also has the debt of the citizens.

Development of the country has been great but young people find it difficult to find work. We give a number index to even some of the highest values in life. Profit is a standard for our society. Materialism and wealth are put at the center. Technology has become so omnipresent that without machinery at our disposal we can do little. Money is what makes everything work together.

Something that looks good on the outside is also good to eat is a phrase from the past. What we can't see, the tendency is not to want to see: life, dignity, respect, love,  faith, truth,  justice, friendship, sharing, authenticity, purity, and the like. 

He concludes his article with a meditation on the words of the fox to the prince at the end of the fable. The fox gave the prince a very simple secret to remember: "you are only able to see correctly with the heart, what is essential is invisible to the eyes."  The prince not wanting to forget what he heard repeated to himself: "What is important you do not see with the eyes."

"Like a Ship Battered by Wind"

A professor emeritus, a man active in diocesan work writes in the Catholic Times on the high waves buffeting the ship of state and the society in which we live.

Comparing our times to persons on a battered ship is a good analogy for the times. In Korea the captain seemed to have turned over the ship to a personal friend; the passengers, hearing of the news, were overcome with anger and with candles in their hands, wanted the captain and supporters removed.

With the coming of the new year, we have the impeachment of the president, political turmoil, economic depression, fear of earthquakes, nuclear fear from the North, US THAAD missile system placement in Korea, fear of what president Trump will mean for Korea, and the population problem.

In the coming year, the number of those over 65 years of age will be larger than those under 14. The professor emeritus says this is not seen as a problem by many. He quotes a population expert who says that on the Richter scale this would be an equivalent reading of 9.0: a catastrophe in economics, politics, and society.

This aging population and drop in the birth rate will not only impact society but also the Church: schools will close, people fired, jobs harder to find,  production and consumption in the country restricted.

The Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs has reported that 8 out of 10 students from 14 to 18 years of age do not think we have a just society. Collusion between Business and Government, corruption, and conflict between management and workers will continue to increase.

Choi Soon-sil Gate is far from settled. Her daughter entered a prestigious college and was later expelled because of allegations she received special treatment. Incidents of this type give credence to an unjust society. One questionnaire that was mentioned showed that half of the respondents do not see the children bettering their lives in our present society. This makes a desire for a family all the more difficult for the young.

He concludes the article by lamenting the blind spot many of the Catholics have on matters of justice and peace. We have on many different occasion received  communications from the Bishops, heard parish sermons but the parishioners have little interest.   More lamentable, however, we hear talks on justice and peace and label it leftist and Communistic.  He hopes the new year will see a change  and find the Catholics as leaders in the movement for a better society.

Religious Census of Korea

Catholic News Now Here has an article on the publication of the recent government house census that was conducted in 2015. The number of those with some form of belief has diminished greatly from the past. This is similar to what is seen in other countries. Statistics show that in 2005 the number of believers was 52.9% of the population but in the latest census the number was 43.9%. The majority of Koreans have no formal association with any religion.

Catholics have in recent years seen more Catholics listed in the government census than the Church's own statistics but this year we have a big change and a shock. The number of Catholics has been reduced to 7.9 % of the population from 10.8% in 2005.

19.7% of the population belongs to Protestantism which is an increase from 2005  where it was 18.2%. Buddhism in 2005 was 22.8% and in 2015 decreased to 15.5%. The largest religious group are the Protestants and the total number of Christians would be 27.6 % of the population.

The method of making the census this time was different from the last. A priest member of the Bishop's pastoral research center is quoted as saying it was more accurate than the past. Not surprising that the numbers are lower than the registered Catholics in the country. Many of those baptized while in the military, he says, don't even remember being baptized and many don't even remember that they are Catholic but all these have parish registers and are counted as Catholics.

He feels that the last religious census of 2005 was not reliable. The Church has aged faster than the society at large. In the 2005 census when the homes were visited canvassers would be dealing with the elderly family members and he guesses, would inflate the number of Catholics.

Many may get the impression that Korea is an atheistic country with such a large number of no-religion but the no-religion in Korea are not like those in the West.  Shamanism is very much part of the culture. Korea has a very small number of those who call themselves Confucian but the culture has been strongly influenced by Confucianism. You have those who do not consider Confucianism a religion. Any census that attempts to determine the number of religious believers is always going to have problems.

We will no doubt have the atheists uniting in the future but Korea is still a very religious society with a strong feeling for the unseen and the spiritual. This will undoubtedly change since the whole world is at the fingertips of our young people.

The census shock was necessary for the Church to begin to look again at the work of evangelizing and the pastoral work of the Church.

Greeting the New year with Hope

We begin a new calendar year. A time for resolutions and for Christians the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. A good time to resolve to live in the manner that Mary showed us by listening to God's word in our hearts and consciences and living it in our daily lives.

We are made to be happy and for many of us the hope is not the reality. And yet that is what we need to expect and desire. God gives us the graces; we believe we are the temples of the Holy Spirit but fail to remember the meaning. Despite the many problems, sickness, the situation in which we find ourselves and the craziness that is all around, we are called to live with joy, a gift of the the Holy Spirit.

A Korea priest who spent some time in Lima, Peru, as a missioner writes in the Catholic Digest about his experience in living in a poor area of the city. On the day  before the New Year the people are busy making life-like dolls for the New Year.

This is the summer season and you hear the words from open doors: 'bring more clothes' as they prepare to make dolls out of old clothing. if you ask what are they dong, they will answer preparing to burn the old year.

At midnight they shoot off fireworks and burn the dolls which symbolize all that was negative in the past year: the bad things, the sins, all that made for unhappiness they burn and hope for a different and joyful new year.

