Young Catholics Straying from Religion

One of the problems the Church is facing in Korea is the declining attendance of young people at Sunday Mass. Reporting on a survey made in the Seoul diocese, the Peace Weekly headlined the article, "Only 7 high school students attend out of 100." And even after they enter college, the article added, numbers do not improve.

Improving this situation is a task the Church has decided to take on. The article mentioned that the average funding of parish Sunday school programs was only about 5 percent of the budget. This has not changed much over the years.

Efforts to improve the situation have taken many different routes; an interesting attempt was made by a parish in the Suwon diocese. They hired a full-time youth minister. This is a rather unique solution. no doubt because of the expense.

The parishes do have volunteers who take care of the teaching and the youth activities of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine but few parishes would have a full-time employed staff member. The pastor brought the problem to the attention of the parishioners by noting,  "There is a limit to what a priest with volunteers can do to activate the young people. We need someone with ability and zeal for the task."

That someone was the youth minister. He has majored in music and will be responsible not only for the music program but also for getting the youth back to the Church. When they have programs in the parish for the youth, he goes through the youth registers, makes a list of all the young people, and sends them an  invitation. A list of a thousand names does not deter him.

The youth minister wondered how any priest with the work they have to do can also find time to minister to the youth of the parish. On Sundays, when he often doesn't have time to eat he still finds the work very satisfying. The parish council head has said that a notable change has taken place in the care of the parish young people. The pastor now has a co-worker who is responsible for the pastoral care of the young. Depending on its success and how quickly the word spreads to other parishes and dioceses, we will no doubt hear more of this approach to the young people of the parish.

Mother of Four Sons Who Became Priests

An editorial in the Peace Weekly celebrated the  faith life of a mother of four  priests, the first for Catholics.  On her 90th birthday, June 6th, a Mass was celebrated in the  Chunchun diocese with her four sons on the altar. Maria Lee has 7 sons and 1 daughter (also in the religious life) and has lived for the last 65 years in the same parish, where her four sons became priests.

She sat in the first row with a yellow traditional Korean dress that she had from the time of her 3rd son's ordination day. "I who have had nothing, God in his grace has given me everything. Up until now I have lived a very happy life."

She is descended from 8 generations of devout  Catholics, and although living a life of poverty  she lived her faith life devoutly. The influence of the mother on the vocations of her sons is acknowledge by all four. One of the sons remembers at the age of 3 or 4  saying the rosary with his mother before the statue of the Blessed Mother. Prayer was part of her life by which she was able to overcome the difficulties of life.

When it came to the faith life of her children she was unbending. If one of the sons missed Sunday Mass, without fail she would  take the rod in hand and  refuse to give them their meal.  "Those that don't appreciate food for the soul  don't have the right to eat their rice." With any free time she would be reading the lives of the saints and other spiritual books that she would use to instruct her children.

She is now living with her youngest son to whom she gave birth at the age of 47, and even at the age of 90 she continues to  prepare his meals. The youngest son heard that he was offered to the Blessed Mother at birth and took the road to the priesthood as something natural to him. The father died when he became a deacon. When the mother thought that  the sons had something bothering them she would write them a letter expressing her concern. The sixth son mentions that his mother has written him many letters telling him to pray and meditate. "No matter what is happening in your life make sure that you have a smile on your face when you are with the Christians," she entreated.

One does not become a priest by exerting pressure, and it is not rare to have children turn against their religious upbringing. So in this case there must have been something in the way she related with her children that  influenced her sons enough for them to choose the priesthood--they received the precious inheritance of their religious faith.

A Surprising Catholic Statistic

A columnist in the Catholic Times headlines her article,Treasure House for Young People's Pastoral Care. The Catholic statistics for the year 2010 surprisingly show that the largest percentage of those baptized last year, according to age, were between 20-24--21 percent of the total number baptized. All the  other age groups had less than a 6 percent baptism rate.

This should come as a big surprise to those not  familiar with the Korean situation, especially when only about 7 percent of the young are attending Sunday Mass. In the year 2009 we had an even larger number baptized. What is the reason for such a large number of young people being baptized? 

The influence of the military in the evangelization of the young is an important factor. Nearly 86 percent of those baptized in the 20-24 age group are in the military; last year 25,234 were baptized, and 34,463 in 2009. During the same period last year the Seoul diocese baptized in this age group only 1,543. Since the year 2,000  each year there has been over 10,000  entering the Church from this age group. Although the statistics show a decrease in the overall number being baptized, the number of young people  entering the Church  is an encouraging sign.

