Owner's Manuel for Life,

Mr. Kim Hong-sin, a popular novelist, politician, lecturer, and professor, is the first Korean author to sell more than a million books. Interviewed by a journalist of the Catholic Times this past week, he prefaced his remarks by saying, "I have in my lifetime killed many trees. I have used much paper in my writing...reflecting on this fact, I try to use every inch of paper when I write." Writers, he says, are all faced with this same problem, a problem that affects him deeply. 

During his eight years as a congressman, he was seen as a man of honesty and integrity and received high marks from his constituents. He was a strong voice for democracy and human rights during the 1980s. After retiring  from politics and for three years living like a recluse, he started writing again and now has about 300 books published. He also returned as a popular professor to the college classroom.

After many years of receiving questions such as, Why live? How are we to live? Why does love change?, he went in search of the answers. And found some. "The reason people are not happy, he says, is because they confuse happiness with pleasure. We are always comparing ourselves with  others, which usually results in making us feel inferior. However, we know what is necessary to be happy and should bring this knowledge to mind more often, but we have a tendency to forget.

He makes clear that this is also true of himself. As an example, he mentions how over 10,000 books in the cellar were spoiled with rainwater, and how he could not deal with the anger he felt at what had happened. He finally succeeded in putting himself at peace but the anger did not disappear. What changed was his ability to deal with the disaster. Such problems will always occur, he says, until the time he goes to meet God.

When people see him, they say he has all that is necessary for happiness but he disagrees, saying he continues to fret and get irritated, driven by a desire to do and accomplish more. When feeling driven this way, he likes to remind himself of advice given to him by his teacher: "Look at the mouse, he doesn't know the bait is poison and eats the bait; we know our baits are poison and yet still eat them...When a glass is full of hot liquid, why not put it down instead of grasping it even tighter with both hands." "Remembering this advice from my teacher," he said, "from that moment on, I gave up smoking, which I had been doing for 37 years and 9 months."             

He became a writer, he explains, because as a child he used to get from the French priest of the parish comic books he had received from France, which he would then translate into Korean for the children to read. It was from that time on that he became familiar with  books.  Even now, when he has a weighty problem on his mind and no desire to read, he will pick up a comic book.

His latest book, Owner's Manuel for Life, is advice on how to live well, using his own life experiences. He wants each young person to know how important he or she is and to acknowledge their dignity. And he cries out to the  older generation to feel the pain in the hearts of the young and to try to make this world a better place to live in. The young, when they make mistakes and fail, have the special privilege to be forgiven; they should never give up but face bravely the challenges of life. The have the duty, he says, to never give up on hope.

"The pine needle, when it  is scared, gives off," he says, "a fragrant scent.   We are the same. Those who have not been scared will not give off a fragrance. Don't be afraid of  hate, anger, frustration, pain. They should simply be thrown off. True, it is not easily done.  However, they have to be discarded.  Why?  We only have one life to live. We  can rid ourselves of the waste of the body, why can't we  rid ourselves of the waste of the heart and the head? We work at doing this with prayer, meditation and thoughtful reading.  Getting rid of things we don't want, we have to change our way of thinking to make room for the things we do want. Moreover, it's all free."

Defamation Laws in Korea

A broadcasting company producer writing for the Catholic Times, in  the "View from the Ark" column, comments on the present defamation laws in Korea. Many of the libel cases reported by the press, he says, usually involve, as the ones most likely to instigate the lawsuit: politicians and cabinet members, celebrities,  members of a government organization or those  managing members of some press group that instigates the lawsuit. Those  being  sued are the media those working in the media or private individuals.

When the media criticizes some policy or makes known some unsavory fact or shows some skepticism, those involved will often respond with a lawsuit, contending that such revelations slander them and they will seek redress under the law. Individuals who write or otherwise express themselves on the internet, radio or television are always vulnerable to defamation suits; there will always be some who will look for any excuse to lodge a lawsuit. The examples are many and are familiar to all.

Regardless of the result of these cases, the stress incurred by those who are accused of libel is great and generally increases while the case is being tried. The typical scenario pits a relatively powerless individual against powerful individuals or organizations. As an unintended consequence, the ease of pressing a libel suit places the  right to free speech in jeopardy.

The columnist then tells us what the penalties are for libelous speech. Whether the charges are true or not is immaterial if the person has suffered some damage; that alone is a sufficient reason for the suit, and if the charge is true, the penalty is less. There are conditions that must be met if the charge is found to be true, but these conditions, he says, are not easily fulfilled.

