A New Diet For the Future

Writing in the Pastoral bulletin a priest  recalls his trip to Europe and a conversation with a Dutchwoman about observing the days of abstinence in the Church calendar. "Before God," she said, "we are all mature and able to judge and act correctly...." Her point being that when the Vatican tells those living under different cultural conditions to abstain from meat on Fridays, it is sometimes difficult to accept and to follow. The priest got the impression that, for many, tradition and the authority of the Church can not be compared in importance to their  personal convictions that carry the 'authority' of a heartfelt assent.

The interest in observing days of abstinence in Europe during his time there, he said, was almost completely missing. And even in Korea the concern for the days of abstinence is far from what it was in the past. Perhaps because the reason for these days of abstinence is not known in most of the Catholic world, some Catholics even buying expensive fish to eat as a consolation for giving up meat.  

However, in certain parts of the West there are those who are campaigning for Mondays as a day without meat. Here in Korea, with the onset of the foot and mouth disease, some are using the slogan: "Let us eat less meat and more vegetables."

There were about three and half million animals buried because of the foot and mouth disease, at a cost of 2.68 billion dollars. The main reason for the tragedy is the way we raise our animals, keeping them penned up in unsanitary, stressful conditions causing disease to spread quickly. Compounding the problem, the animals, natural grass eaters, are fed grains, waste food from restaurants, powdered bone meal, and the remains from slaughter houses. To fatten them for market, the animals are given growth hormones, and to keep them healthy while living in unhealthy living conditions, they are given medicine and antibiotics, often exceeding their use in other countries. Those who are familiar with this way of raising  our animals are losing their desire to eat meat.      

If we are to change the way we raise animals there has to be a change in the way we eat. The increase in meat consumption is twice what it was back 20 years ago. 40 percent of the meat we eat is imported, and this will increase in the years ahead because of the recent foot and mouth disease and because the production of food in Korea has decreased.

Along with less food being produced, there has been an increase in the amount of grains fed to animals, which is to be expected since it takes seven kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of meat. The more animals we raise the more likely the world's poor will face the prospects of starving.

If we are to make the growing and consumption of food more sustainable, we will have to change  to an environmentally friendly way of raising our animals. For a spiritually directed life, our writer says we have to reconsider our consumption of meat products and have a more abstemious lifestyle.

Being Your Own Worst Enemy

Recent  events in Korea have made bullying a newsworthy subject. It is a serious problem, says the columnist on spirituality for the Catholic Times, that can result in death or lead to mental problems.

Bullying can take place in every sector of society but is a serious problem especially for children, who have little in the way of defense.  The columnist introduces us to the word 'Seutta,' which in Korean means to shun oneself. It occurs when a person in a community or organization does something that  turns others against the person, a common occurrence in society.The persons usually don't realize there is a cloud of distrust hanging over the group because they are  present. They don't  partake in the community and make no effort to join.  And the community does not recognize them as members and the individuals usually don't know why.

The ones who are bringing this about  are for the most part  egotistic and narrow-minded. Although they say they love the community, they act in ways contrary to the good of the community.This also is the reason many  leave the  community.

The columnist agrees there are many ways to see the problem of those who are bullied and those who make themselves lonely by their actions.  He feels the root cause is a lack of trust, fearing others and the world.  They feel small and timid in the presence of others, and when they  compromise they feel  they lose something of themselves in the exchange. Not wanting to acknowledge the fear and uncomfortableness they feel within themselves, they tend to react with selfishness. In defending themselves they often form factions in an attempt to  sooth their loneliness, without realizing that what they think they will lose they actually gain by trusting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

It is said that trust is the unconditional acceptance received from another and returned in kind. Does that mean, the columnist asks, that when we do not receive it we are not able to give it? Trust that I give to another, the columnist believes, will return to me; it's a reciprocal gift.

Bullying and 'Seutta' are problems that arise, the columnist concludes,  when we do not trust others enough. This is a problem not only between individuals and groups  but also between countries. A healthy approach to the problem is to give the benefit of the doubt to the other until it is shown, after a sufficient period of time, that it was not merited.

