Maryknoll Korea's 100th Anniversary Celebration

On  Oct. 25th the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Maryknoll, the foreign Mission Society of the Catholic Church in the United States, in the diocese of Cheongju, thanks to the kind invitation of the bishop. The celebration took place in the cathedral parish with Cardinal Chong, the main celebrant, the Maryknoll Vicar General, the Asian Regional Superior, the apostolic delegate, 15 bishops, many priests and sisters, and over 800 lay people.  They were there to give thanks and offer congratulations to the Society.

The Cardinal, in his sermon, recounted the history of the Korean Maryknoll presence from its time in North Korea to the present--a total of 88 years, with 15 Maryknollers remaining in the country. Two priests of the Brothers of St. Luke Hwang Sok-tu Mission Society were present and  said they will be following the spirit of the Maryknoll Society and the zeal shown by the missioners. 

Bishop Chang Gabriel gave a plaque thanking the Society to the Maryknoll Vicar General and a candle to our local superior commemorating the 100th anniversary celebration.

The editorial in the Peace Weekly mentioned that in comparison to the Jesuits and the Paris Foreign Mission Society,  Maryknoll has a brief but unique history. It was established to work in Asia and went through the trying times of the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and the control of China by the Communists: a time of persecutions and martyrs.
  
Maryknoll founded the dioceses of Pyongyang, Cheongju, and Incheon, and also was present in other parts of the country. The editorial mentions that the society worked in Korea under the occupation  of the Japanese and the Communists, which made for a very difficult working environment.

In the Peace Weekly interview with Fr. Hammond, the Maryknoll local superior, he recalls an incident while he was a student in the seminary. " Maryknollers have a feeling of sorrow and regret," he said, "when we think of Pyongyang. Monsignor George Carroll, who had spent years there before being forced out, later during a talk to his seminary students  broke down crying. I remember it still very clearly," he said. "When we think of the division of the country and the war our hearts become heavy."

Maryknollers would like to see, as would all Koreans, a unified Korea again. The feelings of sorrow and anger continue to show in the different attitudes toward the North when it comes to dialoguing with the North and giving aid. What can we, who are not directly involved, do to bring about better relations with the North?  We can pray and make efforts to heal some of our own mental and emotional scars that remain since the partition of the country.  

The Turtle and Learning

Once frightened by a turtle you will be frightened by the lid of a kettle. What we feared in the past, the look-alike will do the same in the present. With these words, the desk columnist of the Catholic Times introduces what he calls the learning syndrome: what has been learned in the past, if similar to what is being learned in the present and the connections and differences are not noted will greatly influence our present actions.


For example, learning to operate a machine will facilitate the use of another machine later on, each learning experience bringing about a change that prepares us to respond more efficiently for the next learning experience. Even the most primitive of people when seeing a recurring natural event such as black clouds have learned to 'read' the signs and go to high ground.

A recurring modern example, and a chronic problem in developed societies, is speculating in real estate. We have learned that the price of real estate in our country does not decline but steadily moves up, which encourages even more speculation.


As members of the Church we have learned many things about the disciples of Jesus. The columnist wants us to focus on the rich young man mentioned in Scripture. According to the standards of today, he would be an outstanding example of youth. However, he is shown to be one who missed the central teaching of life. He lacked love. He was like the farmer who never harvests.

In our society, we have an excess of those Christians who have more than what the rich young man enjoyed. They fear that giving up material possessions will result in losing everything worth having. What makes matters worse is that they think they are in the right, even though they are doing the opposite of what Jesus taught.

We have heard that a little learning is a dangerous thing, a reminder that we often deceive ourselves by thinking we know more than we know. The columnist finds fault even with the leaders of opinion in the Church for making it difficult to go deeper into what we believe. Without the necessary correct  learning, it will be difficult to live the true Christian life.

However, even correct teaching from experience is not always followed by correct learning and living. This has too often been seen. Not learning to be vulnerable and surrendering to God prevents us from accepting all that God wants us to learn.

The "Peters" in Our Classrooms

Attending a program for leaders in nursing, a religious sister, president of the Catholic Nurses Association, reflects on the words of a middle school teacher who was present, and whose words made a lasting impression on her.

The teacher mentioned the difficulty of keeping order in the classrooms; students show no interest in learning and reprimands are as useless as is punishment. "There are now in our classrooms," he went on to say, "many students who are like the protagonist Peter in the novel 19 Minutes. The Peter in my classroom, after continual bullying by his classmates, stabbed one of them with a mechanical pencil, making him cry. He never considered what he was doing to Peter, but during lunch break threw a chair at Peter and beat him."