He mentions that the defamation laws have been criticized for years. The report to the UN, from the office of Frank La Rue, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the right of freedom of opinions and expression, was critical of the situation in Korea.  There were 8 areas in which he expressed reservations on the way Korea has handled human rights issues. Many of these involve the freedom of the press, the freedom to create, and the freedom to speak freely in cyberspace; these form the foundation on which a democratic  society is built. The present defamation laws in Korea, our columnist says, are shaking this foundation and threatening our democratic society.  He asks if the the report of Frank La Rue will have any results in Korea. The answer, he says, will have to come from those in the media, our artists, and the citizens of cyberspace.

The Catholic Press is not  happy with the  current defamation laws that curtail freedom of speech, and have expressed this on a number of occasions. However, because of the security laws of the Country and the  situation in the North, the efforts to make changes have been slow in coming. The hope is that with enough dissatisfaction with the defamation laws, the necessary changes will eventually be made.

A Korean ex-patriot living in France writes about life as a monk, which began five years ago when he was in his 70s, in the monastery of  Abbaye de Sainte-Marie du Desert, a cloistered contemplative order of Trappists. According to Catholic history, he is living in the country considered the eldest daughter of the Church, a country epitomizing the struggle for human rights: freedom, equality, fraternity.  

The writer has lived most of his life in France where he retired from his work. He has always wanted to devote the last years of his life to silence and prayer, but until recently his circumstances did not allow it. And when he was ready, looking for a place to do this, he found that age was always the barrier. Then one day he asked a parish priest for help in his search and was introduced to the Trappists and their 150 year-old monastery, which became well-known in the surrounding area when a member of the community was  beatified. 

In the beginning he spent some time with the monks in prayer and silence and was hoping for an opportunity to do some service. He found it very helpful but didn't know how long it  would continue. One day, after looking over his life history, the Abbot asked  if he was willing to become a novice in the community. He was  surprised  and wondered if he would be able to live up to the requirements.  Six months later he was approved to begin training as a monk. He was  pleased but wavered because of his back ground of marriage and fathering a child. This would be, he says, a very strange thing for Koreans to understand.  Even his lay friends in France were surprised to hear of his joining  the community.

He thanks God  for the opportunity to live this life of  prayer and work, which starts each day at 4:00 am and ends at 8:00 pm. Besides meeting for Mass, they meet for prayer eight times during the day, and work in silence.

Though it is unusual for someone his age to take up the life of a monk, and perhaps even more so the strict life of a Trappist monk, he tells us of a priest in Hong Kong who joined the Trappists at the age of 75, made his solemn vows at the age of 100, and died at 110.  He also mentions the father of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who  sold all his possessions to join his son's community. He concludes that what he did is not so strange after all.

However, the cloistered contemplative life is not for everyone. It is a special kind of spiritual life that attempts to imitate the interior life of Jesus. He notes that a recently read article reported the death, at 101, of a Religious Sister who, since the age of 17, lived this hidden life.  He considers her a martyr for love.  Those who die for their country are called patriots and those who die for God are called martyrs, but all those who live the cloistered contemplative life can also rightly be called, he says, martyrs for love. Now his life is one of silence, work and prayer.

How Will Korea Deal With Secularization?

A team leader on the editorial staff of the Catholic Times, in the Desk Column, writes of  her trip to Ireland. Beginning with a brief history of the country, she then tells us that thanks to the Columban missionary priests, who have  worked in Korea for many years, she felt very much at home in Ireland.  It was like visiting  an old friend.

She recounts the work of the monks in the monasteries as they painstakingly copied manuscripts. Ireland was a leader in producing works of the mind during those early  centuries of Christianity. But dark times were soon to follow. In the 12th century, the invasion of the Normans brought difficult changes to the country, and in the 17th  century the English made Ireland a colony, plundering and oppressing the common people.  With the English Reformation, there was a long period of religious wars and persecution. And 160 years ago, over a million died of starvation, and over a million left for other countries.

At the time of Henry the VIII and Queen Elizabeth, the Church suffered much.  There were few bishops, and the courageous clergy enabled the Church to put down roots during these difficult times.  Following this, we had the Easter Uprising and the civil war.  Catholic Ireland and the  citizens left their individual piety and became conscious of their own common identity. 