High Expense Low Efficiency Educational System

Writing for the Catholic Times a professor reminds us that 80 percent of the students that graduate from high school in Korea go on to college. Over 2 million students are enrolled in college and 600,000 are studying abroad, and 25 percent of students are taking time off from school for one reason or another.

The financial burden on students is twice what it was 10 years ago. In other OECD countries, college expenses would be 1/10 of the families income while in Korea it is 1/3, which means that most families have to go into debt.

Back about 40 years ago families could sell their ox to send their children to college. After graduation, they would be able to pay back the money they borrowed, but that is no longer true. Now over 40 percent will find it difficult to find appropriate work after graduation, and of that number only 6 percent go on to graduate school.

90 percent of students who graduate have over a B grade, so it is not a  question of lack of ability. From the time they enter college they try to prepare for their future employment. The days of romantic dreaming, human rights issues, and student movements are no longer easily found on campus; the intense competition of our modern society has seeped into the campus.

With tuition costs going up, students know that about 40 percent of them will not be able to find work. This also affects the teachers who push ahead with their own studies to improve future employment possibilities. This can mean they will have less time to devote to  class preparation. 

Our society has not been able to provide enough work for the number of students who graduate from college; supply of students exceeds the demand. The government has tried but has not succeeded in fixing the problem.
 
The number of colleges and college graduates she has produced is second to none in the world.  No one can deny that this is a reason Korea has gone from being a poor country, not too many years ago, to where she is today. However, is it not time  to reflect on whether we have too many graduating from college? And whether the burden on families sending their children to college is now at the critical point?  Might it not be time, the professor concludes, to reevaluate the high expense and low efficiency educational system we have created?

First Latin Mass Celebrated by a Bishop in Korea

In Korea there has not been much talk about the apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" that  gave permission for celebrating the Latin Mass used  before Vatican II. Since most of our Catholics entered the Church after the Council, the desire for the traditional liturgy as in the West was not present.

In a previous blog, it was mentioned that Korea has not been as polarized on this issue as many others in the Catholic world. The Society of Saint Pius X in Korea (a traditionalist order of priests founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre), with its strong desire to return to the pre-Vatican II days, has also been a deterrent which keeps the bishops from implementing the 'motu proprio' of Pope  Benedict on this issue.

However, the Catholic Times covered on its front page the first public Latin Mass by a Korean bishop, with a congregation in the Cathedral parish in Kwangju. This Mass will be celebrated once a  month in the Cathedral, accompanied by Gregorian chant. The first Mass was celebrated on April 2nd with priests, religious and about 250 Catholics attending.

We have had other Latin Masses celebrated in Korean over the years but they have been without publicity or officially recognized. This is the first such Mass accepted by a bishop of a diocese and celebrated in the Cathedral Parish with priests religious and congregation.

The diocese of Kwangju has made the liturgy the theme of its pastoral plan for the year, and this Mass was in line with the plans to help Catholics appreciate the place of the liturgy in our lives. In his pastoral letter after becoming bishop, he wrote, "The liturgy is the life and mission, source and summit of Church life; our hope is that through the liturgy we will come to know in what direction the diocese should go."

In the sermon Bishop Lee said he wanted to bring to mind the history of the liturgy and the values associated with the Latin Mass of the past. He reflected on the Korean Catholics who were nurtured  on the Latin Mass and attended  a Mass in a language they did not understand and  wondered  whether our  present faith-life is deeper and stronger than that of our ancestors in the faith.  He hopes this will allow the Catholics to appreciate the liturgy more. The present and former bishop and priests will take responsibility for celebrating the Latin Mass.

Will this be a sign of where the Church In Korea will be going in the future? There are many areas of our liturgical life that would be helped by remembering the 'two tables': as a meal and as a remembrance of Jesus' love, as shown by the  sacrifice on the  Cross. The Latin liturgy could probably focus the congregations' attention  on Christ to a greater degree than the present liturgy because the words would  not be as important as the actions of the Mass itself and its overall meaning.

