Interpreting the Catholic Korean Statistical Report

The recently published Catholic Korean Statistical Report has shown an increase in the number of Catholics but those going to Mass has dropped to 22.7 percent, the lowest in history, a red light that not all is well.  

The signs have been present for sometime, and efforts have been made to face the problem and do something that will bring about change. One of the parishes in Seoul invited all parish council members, district heads, pan and parish group leaders to gather together for a discussion on solving parish problems. The Peace Weekly starts off its coverage of the gathering with a question that gained a great deal of interest. "Out of necessity, when a person doesn't attend Mass you can substitute with prayer or a good work, but what is a sufficient reason for not attending Mass?
 

"If there is another way to substitute for not going to Mass," it added, "the burden of having to go to Confession will be lessened, and you will have more attending  Mass."  The pastor read the Korean pastoral guidelines and the bishop's explanation. "When one is not able to attend Mass or go to a mission station liturgy, for a  good reason, one  can substitute with a rosary, reading the Scriptures or a good work."

One parishioner said "There are many reasons that on Sunday one is not able to attend Mass. If you have to go to confession every time that happens, confession becomes a big burden. When there is a clear  alternative to the obligation of Sunday Mass, this will be a great help to those who have to miss the Sunday obligation."

The following thought sums up the thinking often expressed during the discussion: "If one in conscience makes the decision that there is a good reason to miss Mass, and the obligation can be filled by attending a weekday Mass, the numbers of those not going to Church will decrease." There were also some who considered this not a problem. Another thought that the Korean custom of Easter and Christmas Confessions should be dropped to just once a year and make this a serious time for examination; the present system is too superficial, he said.

One person recommended that retired priests be invited to come to the parishes at special times to take care of the confessions on a permanent basis. This would enable more of them to go to confession. Another thought that liturgical music at Mass would increase attendance.

The problems expressed are certainly real and need to be addressed, but perhaps more importantly the understanding of Mass as liturgy is not sufficiently internalized and found fulfilling and necessary for a meaningful life.

Liturgy, a Greek word meaning originally a public duty, a service for the state undertaken by a citizen, is also something we as Christians do publicly. It is Jesus calling us in a public way to do something together. If this could be fully appreciated, it would cause a change in our attitude toward the Sunday Mass.

Education Without Competition

The word used in Korean for 'season' is the same word used for 'discretion.' A child comes to the age of discretion, it is said, when she can tell the differences in the four seasons. In the column View from the Ark of the Catholic Times, the writer notes the wisdom of the ancients in seeing the relationship of the age of reason with the laws of nature. No matter what we think or feel, the seasons will come and go, and we have to accommodate.

The columnist introduces us to Dosan, Ahn Chang-ho, one of Korea's respected patriots and educators, who began the Hung Sa Dan for the independence of Korea, while the country was under Japanese rule, a hundred years go this May. The core of his educational philosophy stressed the need to address the whole person, the body and the mind, and their virtuous uses, along with the four principles of truth, effort, loyalty and courage.

With a long history of the wise telling us what is important in educational programs for our young people, the writer laments that a kindergarten student must learn a foreign language before knowing well his own mother tongue. Parents are being persuaded that a child who knows a foreign language will have a better chance at getting a good job.

We are all different, he says, but many parents want their child to take  a certain path, a path that someone  else followed and was successful. The educational system today is primarily concerned with knowledge that prepares us for the marketplace, without enough concern for the health of the body, mind and spirit. He recounts the many negatives concerning our competitive race for success, but the pressure to succeed is so strong that it trumps everything else.

If we took some time to contemplate our present situation, he asks, wouldn't we see some other alternative? The life road that everyone seems to be taking is overly crowded and filled with competitors, and not very welcoming. Wouldn't the road others are not traveling be more attractive? The struggle, he says, would only be  with the self.

Mother Theresa said she was not out to save the world but just one person at a time; she was only able to love one person at a time. And if we are able to lead one person to discretion, the columnist says, we are a good educator. This discretion begins with the self, and if he personally can introduce another person to the life-long path of learning, then he too has become a good educator. Thomas Merton is quoted as saying that being a saint is what we are meant to be. And that our life is spent in learning what that should be.