Nowadays, the  strength of the once powerful Irish Church, once called the Irish Tiger, has been severely weakened by the sudden economic growth of the country and the  secularization of the culture. The clerical sexual scandals have also  diminished the authority of the clergy and the Church. And few young people are seen in Church, the press estimating that only about 5 percent are attending Mass, and in certain areas it is as low as 2 percent.

A  high-ranking  cleric in the Church of Dublin said he can't refrain from being concerned about the  effects of the culture and  economics on  the country, which have brought about the secularization, alienating  many of the young  from Catholicism.  But others see the problem as the failure of Catholics to examine what it means to be a true Christan.

Next year Ireland will host the 50th Eucharistic Congress; its theme will be: "The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and With One Another." It will be a time to hope for the renewal of Catholicism in the country, the catalyst necessary for a new journey, with a new atmosphere, that will challenge everyone to a new faith life.
 
The columnist compares Korea with Ireland, which has had a Catholic history of over 1000 years. Ireland has dramatically shown what can happen in the encounter with secularization.  She can't help but wonder how the Korean Church will fare in handling this same encounter as it intensifies in our own secularizing society. She hopes that what happened in Ireland will be a teaching example of what not to do.                                        

Confucian Ethics and Family Strife

The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in Korean society, like any other Oriental society--some would say like in all societies--is not always harmonious. The breakdown of the extended family and the capitalistic ways of modern society have brought changes, but the dilemma for the son of choosing between mother and wife in conflict situations, particularly in a society still influenced by Confucian thought, remains acute. As Christians we know what is meant by leaving  parents and becoming one with the spouse, but this idea is not part of the Confucian ethic, which can pose a serious problem for many husbands.  


An article in our Catholic magazine for August revisits the issue and begins with humor.

The telephone rings.

Daughter-in-law:  Hello!

Kidnapper: We have your mother-in-law. If you do not give us 5 thousand dollars we will not return your mother.

Daughter-in-law: (hesitating briefly) I will not give you a penny. Do what you want!

Kidnapper: If you do not send the money we will return your mother.

Daughter-in-law: (without hesitating)  Give me your bank book number!


The writer, well-versed in family problems as a lay pastoral worker in the Seoul diocese, points out that all those who have made a study of the issue say, unequivocally, that the husband  should always side with the wife, a view that is sure to make many husbands uncomfortable because of the strong cultural tradition of filial piety in Korean society. He knows that there are those that will say you can always get another wife but parents are not  expendable. Making it even more difficult for many sons, according to the writer, are the mothers who did not receive love from their  husbands; they will be looking for it from their  sons. And many sons will find it difficult to break this overly close connection to the mother, even after marriage.  

One of the old sayings is that "Parents do not win when it comes to their children." In other words, parents want the best for their children. So when the son sides with the wife the parents understand and will grow to accept it, knowing that the children are not likely to forget their mother's feelings and would be willing to listen and talk with her, seeking a common understanding. However, the problem is not readily solved; there is a history that comes with the problem and this is difficult to overcome: genes, family upbringing, education, our personalities and values. They all make us what we have become, the self we imagine ourselves to be.

That being the case, the writer tells us not to force a solution  but to work toward accepting one another.  As with any long standing  problem between husband and wife, it is better to face the problem with humor, goodwill,  respect and wisdom than to try to force a solution.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law both have, of course, their good and bad points, but it's the positive qualities, the writer stresses, that should be the focus of each person's attention and not the negative qualities. The obsessive need to solve problems quickly should also be abandoned. replaced by the desire to interact with each other calmly and lovingly. Changing how we relate with the other, when a conflict situation develops, will in time change a negative situation into a positive one.

Wisdom of the Korean Potters

The landscape of old Korea was dotted with backyard terraces where crocks for preserving  soy products and kimchi were stored.  With the arrival of plastic utensils and the spread of the refrigerator, the terraces disappeared, but they remained a nostalgic memory for many Koreans. The Peace Weekly visits one of the artisans still working at his craft.

Paul Hwang, 70 years old, is a 3rd generation potter. His grandfather, ostracized by the family after becoming a Catholic, left home to live in a  potter's village where he learned the trade. During the persecution, many Catholics fled to the mountains where they worked making and selling pots. Women with pots on their heads and men with A-frames loaded with pots would move around the country selling their pots, and gathering  news on the whereabouts of Catholic priests, and then making this known among the believers.