The Church of Korea will have to consider the pros and cons of whether the introduction of the Latin Mass and Gregorian chant will be good for the Church or not. The Catholic population of Korea in 1965 was about half a million so the numbers of Catholics who felt a desire for the days before Vatican II are few. The inauguration of the old liturgy with the blessing of the ordinary of  a diocese will be an interesting matter to watch.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Giving a Penance that Includes Sacrifice

Each year during  Lent many of the parishes have common penitential services. Priests will come together in different parishes of a deanery to help hear confessions. The  Peace Weekly described some of the interesting  penances that were given.

The words 'penance' and 'sacrifice' are used often in our sermons and spiritual books, words which have  meanings that are not easily understood. But this Lent, in many parishes in Seoul,  the priests gave  penances one had little difficulty in seeing their relevancy to sacrifice and the way of the cross.

(Catholics, according to Church Law, are asked to partake of the Eucharist at least once a year during the paschal time if  there is not a good reason to do otherwise. However, in Korea another period before Christmas is set aside to prepare for Confession and the Eucharist, a period that is called 'Pangong'. The first 'Pangong' was not intended to put any burden on the Christians during their preparations for Easter. During the 'Pangong' before Christmas, however, they were  examined on their faith-life by the priests of the parish, but with the number of Catholics increasing and the current time constraints on the priests, this practice is no longer followed. There were many benefits from this old tradition but times have changed and making  things more difficult for the Christians to approach the sacraments did not seem a wise thing to continue.)

One of the parishes, believing the dinner table an important part of a family's spiritual life, required that the family eat together for a penance.  It is sad, thought the pastor, that eating together, once so common, has become such an extraordinary activity. It can fortify. he says, the bonds of the family and for Christians their life of faith.

Another penance given was to send greeting to family members or acquaintances and, if there has been estrangement, to attempt to improve the situation. One parish required the penitents to read the Gospel of Luke, from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion--a good meditation for Lent. Another parish, using the words of Jacob 2:17 ("So it is with the faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless.") required the penitents to partake in some activity to give life to what we believe.

Many were told to give up some food they especially liked, like alcohol or dessert. Or to give up something they found especially difficult to do, like watching TV, and spend the time saved in meditation. Other parishes gave penances to sensitize the Christians on environmental issues; one such penance was to curtail as much as possible the use of throw-away, one time use, utensils, cups and the like. Some told their parishioners to see the movie  "Don't Cry,Tonj," and to reflect on what it means to be of service to others. Others told the Christians to give at least 10 dollars for three days to the poor, and students were told to do some charitable work on three different occasions.

Foreign Workers In Korea

The young Korean priest tells us that he first came to appreciate the difficulties of a foreigner when he was in Italy for studies. He did his language study in Perugia where there were no Korean restaurants. This was his first experience  having difficulty in eating non-Korean meals.

He was told that a healthy diet was salad, spaghetti and steak. This was now his principle meal. He was used to having haejangguk (a soup containing coagulated cow's blood, beef and vegetables) or  bean-sprout soup  in the morning but now he was having coffee with bread and cheese. He disliked greasy food and after each afternoon meal he would head for the toilet.  Within one month he had lost over 10 kilo.

The grandmother working in the kitchen worried a great deal about his health. Whether this was the reason or not for his weight loss, little by little he got used to Italian food and regained his weight and had no further difficulty with the food.  It was then that he looked back on his own life and remembered living with the foreign missioner in Korea, and reproaching him for his eating habits. Now he could appreciate the importance of food in the life of a foreigner because of his own experience in Italy. 

When he had to go to the police station in Italy, he could sympathize with the foreigners in Korea who had to do the same.  Not having the necessary papers, he had to make a number of trips back to the police station, and because of his poor knowledge of the language, he was made to stand stand before the counter while the clerks chattered on the telephone. Though angry, he passed it off with a smile, fearing he would upset the clerk and make it harder for him to get the paper work done. It was another incident that helped him appreciate the foreigner's plight, along with the difficulties he had getting his ID card and the transfer of his auto license.

As of February of this year, there were 1,236,385 foreigners in Korea. In 2001 there were 570,000; if adding the illegal immigrants to this number, the total number of foreigners in Korea would be about a million and half, more than 3 percent of the total population. The greatest number are from China, most of whom would be ethnic Koreans (410,000) who had lived in China. Next would be Americans, Vietnamese and Philippines, in that order. Foreign workers would number about 600,000; foreigners who have married Koreans, 120,000; resident foreigner's children, 110,000; those affiliated with foreign businesses, 100,000; and foreign students, 80,000.

