This Korean Bishop not too Busy for a Friendly Visit

On April 25th, I was suddenly surprised by a telephone call from Bishop Yoo Heung Sik , the very busy director of the diocese of Daejeon S. Korea. “Hey, I’m coming down to visit you today,” he chuckled. I thought he was joking because I live in Busan several hours away by train, and he is a busy man.

My friendship with the bishop began when I was the pastor of a Busan City Parish. He came as a young seminarian for pastoral training during the summer and winter. Later he was sent to Rome for a doctoral degree in theology-and often wrote to say how things were going-often difficult as he had to tackle four new languages all at once: Italian, Greek, Hebrew and English. But he did just fine- came back to Korea to be head of the Catholic College and Seminary- and 15 years later was chosen the new bishop of Daejeon. Well, some how he got word that I had just returned to Korea after working 16 year in China.

So at 11am he knocked at my door along with 7 former “mutual friends"-bearing gifts of spirit and cakes- “Where shall we go for lunch” he said with a big embrace. Wow!

Justice- Too Late for Sung Hee

Sung Hee was a happy girl getting good marks in high school. In fact her teachers held her up as a model student. But after two years of outstanding study she developed a skin disease that was diagnosed as leprosy. This was 1943 when the Korean government segregated quickly all those with Hansen's Disease(leprosy). Once committed to the isolated island of So Rok Do in Cholla Nam Do , she was forcibly sterilized like all the other men and women there, marriage Yes, children No!

But this is 2009. The Korean Government has finally yielded to the long protests of these people treated so unjustly. On April 20th, the Korean Prime Minister, Han Sung Soo, in a formal session with a Special Commission and in the presence of 150 H.D. people, issued a solemn apology for all past injustices- also with a plan for financial compensation.

However good... too late for Sung Hee. Her right to family life, given to her by God, had been tragically violated. How could any words or money ever compensate?
But she remarked: "It's all hard to forget, but I am a Person of Faith, a Christian,... I must forgive!"

Preparations for the 50th Anniversary of Incheon Diocese

The Incheon Diocese will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of it establishment in 2011. It will
be the same year that Maryknoll will be celebrating the 100th. The organization behind the celebration is being done in a Korean manner, extremely thorough in every way.

The motto will be "New Pentecost 2011"

In remembrance of our 50 years we plan:

[1] Development of the Diocese and the spiritual growth of priests.

[2] Renewal of our Faith and evangelization.

[3] Share loving life

[4] To build a 50th commemorative Church and center for spirituality.

[5] Development of our pilgrimage sites and compilation of our 50 year history.


There will be a Road Map for the 3 years:

[1] 2009 Renewal year

[2] 2010 Year of growth

[3] 2011 Year of thanks

The Prayer for the 50th ( a very free translation)

God the Father who has sent Jesus for the salvation of all human kind,
with unlimited mercy you enabled us to establish this diocese and with
the passing of the years daily to nurture its growth we give you thanks.

As we are prepare for the 50 anniversary we look back over the years
"Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former" (Haggai 2,9)
Allow us to takes these words as a pillar of fire, a promise to serve as springboard for the future.

"Go to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1,8) you have given us a mission,
with the help of the Spirit we will make use of all our strength,
for the new evangelization , the evangelization of those who have left, and the
evangelization of our society. Help us to have visible results .

Let the diocese grow even more and may we be beginning a new spring.
Help us be an instrument in the evangelization of Asia and the whole of the world.
We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen

When the Diocese was established in June,1961 Bishop William J. McNaughton,M.M was the first bishop. The diocese was characterized as a mission area where the Gospel had not yet been proclaimed. As a result, there was a remarkable growth of the Church. At the time of the establishment of the diocese, there were only 9 parishes with a total number of 23,169 Catholics. The priests working in the diocese were all Maryknollers. Today there are 243 priests working in the diocese. There are 111 parishes and 35 mission stations and not one Maryknoller left working in a parish. That is progress and we pray that there will be more of the same in the years to come.







An E-mail from Mexico


One of the priests of the diocese is now in Mexico taking care of the pastoral needs of Koreans residing in Mexico. He sent all of us an e-mail which I will put into English.

"Hello everybody.I am sorry that I am again sending you an e-mail.
Since you are hearing news about Mexico I am unhesitatingly sending you
another e-mail. The news you are hearing is the reality of the situation.
The city I am in is the center of the swine virus epidemic.

The results are: The schools are all closed.
Daily Mass and Sunday Mass all forbidden. Replaced by a
broacasted Mass. This is an order from the Cardinal of Mexico City.
All meetings are forbidden
Masks can't be found, the government has supplied simple masks which are used (you can't buy masks and I am looking around for them)

All events canceled.
All selling along the roads forbidden.
All the taverns and eating places closed.
Business in the markets are recommended to stop.

However, I am in good health. No need to worry. I am also participating in the fast. I give thanks to God's providence for presenting me with this road to maturity. I ask for your prayers and will be with you in my prayers."

Naju Is Still In The News

In the May issue of the Kyunghyang Catholic Magazine there is an article about "the Blessed Mother's Mountain" of Naju. Julia Youn the visionary behind Naju says that she has experienced messages and many supernatural phenomena but the Diocese of Kwangju has made it very clear, after a prolonged study, that there is nothing supernatural on what has taken place in Naju. Below is what the diocese has stated and reported in the The Catholic Bishops' Conference news report.

