A columnist in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives us a look into the situation of North Koreans living in the South.
Those born in North Korea who left for the South are called by many names. During the war years, they were called displaced persons or separated families. After the war: defectors from the North, North Korean compatriots, people of a new land, for administrative reasons they are called defectors from the North.
The latest statistics show over 30,000 defectors in the South. Before 1990 they counted about 10 defectors coming to the South during the year. After this date, the numbers increased. In 1999 about 100 entered Korea each year. 3 years later this increased to over 1000 and in 2006 over 2000 entered the South. Before 1990 there were only 600 in the South which is an indication that something had changed in the North after 1990.
During the middle of the 1990s many died of starvation and the reason many left the North. In the new century the economy improved greatly but the defections continued to increase which shows it was not only the economy that was prompting the movement to the South. Many wanted to rejoin their families, a better life and to help those in the North.
At different times and for varied reasons many made the difficult trip to the South. They live in cities, living in rented apartments supplied by the government, helped by the government to find jobs and trained. They hesitate to divulge with confidence that they are from the North because of the fear of discrimination and prejudice and wanting to avoid the pain from shunning. [possibly the fear of officials' prying may be a problem for some]
Instead of being welcomed warmly in the workplace and in schools there is a distancing and ignoring of them. The spirit that was present when there were 20,000 is still present with 30,000. The numbers of those who have dropped out of school have decreased but relations with others is far from warm.
The fear of hunger no longer exists but the hunger for human friendship is still present. The government has shown interest in helping make the transition. They continue to improve the treatment in welcoming the displaced persons and accepting them as brothers and sister in the workplace and schools.
If we are to achieve unification there is a need to keep in mind North Koreans who are in the South and to treat them as family. They need to be integrated, feel at home and able to communicate with others as members of the same united family.
Today is the Asian's New Year all the other celebrations were a preparation for the Lunar New Year. A time to wish blessings on those we meet. The Chinese character for blessings in Chinese restaurants often is seen upside down. Christians see the blessings coming from heaven from God who desires our happiness. God's nature is goodness, truthfulness and all that is beautiful and wants us to participate in these attributes.
A retired seminary professor writes in the Kyeongyang magazine on what true happiness means for him from his studies. In the Scriptures, the search for happiness has many different paths. Jesus is the teacher extraordinaire showing us the way. Many of the Fathers of the Church saw the Beatitudes as its promulgation.
St. Cyprian showed us the difference between the true happiness and the counterfeit: the happiness of the world. Lactantius mentions that happiness doesn't come from the pleasures of the body or earthly pleasures. Bishop Basil mentions that happiness does not come from health, material goods or our place in society. St. Ambrose mentions a good conscience brings happiness.
St.Augustine distinguishes between happiness and unhappiness. The happiness of those who are evil and the devout. He gives the example of a person who went to heaven and found the angels packaging gifts of blessing for people on earth. They were wrapping the gifts with adversity. He asked the reason and was told so not as to damage or diminish the value of the gift of blessings, However, many see the wrappings and miss the happiness.
The delight that comes from sin is of no use. Leo the pope said that those who delight in evil will miss the joy that comes from God.
"Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night." ( Ps. 1:1-2)
Happy is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. Happy the man to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile" (Ps. 32:1-2).
"Happy the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding! For her profit is better than profit in silver, and better than gold is her revenue" (Proverbs 3: 13-14).
"In the New Testament we have a number of phrases: "Happy is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God: (Lk. 14:15). " The angel said to me: Write this down: Happy are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb" (Rev. 18:9).
Happiness that God has prepared for us is for the poor in spirit, the sorrowing, the humble, those who are thirsting and hungry for justice, the merciful the pure of heart and the builders of peace and those who suffer for justice. (Matt. 5:3-10). These are those who imitating God, participate in God's attributes of goodness, truth, and beauty.
May the New Year be filled with this happiness, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and may we be filled with gratitude for such a priceless gift.
Why did Christianity divide? An article in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives the readers a brief summary of the two large divisions in Christianity. The first was the East West Division in 1054 and the second the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
In the West, the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD with the Germanic tribes and the sack of Rome. The Eastern Roman Empire which was centered in Constantinople now Istanbul in Turkey continued for another thousand years even after the fall of the Western Empire. In the East, Emperor Justinius continued as Emperor and as head of the Church in the Byzantine Empire.
Here we can find the seeds for the division that came in 1054. The West used Latin while the East used Greek. The iconoclasm of this period and criticisms of the Church of Rome moved the pope to excommunicate the Patriarch of the Byzantine Empire, Michael Cerularius. The East denied the primacy of the Pope and the infallibility of the Church and called the Pope the king of heretics. In 1204 we had the fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople which made the break complete.