Since we have a larger number of elderly in the Church, the absence of the young is quickly noticed.  One method of correcting the imbalance is to work more with the young. And since the military has been such a successful area in evangelization, more attention should also be placed there. After military service these young men will be returning to their hometowns and getting involved in the affairs of their communities. They can be a leaven for the future growth of the Church and its influence in society.
 
When these young people return to civilian life the diocese and parishes should make efforts to nurture the  faith life of these young men so they can more easily set down roots in their home parish. There has  been a history of losing many of these young men after they leave the military, civilian life often being less congenial than the camaraderie of military life. To meet this challenge requires concern on the part of the receiving community to make them feel welcomed and to help them continue to deepen their faith life.

Growing in the Spiritual Life

Catholic Weekly recently carried its 100th Q&A column on the spiritual life. The columnist used the occasion to give his views on the column to those who both praised and criticized his efforts. He and his column have become somewhat of a sensation over the last two  years and he feels it necessary to speak his mind.

Negative responses to the column, he admits, have troubled him. However, he has no intention in giving up, for he is convinced that what he is doing is needed. He feels that most instruction on spirituality is intended for the spiritually advanced  and not for those who need it the most, those without a healthy approach to the spiritual--the neophytes.

Jesus, he reminds us, treated those who followed him in different ways. He asked those closest to him what he did not ask of others. The Church also, he maintains, has to distinguish between the spiritually healthy and the spiritually sick.

He believes he is being misunderstood by some because his primary concern is not with the healthy members of the Church but with those who are spiritually sick. What he speaks about is not only what he has attained from books but from his life experiences.

From the time he was a child he read many lives of the saints, practiced many different exercises and even thought of becoming  a religious. He was always blaming himself for not being better than he was, hating himself while striving at the same time for the ideal self;  he was divided and  neurotic. But he never considered it an illness nor did anyone ever tell him it was a disorder. In his early forties he could no longer overlook what was bothering him and began the study of spiritual psychological counseling. He realized he was not seeing spiritual life correctly and had become addicted to blaming himself for not living a more spiritual life. He also did not realize that he was misunderstanding the teaching of Jesus and was using remedies that were having unhealthy side-effects.

Looking around he found others with the same problems he had, caught in the same traps, which prompted  him to take courses in  counseling. He soon learned, however, that lectures and counseling do not help remove problems whose roots are  buried deep within a person's psyche. This was the reason, he says, for starting his weekly column, hoping to help his readers, over an extended period of time, to a new understanding of spirituality.

He thanks all those who have shown trust in what he is trying to do--the Cardinal, the bishop, the publisher, and all his readers.

Talking About God

"Talking About God," a column in the Peace Weekly by one of our Korean bishops, begins with  a reflection on the creation of the world and its completion--this, he says, is the foundational declaration of a Christian. For a Catholic, God also makes known to us who we truly are and the reason for our happiness.The bishop, in his first article of the series, presents a number of thoughts that are worth pondering.

In today's world,  he says, it is becoming difficult to speak about God. In past ages God was center stage but with the entrance of science and technology, God was pushed off stage. Science, it is now believed, will bring us happiness.

With genetic engineering, the dream of a disease-free life ushers in the new God of science. A good example of the science/religious conflict can be seen, the bishops says, by noting the different responses of the first Russian cosmonaut who returned back to earth with the news that there was no God to be seen, and the American who returned from the moon and mentioned how  beautiful space was--and that he couldn't help but praise God for the beauty he saw.

The bishop, quoting from the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope, uses an anecdote from the Jewish tradition showing the difference between a believer and a non-believer. An atheist approached a Rabbi with his argument against God. The Rabbi tells the atheist there are many who would agree with his argument, and many others who would argue for the existence of God. There is little that he could add, said the rabbi. except to say:  "What if?" The Pope states that the believer and non-believer both live with temptation and belief. The atheist also has doubts about his position. Both, he says, are talking about the same reality with different subjective experiences of the reality. It is  seeing the water in a cup  according to the contours.

Truth is not changed by the seeing or the relative experience of the beholder. We don't make the truth by our machinations, as if only what we can verify is reality.

Another anecdote from the Pope's writing mentions the clown who during a circus performance tries to alert those in attendance when a fire breaks out, only to find out that it was not possible; the audience thought it was just part of the show and continued to laugh as they all became  engulfed by the fire.