He reminds himself, now back in Korea, how in the pastoral work he uses his own yard stick to determine what is right and wrong with often clumsy results and fails to acknowledge the problems which follow from this.

He remembers the Peruvians and their dolls and wants to begin the New Year with the burning of all that was bad: the wrong judgments, improper emotions and begin a completely new year.

"God does not tire of being merciful and forgiving us." These words of Pope Francis begin to resonate with him. He concludes the article by hoping to live like a person who has  been forgiven. To meet every person as if coming for the first time, meeting all as if he has never been hurt, and see all occasions and persons with hope. Isn't this a way of living with joy in our hearts? Happy New Year!

Living alone

Recently we hear besides 'Well-Being' the phrase 'Well Dying' but the fear expressed by an article in the Catholic Times is that these phrases may be used actually in opposition to what we hold as Catholics especially the phrase 'Well Dying'. One can easily understand this as a euphemism for assisted suicide.

Words can be made to say whatever the speaker wants them to say. When life becomes cumbersome and the person's quality of life is no longer seen as of value many feel it's common sense to end it. We are not obligated to take extraordinary means to prolong life unless one chooses to do so but life always has value and ordinary means to sustain life are necessary.

Gravely ill patients without hope of recovery will be allowed to die by choice or with the consent of a family member is a law in Korea that will take effect in 2018. This, of course, will easily be used in ways that were not intended and we will have the acceptance of assisted suicide. The well dying law does not legalize assisted suicide but only the rejection of life-sustaining treatments when there is no hope of recovery. 

However, sadly, there are many who for one reason or another are living alone and die alone only to have their bodies discovered many days after death. Here we have a failure on the part of society to concern itself on the dignity of life for all its members.

According to Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2015 those who died alone numbered 1,245. This number is gradually increasing. Half of them had no family. Nuclear families and one person families is a reason for this situation and a problem that society needs to face. One person families continue to increase which means the problem will remain.This problem is not the same as the 'well dying' issue except in that we have a devaluation of life and this is shown when we have persons dying alone and the bodies discovered later.

Since society is getting older we will have more people living alone. Not that it is limited to the old but we do have an increase of those living alone and the possibility of dying alone. In one of the centers concerned with the elderly, their studies show that over 1/4 of the old people living alone have no contact with society.

The words 'death alone' and 'death from unconcern' will continue to increase. This was the topic of an article wishing to get the church and society involved in searching out those living alone and find time to share feelings with them. The breakdown of solidarity and rampant individualism in society needs to be addressed by those with faith.

Survey Results Difficult to Believe

In a  survey of high school students, 56 out of 100 said: if they could make a million dollars they would be prepared to do something they shouldn't and spend a year in jail.The HungSaDan Transparency Movement published these results in 2015.

A diocesan priest writes about the survey in a bulletin for priests and says he didn't want to believe what was reported but after studying the issue he determined that the procedure and organization were worthy of credence.

56% of high school students were willing to go to prison for a year for a million dollars, 39% of middle school students and 17% of elementary school. The older the student the more attractive was the money. 

In 2013 they asked the same question. At that time 47% of high school students, 33% of middle and 16% of elementary students saw no problem. In 2012 the same questions: high school 44%, middle school 28% and elementary 12%. The older the student and more recent the survey-- the attraction for money increased.

What would be the results if adults were asked the same question?  Would the results be better than those shown by the students? Another question was included: regardless of the difficulties of my neighbor I need to take care of myself. 45% of high school,30 % of middle school and 19 % of elementary school agreed.

The director of the survey said  the results show we  have a distortion of the capitalist system: the coldness of materialism and individualism, the movement towards competition and success  all at the expense of honesty. 

Can we blame the children for this situation? Children are the mirror of the adult world and this is what they have experienced. Money is needed if we want to be treated as human beings. Without money, we will be treated like dogs and pigs.

With the candle processions in the big cities, we see a clearing of the skies. The crowds want to see a new beginning. Respect for all no matter where they are in society and not to center all our hope on money and power. We have made a world in which young children enter and become infected with our ways of doing things. We need more candles burning for a  better world.

The Art and Skill of Communication

Communication is both an art and a skill. Our life is made difficult because of failure to communicate. We don't always have the results we want but without conversation we have estrangement.

Communication means we say what we mean and the hearer understand what we say, with the meaning we give the words, which is not always the case. We have different experiences, our words have different nuances and at times who we are speaks louder than what we say.

Writing in the Catholic Times the chairperson of the Saeurinuri Peace Corp introduces the readers to the importance of dialogue to overcome conflict. She calls it the foundation for change.

Korea has been divided for over 70 years. Both the North and South have lost much because of the division. The difference in ideology and systems has given birth to hostility and misunderstanding and has built a high wall against reconciliation and unity. However, this is not only between the North and South but also among ourselves here in the South. This appears in politics and among the citizens: lack of trust and the chaos within society.

When we have the same ideals there is little difficulty in accepting the other, however, when the point of view is different we often quickly decide it's wrong and from our years of living with this understanding, we are quick to see an enemy. The effort and desire to understand and communicate are missing.

A Korean proverb often heard: "with the right kind of words we can repay a large debt." Meaning that with dialogue we are able to bring about a new relationship. With communication we can cause problems but also solve them.

We need to have an open mind and heart.  Conversation is the foundation of relationships. Communication with those we are close and those with whom we are alienated requires conversation. Whether it's a subject we agree on or have a difference of opinion-- talking is required.

However, when we don't have the necessary skills communities suffer. Some don't know how to begin a conversation and maintain the conversation. This is a reality we often see. We know the usefulness of communication. It's a precious treasure that allows us to avoid conflict and maintain peace. Something greatly needed in society.