The Eastern Empire continued using their own liturgy and language and in 1453 the city fell to the Ottoman Empire and the Orthodox moved to Russia. They called themselves Orthodox for having kept the correct development of belief from the time of Christ. Greece, Romania, Albania and the other Orthodox countries are independent autonomous churches.
460 years later in 1517, we have the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The protest against the Catholicism of that time. Luther and Calvin and others began the break from Roman Catholicism. Divisions continued among themselves. A few years later we had the break from Rome with the Anglican Church and Henry VIII as the head of a new church.
The teachings of Orthodoxy have the same 7 Sacraments, the veneration of the Saints, the bishop, priest, and deacon hierarchical order as the Roman Church. Priests are allowed to marry. They use the Julian Calendar instead of the Gregorian Calendar which means they have different days for the Feasts of Easter and Christmas.
Protestants have difficulty with the respect shown to Mary, the Sacramental system, teaching on Purgatory, and stress only the Scriptures. Anglicans are in many ways similar to Catholics and their priests are allowed to marry, however, they follow the Protestants in accepting only 39 books of the Old Testament.
There is a desire to find unity among many of the Christians. After the Second Vatican Council, there was a strong movement to find unity with the Orthodox. In 1965 the Holy See and the Ecumenical Patriarchate Athenagoras of Constantinople withdrew the excommunications that were made at the Great Schism of 1054.
St. John Paul II made efforts to increase the contact with the Orthodox. In 1978 each year on the feast of St Andrew, representatives of the two churches meet for talks. The desire for the unity of Christianity is a wish of Jesus which all accept but the desire will need encounter and dialogue, efforts to rid ourselves of prejudices, discrimination, and a large dose of humility to acknowledge where mistakes were made and continue to be made by all the different members of the body of Christ which we know is meant to be one.
Writing in View from the Ark of the Catholic Times a member of a
research center recalls passing a police station where, on a wall were
the words: "abnormality is made normal." This reminded him of a slogan
back in the 80s, "let us make a just society," and responded with a wry
smile.
On the news that evening a politician from the past, far from an
example of integrity, commented on the bleak situation of our politics:
the pot calling the kettle black.
Citizens reacted with
weekend candle demonstrations in the streets of Seoul. They wanted a
change from the old ways of doing government. Investigations continue
which will help overcome the fear many have of the future.'Hell Chosen'
and the division of society expressed with the example of spoons: clay,
bronze, silver and gold spoons are the signs of this dissatisfaction.
Metaphoric language for the levels in society: lower class, working
class, middle class and upper class.
The weekly
demonstrations have removed the shell that all is well in society and
the citizens are moving towards hope from despair, from death to life,
they have become a Paschal procession but on Mondays, for many,
everything goes back to normal, fatigue and despair.
Kierkegaard
the Danish philosopher said we should proclaim the Gospel on Mondays
instead of Sundays. The Gospel is for weekdays. The welcoming and joy of
Sunday does not transfer to Monday and the weekday. The Gospel has to
be proclaimed in the reality of our daily lives. The writer continues with talk
about the many pseudo leaders we have in society and deplores what he
sees.
Pseudo is a word we often use to mean sham,
false, phony, artificial. Confucius had a great dislike for this sham
for it tarnished justice and faith, and virtue is harmed. In the
Christian Scriptures it was the Pharisees who distorted what was justice
and honesty. One of the prime examples in present society for many is the Sewol Ferry Tragedy, still shrouded in mystery.
In the time of Jesus
we had similar falseness that passed as truth. God made
the cosmos from chaos and Jesus asked us to prepare new wine bags for new wine. We need to pray for the wisdom to distinguish the false from the true a task that is far from easy.
Internet addiction is a disorder. We hear a lot about the implications of addiction and many are the studies and articles dealing with the problem. We can describe it as compulsive behavior which prevents one from living a normal life. We can see it with the use of smartphones and the way they are used in daily life, a dependency that dominates life. An article in the Catholic times gives us some information on the issue.
Adolescents using PC rooms, chatting, and gaming are more likely says a recent study by a professor at the Catholic Medical School and a research center to be addicted to smoking and drinking as adults.
(PCs are commercial gaming places where patrons play games for an hourly fee of 50 cents or more. It is a place of social contact for gamers, they may buy snacks and the hardware is more technically powerful than what they have in the home).
The team selected a group of 15-year-old teenagers, who didn't smoke or drink and revisited them 5 years later to analyze their habits of drinking and smoking. Use of the internet, place, time and reasons were studied to reach their results.