The bishop believes the Christian's position is like that of the clown's. We have to get rid of the make up and the clothes and get in with the people. That was what Vatican II Council attempted  but few listened.

He ends the article with the story of a Russian woman who returned to her Orthodox faith during the Communist years, and after much difficulty took refuge in the West but  condemned it for forgetting God. She said the large billboard advertisements for perfumes showed the interest of the people and their silence about God and the things of God.

Today is the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast that makes clear that God does not rest and is always leading us to a different level of understanding. We don't know how or when we are led but we pray that we will be open to his movements in our life.

True Meaning of Life

The death and destruction of life entailed in our modern culture, along with the efforts to counter this by fostering a culture of life, brings to the fore the crisis we are facing today. It is being addressed in philosophical critiques from thoughtful observers from around the world. A professor in the philosophy department of the Catholic University adds his reflections on this issue in the culture of life column of the Catholic Weekly. 

Beginning in the 18th century, the pervasive moral standards of the modern world, he says, have been principles derived from the philosophy and culture of  the West. In contrast to this so-called modernity, these standards are being critiqued  by a philosophy and principles of culture that understand life differently, that respects life and wants to do something about changing the standards of most societies today.

He mentions the Gospel of Life encyclical, which makes very clear the principles that are involved. The professor feels that to bring about a culture of life it is necessary to acknowledge the acquisitiveness and excessive consumption that characterize our modern culture and determine to do something about it.

During most of the last 150 years, Korea had to contend with violence, exploitation, and  barbarity. From 1970 onward we have seen many  achievements in  our culture, and society  paid for with a great price. It is a fact that much has been accomplished and brought to the attention of a  portion  of the world.

However, Scripture makes clear that our first duty is to live fully the life given at creation, and to embody its meaning  and goal. The Old Testament is asking us to do away with immorality  and search for justice. The New Testament asks us to go beyond this to empty ourselves (kenosis) so we can love, living like we were made to live at creation. Modern culture is ignorant of what is meant to live humanly and what it means to live life fully. There are many today who feel that the reason for this is the search for excess, for more wanting in all areas of life. We have objectified what we are searching for, and measure our individual life by how much we have accumulated, and in the process losing the meaning of life itself.
 
When doing this, the dignity of life itself is weakened; the reality of life becomes merely what each one determines to be real, according to one's personal likes and dislikes. If we are to search for life in its fullness, we must cease making everything  an object. By making possessions and our accomplishments the goals of life, we are missing the true meaning of life and its transcendence.


                                         

Paris Foreign Mission Society's Example

"That the Church of  Korea developed with the help of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society is a joy. Along with this help, the zealousness of the Korean Church enabled them to quickly grow to maturity."

These are the words of Fr. George Colomb, Superior General of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, quoted in an article in the Catholic Weekly. Referring to his visit to Korea for the 100th anniversary of the Taegu diocese, he said that Korean Catholicism impressed him for its youthfulness and vitality and the desire of many to live the Christ-like life.

He was presented with a plaque of thanksgiving to the Society for providing the foundation that allowed the Church here to prosper. The first bishops of Taegu were members of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, and still today in Taegu there is a strong bond with the French missioners. And this relationship continues with many of the Korean priests who are studying in Europe, staying  with the French missioners at their Society House. Recently, a priest from the Suwon Diocese, wanting to become an associate priest of the Society, is now in France to fulfill that intention.

The Society, established toward the end of the 17th century, was given instructions for its founding by Rome's Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.  It is not a religious order but a society of secular priests, which was the model for the founding, more than two centuries later, of the Maryknoll Society.

In 1831 there were only 30 Paris Foreign Missioners but when the Korean Church, needing priests, asked for help from Rome the French missioners were sent. In all, 170 French missioners were sent to Korea; 25 were martyred and 10 of them are listed    with the 103 Korean saints. The French missioners during the difficult years of persecution built seminaries and prepared the programs to educate the Korean clergy.

Fr. Colombo, seeing the trials of the Vietnam refugees because of their religion, was shocked and, putting aside his aspiration for a legal career, decided then to become a priest and entered the seminary. He was elected last year to be the superior of the Society. 

Maryknoll has  been indebted to the Paris Foreign Missioners for  help in starting the work in Korea. This year we celebrate the  100th anniversary of  founding;  a time  for looking back in gratefulness to the French missioners for their help in making this celebration possible.