(19 Minutes is an American novel that recounts the events leading up to a high school shooting and its aftermath. The killer is one of the students with the name Peter. The novel shows his deepening alienation from his family, his neighborhood, and his classmates because of the bullying, until his feeling of being an outsider causes him to snap and he begins his killing rampage.)

The sister recalls a newspaper story about high school students who, without being provoked, routinely interact by using abusive language, a practice also common among students in grammar and middle school. She  tells us about a father's violence and abusive  language that caused a mother to come to her for advice; her child had stopped speaking and his behavior was becoming belligerent. The sister also mentioned that her own niece, when in grammar school, had dreamed of being a singer but now in middle school has lost that dream. She hears this often. Who is at fault? she asks. Who should take responsibility? Will anyone acknowledge the anger in our children, help them to clean up their speech, heal their wounds, sooth their crying, and give them something to dream about?

It all begins in the family, she emphasizes. That is where character is formed.  What they receive from the family will determine their future. Just because the family next door is sending their child for extra studies does not mean that is necessary for their child. Many times it's not the child who is being considered when these decisions are being made, but the desires of the parents, whose desires have become more important than the desires of the child.

Parents and teachers should work together, she believes, teaching the student what is proper and improper action. It's not punishment but the 'rod of love' that is needed. Fear, insecurity and violence, as well as the abusive language directed at the Peters of the world can be eliminated or reduced if parents, teachers and other adults showed our youngsters more understanding, respect and love. She ends her column by reminding us that Jesus hugged the children and put his hand on their heads and blessed them.

The Social Gospel in Korea

How do we respond in a Christian way to troubling situations in society with a Gospel understanding?   The response of the bishops, when they convened for their autumn general meeting, was to establish Social Gospel Week, following Human Rights Sunday, on the second Sunday of Advent.

By formally proclaiming this special week and by observing this week each year, the bishops intend that the Social Gospel will find its rightful place in the essential teachings of the Church. They hope that by applying the teachings of the gospels to social behavior, we will begin to change how we look on disturbing social issues we have come to accept as normal, and begin to practice what we believe in our daily lives, becoming what we have been asked to become: the salt and light in society.
The bishops will publish a text book on the Social Gospel that will be a help to the catechumens and to all parishioners. As well as presenting the core teachings in one place, it will undoubtedly sensitize our awareness of the injustices in society, and to the fact that they are an offense against God as much as are the sins of an individual.

The president of the Bishops' Conference hopes that each diocese will use the Social Gospel Week to educate the Catholics on how we should respond to current social issues, and to continue to do so. This teaching, he goes on to say, was thought by many to be a matter of choice, that you could choose to follow or not follow the social gospel. By setting aside one week of the year to remind us of the importance of the 'social message' of the gospels, the bishops intend to correct this misunderstanding. The message that needs to be realized can be summed up by a few words from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done on earth...."
 
The editorial in the Catholic Times praised the bishops' decision to set aside one week to bring more attention to the social teachings of the gospels. Discussed for many years, the need for more emphasis on the ethical teachings concerning social behavior has finally been addressed, and will be welcomed by many. Also needed to help undo the misunderstanding of many is a clear description of what constitutes a just society and what role religion should take in helping to develop such a society.

These questions and others that the Social Gospel Week will undoubtedly generate will be discussed by special programs during the week and follow-up programs in the future.  Everyone will not only be informed about the teachings of the Social Gospel but have a better understanding of why the Church becomes involved in social issues.

NGOs In Korea

Korea has more than 10,000 NGOs (non-governmental organizations ) influencing our society. The director of the Seoul Caritas Volunteer Center writes about NGOs in the opinion column of the Catholic Times.

A member of the Korean Non-Profit Institute and busy with her own work at the Seoul Caritas Volunteer Center, the writer was intent on resigning from the Institute but the chairperson, during the last meeting, upset at the poor attendance of the trustees and the non-payment of dues, reduced the number of the trustees and selected her as one of the new trustees. She decided to accept and then reflected on why she has continued as a member of the Institute for the last ten years.

In her column, she mentions that she wrote her doctoral dissertation on the  Korean NGOs and their importance in society. What do the NGOs actually do in society? she asked herself. Several answers came to mind: there is nothing that they are not able to do; they search for what the body politic is not doing; they advocate for what the body politic doesn't want to do; they reform what the body politic is doing wrong, and they lend support to the body politic when it doesn't have the ability to do what needs to be done. In short, the non-profits intend to uncover the problems that accumulate in society and to alert our citizens to the problems and help solve them.