The article mentions a 1970 survey showing that most of those working in the pottery trade were Catholics. Paul Hwang mentions that the disdain they received for being potters was difficult to accept--that, along with the poverty and mounting debts were things he wanted to leave behind. But he had no choice, he said. The potter's life was the only one he knew that allowed him to feed the family and educate his children.

In 1983 there were four potter families working together in his village. One evening three of the families, deciding they could no longer deal with the difficult life, left the village. Shocked by their leaving, he cried a lot, he said, wanting also to leave it all behind. However, with sickness in the family, there was nothing else that he could do but continue with the pottery.

He sent his three children to the nearby city to study, not to have them succeed in life but rather to get them away from home and possibly becoming attached to the potter's life.  He didn't want to pass on to them the life of poverty he had inherited.  But his circumstances were soon to change, and he now quotes the Korean proverb: sweetness comes after bitterness.  He had developed  a pot modeled on a refrigerator, which received the prime minister's prize at a festival in Seoul.  And two years later was given a master craftsman's award which changed everything in his life.

Now, well-known as a master potter, he receives all kinds of orders, even orders  from the Korean community in the States. When asked about the change, he believes it is his devotion to the craft.  Without devotion, he said, you can't even make a good meal. He did add that he's always searching for the proper clay. When you have good clay and bake it, he said, the microscopic pores allow the pots to breath. The water does not escape, allowing the air to enter for purification and fermentation; he feels one day we will come to appreciate the wisdom of the ancestors.

His youngest son and wife are now beginning to learn the trade.  Although he at first opposed their decision to follow in his footsteps, feeling they were taking upon themselves a cross, he  is pleased now that there will be a 4th generation of the family in the trade. The history of pottery and the Catholic Church can't be separated, he said. Potters are not just a part of Korean history but  a sign of the suffering and the zeal of our Catholic ancestors, and accepted  as a sign of God's  love.

What Does It Mean to Rest?

What does it mean to rest? We usually divide time into work time and rest time, and it is not rare to find that even our rest time can be more tedious than work. When the meaning of our work vanishes, work loses its appeal, satisfaction disappears and rest does not renew, often developing into a loss of meaning for life itself. An article in the Kyeongyang magazine, by a professor of religious studies, reflects on what rest should mean to us.

The idea of what we should do with our leisure time is a relatively new question for us to ask. In the past, the opportunity to rest was only possible for a small segment of society, the privileged classes; ordinary citizens had to work. Rest, when it came, was a blessing and not given much thought. Today, we have studies of leisure in college curricula, and the five-day work week has made all of us conscious of leisure and how we should make the best use of it. Though leisure was always part of life, today we are beginning to appreciate the many ways it can lead to a fulfilling life.

What does it mean to rest? And how should it be done? There are no correct answers to these questions, the professor says. Everyone approaches the question differently.  We can, however, search for  the meaning of leisure and look for the reasons we need rest. We have no difficulty in answering what the opposite of leisure would be; for most  of   us it would be  toil, stress and fatigue, but not only of the body, which we know can recoup its strength when the body is tired with a period of rest. The problem is the fatigue and boredom of the mind and spirit, and this is not regained so easily by resting the body.

The wisdom of the East, the professor says, does not separate work and rest, and sees no conflict between the two. Western practicality does separate them and, to make up for the possible loss of personal fulfillment by its emphasis on work, sees rest time as the corrective. In the East it was reflection on life that brought rest. Work and rest were both seen as opportunities to learn. He lists a number of pursuits that the sages considered restful: study, writing, reciting poetry, loving leisure, cultivating silence, playing games, looking at flowers,  fishing,  drinking,  looking at the moon, enjoying the breeze, planting in the garden--all encouraged learning when done with a restful spirit.

In our society, it often happens that because of our constant efforts to satisfy our many desires, we find that having more leisure time actually results in having less internal composure and true rest. We are so busy with external things, we find we do not have enough time to do them.  The professor reminds us that the reason we are tired is the  the loss of meaning of many of our pursuits, and a resulting inner sterility.  Our true meaning, he says, is found in the teachings of Christ: to know who we are by finding God in ourselves, and resting in God. Looking into our hearts and reflecting on who we are recharges us for the road of delight that we have been called to travel.

Sundays, he says, are for  Christians a sign of what true leisure should be.It is then that we can best recall to mind, when we are tired and lack vitality, the reason for life and how I'm living this gift. We recharge ourselves by looking into ourselves and preparing for another week of living with the sacred.