Those who often chatted, played games, watched adult sites, at 20 showed a connection to excessive drinking and those who used PC rooms were smokers. The team saw this not only as a Korean problem but a worldwide problem. They concluded that the young person's brain is not fully formed and the reason addiction has a greater influence on the brains of the young.
One person expressed the opinion that the frontal lobe of the brain is not fully formed and when exposed to material that is addictive the development is hampered and when they are adults the danger of addiction is greater. Excessive use of the internet will facilitate addiction.
The research team reached the conclusion: excessive use of the internet will delay the development of the brain and the danger of addiction will be greater as an adult.
Consequently from an early age a need is present to prevent addiction by education and programs for the young. There has been studies that have shown the correlation of use of the internet and addiction to smoking and drinking. These studies, however, have been fragmentary. This was a study of 4000 teenagers who after 5 years were again interviewed significantly showing a correlation between the use of the internet and future addictive behavior.
If parents wont allow the children to use the internet for gaming there will be resistance. They need to find other ways in which the young people can remove stress and entertain themselves. Instead of using PC rooms, they recommend, having the computer in the living room and the time to play games determined with the parents.
The Catholic Peace Weekly reminds the readers in its Peace Column
that the Second Vatican Council brought a big change after the Council
on its understanding of the laity within the Church. Before the Council,
laypersons came after the clergy and religious at the bottom of a
pyramid. The Church built a wall between the church and the world. The
Church was holy and the world was earthy and mundane.
The
church was divided between the teaching and receiving church. Clerics
were the teachers and the laity the students. One was active and the
other passive. The Council made an epoch change in this understanding.
We are all the people of God. We are all God's children and have the
same dignity. Some have expressed understanding after the Council as we
are the Church of the laity.
This understanding of
Church is not difficult for Koreans to understand. In the beginning
different from China and Japan where missioners came with the Gospel the
laity, in the beginning, were the leaders in the church. They had a
thirst for the truth that led them to study and embrace the teachings of
Jesus. They had little knowledge of the faith in the beginning even
taken the place of the priests in their religious rites as temporary
clerics until they were told that was not possible.
With
this new understanding, they worked hard to bring priests to Korea and
died in great numbers to keep their religious beliefs. Saying the Korean
Catholicism is a made up of laypeople is no exaggeration.
After
the Council, in 1968 The Catholic Lay Apostolate Council was formed to
inspire the work of the laity. Shortly after the Council Lay Sunday was
established and is presently celebrated the next to last Sunday of
Ordinary Time. The time was selected to remember the first baptized
Korean of those who began the study of Catholicism in the last years of
the 18th century.
Catholicism has grown and is a very
active and praised for the energy shown but the writer wonders how many
would say with confidence that we are a Church of laypeople. New year we
will have the 50th anniversary of the forming of the Lay Council of
Korea,
Having ceremonies and events to celebrate the anniversary is all for the good but
he would prefer to see the laypeople in the manner described by the
document of the Council become animated and become truly a Church of
lay people.
This year's Unity Octave from Jan. 18 to 25 is also the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Editorials and articles in both Catholic papers on the subject reminds us that it's different from the previous octaves.
Once every year Christians remember the prayer of our Lord at the Last Supper: "I pray that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me" (John 17:21). We come together to pray for unity. The Roman Catholic Church at the Reformation suffered a division and the scars have never healed. Whatever the reasons that brought the division, today we look forward to a reuniting.
One of the papers has a discussion on the subject between two theologians, a Catholic and Anglican. More than concentrating on what divides us they want to focus on the joy of following Jesus and we will come to an understanding of much that separates us. The theme this year is Reconciliation: "The Love of Christ Compels Us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).
The disunity of Christians is a great obstacle in the work of evangelization. This year they will begin the 3rd Christian Unity Academy to help Christians better understand the different denominations and one of the editorials hopes many will attend the Academy.
One of the priests who is familiar with the workings of Ecumenism within Korean Catholicism laments the lack of interest in many parishes and among priests. He writes that many feel that it is useless and not necessary. Protestants are seen as heretics.
The Second Vatican Council in one of its documents recommends that in seminaries they have regular courses on Ecumenicism but of the seven diocesan seminaries only Inchon has a course of studies for the seminarians, a sign of the little interest the Church has in Ecumenism.
He mentions that the material for the Unity Octave will be sent to all the parishes but many pay no attention to the material. What is necessary is not arguing about who is right but rather to talk about the joy that Christ brings to us. We need to get close to the others who are Christians, to study with them, work with them, and to pray together. Talking to each other is the first stepping stone for progress to take place in achieving unity in Christ.