It is evident, the professor says, that Korea is no longer a single race nation. Not infrequently, we see foreigners in our villages and our workplaces, and often there is a feeling of animosity against them which is reported in  the mass media, and he finds this painful to have to acknowledge. They are coming to Korea like our fathers went to other countries to help their families, and these foreign workers in Korea are coming from poorer countries to help their families. We forget how we were years ago, he says, and now discriminate and reject them.

It's very clear what the Church teaches about the treatment of foreigners. Especially when we remember that they are coming here to do work our Koreans do not want to do: work that is dirty, dangerous and difficult. The following is taken from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

Institutions in host countries must keep careful watch to prevent the spread of the temptation to exploit foreign laborers, denying them the same rights enjoyed by nationals, rights that are to be guaranteed to all without discrimination. Regulating immigration according to criteria of equity and balance  is one of the indispensable conditions for ensuring that immigrants are integrated into society with the guarantees required by recognition of their human dignity. Immigrants are to be received as persons and helped, together with their families, to become a part of societal life. In this context, the right of reuniting families should be respected and promoted. At the same time, conditions that foster increased work opportunities in people's place of origin are to be promoted as much as possible.(298)

The professor ends his article  by saying that his stay in a foreign country helped him to appreciate the difficulties experienced by foreigners now living in Korea. We should always be on the side of the alienated and the oppressed, and that includes, he reminds us, the foreign workers in Korea. 
                

Learning by Experience

Writing in the Kyeongyang Magazine, a professor of social justice at the Incheon Catholic University recollects his experience with foreigners--mostly American foreign missionaries working in the Incheon Diocese--when he was a child. (Tomorrow's blog will deal with  his own overseas experience and with the experience of  foreign workers in Korea.)

When the professor was a child, coming in contact with a foreigner was not a frequent experience. However, he did see a foreigner at least once a year and that was the ordinary of the diocese, Bishop William McNaughton, on his pastoral visit to the parish. "Wow, he's tall," he remembers thinking, "not everything  I see is ordinary."
 

As an altar boy he served at the Confirmation Mass, and seeing the shoes the bishop left in the sacristy, they looked like a model for an aircraft carrier. Out of curiosity he put his small feet into the shoes and thought that all Americans must be tall and have big feet like the bishop.  At that time, there were many foreigner missioners from America in the diocese and he wondered about the country and about the people.

He remembers that his father was rather fluent in English.  Later, he learned  that his father worked in an  American military base and  during the Vietnam war volunteered to go to Vietnam, like many other Korean fathers, to work to help support his family. And, like many others, he spent many years overseas doing this.

After ordination he lived as an assistant to an American missioner who is now retired in a mission station. He was able to learn much during  this one year living with the foreigner, and praises him for being a good pastor. But there was one problem.

The missioner did not use any salt in his food. He would have a large bowl of lettuce and  sprinkle it freely with olive oil. He did tell the cook not to be concerned with his needs but to serve the assistant what he wanted.. However, the instruction fell on deaf ears, for he was the pastor and he came first.

In his heart, the assistant couldn't understand how someone who had been in the country for over 30 years could still have a problem eating Korean food. With his own bias, he saw the priest as discriminating against Koreans.

One day the missioner asked the assistant very indirectly for help in renewing his resident permit. He had moved into a different area of the city and was required to report this to the county office. In the past, he had difficulty in doing this and wanted the assistant to accompany him to the county office, and if necessary assist him with the permit.

The assistant quickly agreed to go with him to the county office, where everything went smoothly, taking no more than 30 minutes to complete. On the trip home, the missioner thanked his assistant priest, "Father, many thanks; because you came with me I could finish what was to be done very quickly."

The assistant priest then realized that in the past the foreigner had to visit the county seat a number of times to  register before successfully completing the papers required, sometimes because a person was not present or because not all the papers were in order and, at other times, because the missioner was not familiar with what was required. It was here that the Korean priest came to appreciate some of the difficulties foreigners have in Korea. (To be continued)