Archbishop Youn declared, "Various strange phenomena which happened to Mrs. Julia Youn …… produce no evidence which prove that they are truly supernatural [non constat de supernaturalitate] ……."

"The Archdiocese of Kwangju strongly urged the faithful not to follow the members of the group, who try to do damage to the relationships between the Apostolic See and the CBCK, as well as the Archdiocese of Kwangju. The Archdiocese also admonished those who promoted the so-called 'Julia Youn and the related phenomena', to stop disturbing the proper faith of the faithful and agitating their false hope."

This past Christmas there were about 200 people present for a Mass at the Naju center. The article mentions how sad it is that some Catholics feel a need to take their personal opinions and spread them even though the diocese and the bishop have stated that they should desist doing so. The article ends with a quote from 1 Cor. "God is not a God of confusion, but of peace."

A Very Profitable Emmaus Day

Four of us Maryknollers went to Cheongju yesterday for our monthly Emmaus Day. It is a time to be with each other in prayer and fellowship in the presence of Jesus. Chapter 24 of Luke has the incident where unknowingly two disciples were accompanied by Jesus on there way to Emmaus. The origin of the name comes from this incident. .

The day begins with prayer, we then take turns sharing what we have done for the past month and after the meal we spend time talking about an article that was given to us to reflect on before the Emmaus Day.

We usually meet at the Seoul House but yesterday we went to the Peace and Joy Center in Nai Su where one of the Maryknollers is working with the severely mentally handicapped. He has four young men who attend the center each day and there are two teachers who take care of the daily program.The young men spend time with the teachers in different projects that help adapt them to life at home and in society. They eat together and then take a walk. They come together again for another learning session, and around 4:30 they return to their homes.

You have three persons involved with the care and education of these four young men. If one wants to see love in action I can't think of a better object lesson. You are not going to get any thanks for the effort and you are not going to see great results. But you do see the value of each person and his dignity before God, in a very concrete way. I am certain that all those who spend time watching the transaction between teachers and the mentally disabled can't help but be moved.

After spending about an hour at the center we went to the Maryknoller's apartment for the sharing but the time spend at the center, short as it was , for me was the most important part of the Emmaus Day.

Migrants in Korea (World Day for Migrants)

On the 26th of April the Catholic Church in Korea is celebrating the 95th World Day for Migrants. There are over 1 million foreigners living in the country. Of that number there are many who have entered into marriage with Koreans. Some are happy but some are faced with many problems. Both Catholic papers had editorials on the migrants this past week.

The migrants in Korea especially those that come from poorer countries and are workers are still finding it difficult. The head of the Bishop’s committee on immigration said there has been improvement but still they are not treated equally. The problems are not just limited to the individual but to the families and the children of these families.

The percentage of marriages of those living in farming areas with foreigners will increase. At present one of ten marriages in Korea are international marriages. On the bus that I take to return to my mission station you have advertisements for foreign brides. The price is listed and all is taken care of by the brokers. The young Korean girls, for the most part, are not interested in spending their life on the farm.

The Catholic Paper had for its lead article the problem of divorce in the migrant woman’s life. When the marriage breaks up they have no place to turn. Since many of the migrant workers come from the Philippines and are Catholic, it is a most pressing problem for the Church. The number of divorces is on the rise. It is not easy to adapt to the Korean Culture. The stress of living in Korea, the need to support the family take a toll on these frail marriages. There is a lot of depression, stress and many woman end up in the world of prostitution. There are also problems with the children of these unions for must of them fail to learn the language well and at times remain outside the culture. The Church sees the need, and although it has been active in this area for sometime, there is more effort and interest necessary in alleviating the many problems that face the whole society.

THOSE YOU KNOW AND DON'T KNOW

A professor at a university in Seoul wrote in our Diocesan bulletin that recently he was giving out leaflets at the entrance to a subway station in Seoul. It was busy with people going to work and he wondered why they all seemed to have a rigid look about them. He would smile at them, giving out the leaflets, and greet them but they would remain with their very stiff facial expression. It was rare he said to find anyone with a kind and gentle expression. Nobody is planning to harm them or threaten them he thought, so why the somber facial looks? He quoted a foreigner as saying all the Koreans look as if they are angry. He agreed with this assessment.

He mentioned that the Japanese, the Americans and other foreigners do smile and look you in the eye and greet you with a short greeting such as “Hi” and the like but with Koreans that is not the case. I am not sure that his evaluation of the situation of the Koreans was correct and so different from the rest of the world . He did go on to say the reason for this is the education that they are given as children.. Koreans are told to be kind to people they know but people you do not know you don't act as if you know them. Consequently when those we do not know smile at us, according to our culture he said we tend to misunderstand it and it causes anxiety. “Is that person kindly disposed to me? “Does that person know me from somewhere?” We are left with a feeling of anxiety.

For the Korean it seems that they are much more at peace when they do not greet the ones they do not know for there is no anxiety. He concludes the article that we should not have a double standard for those we know and those we don’t . He mentioned that in another culture a refined person would even be gentle and kind to the person who he or she had divorced. He concluded that we are still discriminating between those we know and those we don’t and he feels this should change.

I read the article with a feeling that I as an American am not much different from the Koreans. I also have a double standard and would not find it easy to treat those I know and those I do not in the same way. I would like to be less self-conscious but I would not find it easy to smile and greet those I passed on the street. Would that not be considered strange? That possibility he did not mention.