A Cyberspace Visit to Maryknoll

The Maryknollers here in Korea are part of the Asia Region which is one of the outreaches of the Society. The Society has a website which explains in a attractive format the work we are doing in many parts of the world.Those interested can go to:
the website of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers enabling you to tour the site and see what we are all about.

"Koreans Spend 8 Hours Per Day Online"

A reporter from the Korean Times reported that the average Korean
"spends more than half of his or her active hours logged on to the Internet or using mobile digital devices."

"In a survey of 516 adults, the state-run Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) found that Koreans spend an average of eight hours and 20 minutes per day online, either through computers or portable data devices such as mobile phones and laptops."

This is very difficult to imagine of the ordinary Korean. It is certainly not true of the farmers and the country folk. I suppose this was a survey made in Seoul.But whatever it be, it does speak very loudly of the change that has come over South Korea in a very short time.

A Meaning for Virtue

In the previous post we mentioned how the word virtue is disappearing from its very prominent place it had in the past. The character for virtue is one of my favorites and one that I have used many times in teaching. Years ago when starting to learn Korean I remember a maxim that a General who is brave is less than one who has knowledge and one who has knowledge is less than one who has virtue. We who are Catholic certainly have no difficulty with this, although it is not part of our everyday thinking.

In the "symbol" itself the left side can be considered a person who is walking.That is the body, our external selves. The top right hand side can be taken to be a person who looks over what he is to do 10 times before acting. The cross is ten and the the image below that is a picture for the eye. This is the action of the head the mind. The bottom part is the image of the heart. A virtuous person is one that has the body, head and heart intergrated. A very meaningful ideogram and a powerful lesson.

Going from the Concrete to the Nebulous

In Korea placards, banners, posters can be seen everywhere. Years ago at the entrance to schools you often would see Knowledge, Virtue, and Body (Health). It was the wisdom from Confucian values that they were emphasizing. It was the Confucian holistic approach to learning: the head, heart and body. These days it has changed to: dream your dream, be part of the future and the like. The meaning is obscure but very appealing but no way as powerful and concrete as the old. We are less attracted to the here and now but rather to the vague and ambiguous. The very word virtue has almost completely disappeared. Could this also be an import from the West?

A Preposterous Understanding of Words

In Korea at present we have a debate on “death with dignity” and what it means. One of the bishops was upset, with the preposterous understanding of the natural death of Cardinal Kim. The Bishop's formal pronouncement a few days ago mentioned the way certain sections of the society have taken the recent death of Cardinal Stephen Kim as an example of “death with dignity” meaning assisted suicide. They are using his death as an example to push for legislation to approve of assisted suicide and euthanasia. The Bishop made very clear that The Cardinal’s death came from old age, a death he could no longer avert and he accepted with humility.

In Korea as in other parts of the world it is not surprising to see how words can be manipulated by the press and interested parties to make anything serve their particular purposes.

Comparisons Are Odious

I was just reading an article by a Korean Priest who had a very interesting take on a book he read on the happiness quotient of Koreans. He noted that a person who wins the gold medal is the happiest. You would think the one who won the silver would be the second happiest but it does not seem to follow. He is looking at the one who won the gold and is disappointed while the bronze winner is looking behind at all those that did not make it and is very happy.
In Korea this "gold medal stress syndrome" seems to apply to other areas also. The example was given of a person who is making 5 or 6 thousand dollars a month. If his salary is decreased for some reason he is disappointed as we all would be. The reason however for the disappointment comes because he looks at those who are making more than he is instead of seeing all those that are way behind in the wage scale. It is a good lesson that it does very little for our happiness to compare ourselves with others as our Lord made so clear on so many different occasions.

South Korea Church trains new priests for North

Jon Herskovitz and Kim Junghyun

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The Roman Catholic Church of South Korea has started training priests to serve in North Korea, a country criticized by the United States and others for stamping out religion, for the first time in about 40 years.

"It's not something North Korea wants us to do. We are doing this with an eye toward the future when the two Koreas unify," Monsignor Matthew Hwang In-kuk, the Episcopal vicar of the Pyongyang Diocese, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

Communist North Korea, which Church officials estimated had a Catholic community of about 55,000 just before the 1950-53 Korean War, does not allow priests to be permanently stationed in the country.

The five candidates began studies a few days ago for the priesthood, Monsignor Hwang said. The Church plans to recruit a new group each year.

It will take about 10 years to complete preparations and even then, they may not be allowed into the North.

Priests from the South do occasionally visit the hermit state, usually to accompany the delivery of aid or the start of a humanitarian project, and a visiting priest reportedly celebrated mass in Pyongyang when Pope John Paul II died.

There used to be about 20 priests in the Pyongyang diocese, which was incorporated into the Seoul diocese in 1970. The priests worked in the South but only seven of the group are still active, including Monsignor Hwang, who was born in Pyongyang in 1936 and fled North Korea during the Korean War at the age of 14.

"At the time when the Pyongyang diocese was incorporated into the Seoul diocese, it was a precondition for priests like myself to go back as soon as the two Koreas unify," he said.

The same applies to the five who just entered training for the priesthood, who are not been given any special preparation for serving in one of the world's most isolated states.