The Korean 'Ki' and Religion

Over the years I have heard the word 'Ki' or 'Chi' used in many different ways and have no intention in trying to explain what the Koreans would understand by the word. I do believe there is a difference in the understanding of this concept by China and Japan distinct in certain aspects from the Korean.

When a person is sick many feel that the 'Ki' is blocked so the attempt is to get it to flow again. You have all kinds of methods to do this: acupuncture , finger pressure, deep breathing, selective eating, the marital arts and other ways. Something is jammed and you try to get it unloosed.

'Ki', is defined as energy, spirit, vigor, vitality, stamina, will-power. Some of the words that begin with 'Ki' would be: back bone, guts, elation, mettle, windpipe, balloon, air, breathtakingly, temper, soul, sentiment, appearance. When someone has a tightness in the chest, feeling of nausea, difficulty in digesting food then the thought comes that the 'Ki' is not flowing correctly and something has to be done. The Chinese Character for 'Ki' has the rice plant covered by the steam that comes from a pot of rice being prepared.


This whole area of 'Ki' can take the aspect of religion and it does so often in Korea. Many years ago one of the bishops sent a memorandum to all the clergy in the diocese warning about the ambiguity and danger of the 'Ki' culture. He mentioned the need for discernment: "When 'Ki' formation touches the religious realm going beyond its dimension which is health promotion, it becomes dangerous." ...If they insist that people can reach salvation by themselves, this is a serious mistake because salvation cannot be obtained by any human efforts or techniques, it (can) only be achieved by God."

"Priests and religious who have contact with 'Ki' culture believing that it helps them for meditation or health, should act with discernment recalling that their attitude can bring confusion to the Christian life."

We have in Korea the 'well being movement' the 'culture of self-cultivation', which at times are part of the 'Ki' culture. In the States we would see much of this as the alternative medicine movement: often a very healthy alternative to the main stream medical approach. In Korea these movements do enter often the domain of religion and nationalism.

The Western concept of religion is much narrower than the Korean and following our criterion the whole area need not be seen as religion but many of those in the Church do see the overlapping and are concerned.

A professor who teaches social sciences at Korea University and is an expert in the area said: "Its members believe that 'Ki' is the ultimate principle and nature of the universe." Explaining why Catholics may be attracted to this 'Ki' culture he said: "As a liturgy-centered religion, the Catholic Church does not satisfy the spiritual desire of the faithful to experience God: this is why many Catholics want to be compensated by 'Ki' culture.

We have no idea how many Catholics are moving over to the 'Ki' culture but it would seem some are dabbling with the movement not realizing that it has anything to do with their religious beliefs. They are searching for something that they have not found in their Catholicism.

The professor concluded that "the Church should listen to what her members say and desire. With its 2,000 years of history and tradition, I believe that Christianity has many means to respond to the spiritual needs of the faithful. For instance the various spiritual programs of contemplation and meditation of religious institutes and contemplative communities can be shared with the lay faithful."

A Help in Sermon Preparation in Korea

Preparing a sermon is a very important part of a priest's work and a very rewarding part, but not infrequently the sermons fail to make contact with the congregation. One of the criticisms is that they are not addressing the problems that the Christians are having at that particular time and place. We are talking to ourselves and of little help to our Catholics.


This is a position that many of us find ourselves in and it is not an easy fix. To ask a representative group of the parish to preview the sermon and give their suggestions is certainly a very beautiful idea but not many of us would have the leisure of mind and humility for such a confrontation every week. It certainly would be a help if one were prepared for such an approach to sermon preparation.


One priest who experienced frustration in preparing sermons that were not speaking to the congregation in their needs decided to do something about it. The Catholic Times has an article on a pastor in Seoul who did select a group to review his sermons. He has two two groups that monitor his sermons and help in their preparation, meeting with them every other week. He has found that it has helped a great deal in getting the attention of his congregation.


They meet on Saturday mornings and discuss the readings for the Mass on Sunday. The pastor started this monitoring two years ago and has found it very helpful. Besides the readings, they discuss the problems in every day living and many other assorted topics that can be fuel for the preparation of the sermon.


The opportunity of getting some interesting incidents from the life of the people that can mirror the difficulties the people are having, and have the readings reflect this, is always of interest to the people. Having a group of people immersed in the life of the society that will be a sounding board will be an important influence on what will be said on Sunday.


I do not think that this will catch on too quickly but it is an example of what can be done to improve the sermons. Priests do not have any great press on giving good sermons and anything that can help improve the efforts should be looked upon favorably.

Are Koreans Stingy in their Greetings?