With the advance of democracy in the 20th century, the limitation of market capabilities, the spread of pluralism and the change of the government's role in society, many areas of concern  have  come to the attention of the  non-profit groups. In the West, the role of the non-profits has done much to advance society.  England has a history of charitable institutions. France  is known for its cooperatives. In South-East Asia, Thailand and the Philippines are far ahead of Japan and Korea in their development of non-profits. Korea has only recently realized their potential in humanizing our society.  In Korea, different names are used to identify the non-profits. Besides the NGO, there is the NPO (non-profit organization) and the NVO (private voluntary organization)--perhaps a sign, there is a difficulty in coming to an understanding  of the work.

Authorities in the field say non-profits are helping to make a better society; that without them, we would have a less humane society. They also believe there should be more effort made to improve the capabilities of these non-profits.However, we should not rely on a few non-profits to supply the necessary know-how and do what we have always done. A broader outreach of many non-profits is needed, each developing its own special area of concern within the constraints of available funding. Also needed is for more of society to acknowledge the importance of these non-profit groups, and to help them continue to do their much-needed  work by contributing financial aid. 

Serious Concern of the Korean Catholic Church

Recently, meetings were held to discuss the best ways of dealing with the growing number of fallen away Catholics. The enthusiastic response to the meetings was beyond expectations. More than 430 from 10 dioceses attended the bishops' evangelical seminar, and more than 1500, the Suwon diocese symposium. Both meetings revealed how seriously the Church considers the problem of the tepids. Both priests and lay people were looking for help to stop so  many Catholics from leaving the Church, and also in finding the best methods to convince those who have left to return.

The desk columnist of the Catholic Times, reporting on the meetings, begins by noting that the increase in the number of Catholics has also increased the number of those leaving the Church. A 2007 survey by the Catholic Times found numerous reasons given for leaving. The reason most often cited was work and studies (42.4%); religious doubt (12.1%); the burden of confession (7.4%);  conflict over religion (5.8%); disappointment with clergy and religious, and time-consuming hobbies, both (4.7%); the burden of educating children (4.3%); discord between husband and wife, and with parishioners, both (3.5%); financial burden of Church attendance (2.7%); and a miscellany of other reasons (8.9%). 

The columnist mentions that three out of four Catholics who stopped  going to church had no one they considered a spiritual guardian. They also said they had plans to return to the community. Outside  of problems with confession and with the clergy and religious, most of the reasons given were not connected with their feelings about Church matters.
 
The remedy for reversing the trend, the columnist says, referring to those who have studied the issue, is  more pastoral care of the parishioners, especially of the newly baptized. She  also noted that failure to go to confession should not be the only criterion in determining a tepid; there should also be concern for those who are weak in the faith. This could be addressed, she  suggests, with renewal programs. However, even before tending to our  concern for the  tepid, she  believes there should be an in-depth look at the way the Church functions.

 

She wants those in positions of authority to take a long look at the results of the  two meetings and come up with concrete proposals on how to move forward on this critical issue. Otherwise  we will have these topics coming up for discussion repeatedly in the future, without any real results.

Mission Sunday 2011

Evangelization is the reason for the Church's existence. It was the last message of Jesus to the community he formed and a mandate which has from the beginning been  primary. The Church is always in mission. Especially today, when as the Pope says, it seems we have lost the sense of ultimate realities and even the meaning of existence itself.

Oct. 23 is Mission Sunday throughout the Catholic World. All of us will hear the Pope's message on this day, and our Catholic papers are devoting space announcing the importance of mission, the sharing of our gift of faith with others. The Catholics of Korea understand this mission, and many are  not embarrassed  to convey this message to others. 

Many parishes take this mandate seriously, providing programs to educate the community, praying for the success of their efforts, printing leaflets to distribute, and even going into the streets to introduce Jesus to those interested. Programs are often set up twice a year to invite candidates to come to a Sunday Mass where the community will acquaint the candidates on what to expect, assigning them to different catechetical classes.                                             

Korean statistics show that about half of the population consider themselves without a religion so the possibilities to evangelize are bright.

There were a number of examples in this week's Catholic papers  on  what was accomplished by parishes and mission stations. In one of the mission stations, 170 people showed an interest in joining the  community. When we consider that it was a small mission station, it is a reason to marvel.

One pastor stressed that in the education of the Christians, it is not the words that are important but our lives; mission is best done by the wordless examples of our lives. A journalist from the paper wanted to visit a parish to write an article for this recent issue but was told not to come. The process of evangelization is not an event to be observed and written about but an inner relationship with those who are intending to join the community. 

The lack of concern for the tepid and the diminishing zeal for evangelizing  in many parts of the world are regrettable facts. The reason for not desiring to  share the gift is possibly a loss of the joy we should  have as followers of Jesus or when the  experience of Jesus is not an important part of who we are. Whatever the reasons, lack of interest, one writer concluded, is the biggest obstacle to mission in the world today and when lost, is  not easily regained.