Often we hear that Koreans are stingy in their greetings to one another, unless they are dealing with persons they know well. They are not as quick with their thanks as we are in the West.
In an article in the Korean newspaper the writer did critique his compatriots as slow in greeting people for the first time, such as taxi drivers, people at toll booths, in department stores and restaurants. He mentioned how free we are in the States to great those we meet, even if we don't know them with the
"Howdy" salutation. Koreans would not be as free and he feels it may be due to the formality of the culture.

Koreans are rather effusive he says to an extreme with those they know or want to please and quite the opposite to those they are not on familiar terms. Many years ago I entered a small store and was never even greeted by the owner, even though I was the only one in the store. Things have changed a great deal, the marketing world has made it clear what is necessary to stay in business. "A man without a smiling face must not open a shop" says an old Chinese proverb, understood by all these days. The customer is king.

Many years ago one of my fellow priests gave his altar boys a jacket for Christmas and not a word of thanks from any of them. He found this very hard to understand and mentioned it to the Korean Sister. She told him, "Father, the boys from the day you gave them the jacket they have been wearing it and if you could have looked into their eyes you would have know how thankful they were." The Koreans are not as quick with the words 'thank you' as we would be but they have their own way of thanking and sometimes we miss it.

Koreans often thank you with a gift; more often in this culture than in our American one. The Korean culture does influence them much more than the American culture does us. Their culture is the same for all, we in America have a multiplicity of cultures that have influenced us, giving us much more freedom than the Koreans have.

The writer mentioned that all those who come to Korea and study the language learn very quickly three Korean words: 'hello', 'thank you' and 'I am sorry'. He would like all his compatriots to learn to use these same words. The more we use them the more those who hear them will give answer and we will see change.

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Just to keep you informed on trips to North Korea.

The North Korea Ministries of Foreign Affaires and Public Health have fixed the dates for the two Humanitarian Aid trips to North Korea.

1. November 11 – 14, 2009

2. November 23 – December 8, 2009

The first trip is a U.S. Aid Project for 3 General Hospitals in South Pyong An Province. The Generator Project is designed to insure local hospitals an adequate supply of electricity for critical care sectors such as surgery, diagnostics and lab work.

The second trip is to bring medical supplies for T.B. drug resistant patients and medical equipment for 20 People’s Hospitals in North and South Pyong An Provinces also Nampo City which is the port city for Pyong Yang. The multi-drug resistant tuberculosis medications have given much hope that even difficult cases of tuberculosis can be cured. As a result, chronic tuberculosis patients are beginning to seek out Care Centers where we collect specimens to test for MDR TB.

Asking for a remembrance in your prayers.

Jerry Hammond

Catholic Korean Church's Labor Position

Last week the Korean Catholic Church had a group discussion sponsored by the Bishops' Justice and Peace Committee on temporary workers in the labor force. One of the participants a Columban Father with many years experience in labor work, said that the role of the Church in finances and labor is important and arises from the moral law of the human person.


He goes on to mention that the Church from 1960 to 1980 was involved in these societal problems. But in recent years the Church has entrusted this work to the labor unions and other groups in Society and seems to feel uncomfortable in getting involved.


The Church is now part of the business world in competition with others with hospitals and colleges . The Church's influence in society has increased and labor problems have become more difficult and complicated. When the Church starts talking about the Church's teaching on temporary labor and shows solidarity with labor there is not only a conflict with the government but with persons within the Church who have power and influence. But despite these facts the Bishops' Committee in 2008 did give us a statement on temporary workers. In the following we have a summary of the teaching:


1) When we discriminate in the treatment of the regular and temporary worker, we are not following the Church's teaching.


2) When there is a difference in the pay for the regular and temporary worker doing the same work, even if this is legal it is not just.


3) All the material wealth is for all and when the businesses create new jobs the companies have the duty to use the wealth they have.


4) The Government has to get involved when it is for the common good.


5) The Church should not only be concerned about the migrant workers but also the nation's workers and should get involved in the pastoral care of the workers, especially the temporary workers.


6) The Church's actions in this area should speak louder than the words. The Church in all its institutions and with all its workers should work for the improvement of their condition.

10 years of Ecumenical Cooperation

Back in the beginning of the 70s, in the country area in which I was a pastor the ecumenical relationship with the Protestants seemed very healthy. We got together on the big feast days of Easter and Christmas for some type of ecumenical service. We would parade together singing hymns, carols, and meet in some school yard for a joint service. The relationship with the Protestant Pastor was friendly, we would meet occasionally and I recall him talking to our Catholics and I to his congregation. This changed when I went to the city for pastoral work.

The Peace Newspaper had an editorial with the happy news that the Buddhists , Protestants and Catholics in an area of Seoul have been getting together for the last 10 years sponsoring a Bazaar to help children with incurable diseases.

In Korea we do not have the strife between religions that we often seen in other countries. This is a great blessing. On the "Day of Buddha's Coming" we often see congratulatory messages at entrance to Churches and the same at the temples of Buddhist on our big feast days. Each one showing respect for the other.

However, getting together with other religious groups to sponsor a bazaar is going another step and this has been going on for 10 years. There are three communities getting together and it seems this may be spreading to other areas of the city and the country.

The group has helped 159 children to deal with their diseases and given hope to some for a cure. Over the years they raised close to half a million dollars. The hope is that this will continue to spread and break down some of the walls between different groups in Korean Society.

Korean Anglican Reply to Rome's Initiative

Checking some of the blogs here in Korea to see the response to the recent proposal from Rome was an interesting experience. An Anglican Priest in Seoul had a very fair an honest appraisal of what it will mean to the Anglicans in Korea. I have sumarized some of the points he makes in the paragraphs below.

He feels that a great deal of the problem is that the Church of England has been stalling in their response to woman priests and bishops, which brought this whole thing to a head. Anglicanism in Hong Kong has had women priests from 1944 and the Church has still not made an official decision.

It is true that many Anglican clergymen move over to Catholicism but there are many more Catholic Priests going over to Anglicanism because of celibacy and the whole idea of woman priests which they favor; many Catholic woman have entered Anglicanism precisely because of Catholicism's stand on woman priests.

This proposal from Rome has been in the works for a long time. TAC (Traditional Anglican Communion) have been asking Rome for many years to be accepted. The head of the TAC who was a Catholic Priest became Anglican and is now leaving for Rome: Archbishop John Hepworth, the twice-married and divorced Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, what will be his future ?

The Anglican Priest makes very clear that this is not something new in Catholicism but there is a history of this way of dealing with other religious groups. This happened with the Eastern Churches that wanted to enter Roman Catholicism. There are groups who follow the Anglican Rite and have accepted Catholic teaching,who are following the Anglican Use Rite in their parishes.

The Anglican Church in England is the Established Church; the only one in the whole world that has that relationship with the country it is in. The Church in England has tried to be the Church of all the citizens and this has been one of the problems: lack of any identity.

This Roman initiative is in a way good coming out of evil. Those who have been dissenting about woman priests, bishops and homosexual marriages will now have the chance to leave and that should enable the Anglican Community throughout the world to go on with its way.

"We should not try to hold on to those that are leaving . It is sad to see them go. We have been scarred but they are doing what they think they should and we can go on doing what we think we should. We are thankful that they have found a home in the bosom of Catholicism."

He finishes the blog with a statement in which he says Anglicanism is clearly a gift of God. Anglicanism has accepted women priests and acknowledges homosexual marriages. The Anglican Church should continue doing things in the Anglican way, have respect and patience for other ways of seeing things; this is the message given to other religious groups with their traditional ways of looking at things This is the Anglican way.

He finishes saying this is his own private opinion and is open to any corrections. I thought it was a very fair appraisal, looked at from an Anglican perspective. It is hard for me to understand the reasoning behind all of this and that is precisely why I am a Catholic and he remains an Anglican.

The Cross is the Center of Our Faith

The Cross has been a very important symbol to Catholics from the earliest centuries. It is a sign of God's love and the paradox of life: the instrument used in capital punishment for the worst criminals in Roman society, sign of humiliation and ignominy becomes for us a sign of love and glory.

We sign ourselves with the sign of the cross before prayer, it makes known to us that we belong to Jesus, it reminds us of our baptism where we are signed many times with the cross. There are some differences in the understanding of the cross according to the cultures but for the most part, a profession of faith and a prayer for blessing.

Tertulian who died in A.D.220, is quoted saying: " In all our actions, when we wash, at our meals, before sleep, we make on our forehead the Sign of the Cross.These practices are not commended to us by a formal law of Scripture, but tradition teaches them, custom confirms them, and faith observes them. "

In the Eastern Church they cross themselves from right to left, the way the Western Church did until the 14 th century when we in the West went from left to right. A very small matter but considered important at the time of the Schism.

One of the Korean Priests from Taegu, collects crosses from all over the world as a hobby and has a collection of over 340. The Catholic Times has a brief article on the exhibition he recently had in his parish, a display of about 200 hundred of the crosses that he has collected over his priestly life. They come from all parts of the world. He says: " in his priestly life the Cross is everything, a profession of faith, and his future. I feel that God has not given this interest that I have as some thing private but wants it to be used, so that many will relish the meaning of the cross."

The priest feels that the Eastern Church with its iconography has developed a deeper spiritually surrounding the Cross. The Protestant Churches as a rule do not have the figure of Jesus on the Cross but some words of Scripture which give another quite different meaning to the Cross.