Each flower waits patiently for its time to bloom. They do not fight over who has the greatest beauty; each expresses its unique beauty and fragrance. It remains for us to find our objective in life and take the steps to achieve it. Isn't that what it means to arrive at discretion? he asks. 

The Catholic Church of Korea has set aside this week as Education Week to help inculcate this way of thinking into the educational  programs of the Church throughout the country.

Cyberspace and the Church

"Believers are increasingly aware that unless the Good News is made known also in the digital world it may be absent in the experience of many people for whom this world is important. The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but a real part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young."

These words are taken from the Communication Day Message of Pope Benedict that begins an article in the Catholic Times on the use of the digital possibilities for communication. The Pope mentioned that the social networks are helping to build a new "agora,"  an open public square, where people share ideas, information and opinions, and where new relationships and forms of community come into being. 

A number of graphs in the article reveal who are using the different media for news. The young born after 1982 are shown to be the more  frequent users of the Internet;  TV and the print media are used more by other age groups. A graph also shows that young people use the Social Network Service (SNS) much more than do any of the  other age groups, Facebook being the most popular, followed by Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The  Pew Research Center survey showed  that the SNS is used mostly for music and watching interesting images. Secondly, sharing personal matters with their virtual friends, followed by sports and politics; religion was at the bottom. To  the question, how often do you go to the Internet for Catholic content? 53 percent were not aware that one could do this, 16 percent go sometimes, 12 percent a little, 11 percent not much, and 8 percent go often.

Benedict had made it clear that we should not delay using the mass media, for the influence it has on society is great. Since the Catholic population of the world is over one billion, it is easily seen that a great number of Catholics would have access to the Internet.

The article mentions the obvious fact that with the internet we are dealing with an important reality in our lives that has influenced all of us, and consequently we need to make use of it to further our goals. Both Benedict and Francis have access to the SNS portals and have given us examples of how they can be efficiently used in the digital world. The Papa Francisco Facebook site has already topped 7 million viewers.

Women's Role Within the Church

Writing in the Catholic Times a Jesuit professor, coordinator of the social pastoral work of Jesuits in Asia,discusses the role of women in the Church.He works with a five-member team he calls a dream team.

The team is made up of  three Jesuits and two laypeople, both women. Three are Asian and two are white. Two are from North East Asia and two from South Asia, and one from Australia. Each of them has a unique experience, personality, and style which they bring to the team. They reflect the different Jesuit ways of  pastoral social involvement and because of the differences, there is, the professor says, a pooling of resources to better achieve their stated goals. 

An anecdote shows what he means. The lay woman from Australia is responsible for a Jesuit social pastoral volunteer group made up of many non-Catholics. She has no difficulty in keeping close to the Jesuit values when working with such a group. She was asked by a Jesuit to come to his country and explain to the Jesuits how to live according to their own values. The invitation was given at a large gathering and received much applause. The writer feels that this would be of greater value than having a Jesuit give the same kind of talk.

The women of his team have taught him a lot, he says. The Jesuits are interested in structures and assignments, while the women are interested in relationships and people. When the women speak, the professor says there is more empathy, understanding and love in what they say than we normally hear. This reminds him of what the theologian Balthazar said about St. Peter's  and the Blessed Mother's approach. Peter was interested in organic structures and pastoral efficiency, while Mary preferred consensus, understanding and fellowship. Both approaches are used by the team, which multiplies the results of the work.

The West has followed the way of Peter to excess, and Mary's way was disregarded, according to Balthazar, a European theologian. The West wanted efficiency and quickness; as a result widespread hostile feelings were engendered. Love, prayer, and calm discernment were missing. Peter's way can be seen today in our society. In the last 50 years, the industrialization and democratization of society have had terrific results but society has overlooked the needs of the stragglers. There is a lack of concern for the least fortunate members of society. Can we also say that this thinking has entered the Korean Church? the professor asks.

We pray that we may begin to  understand women's rightful place and treatment in our society. As companions and compatriots they need to be understood, respected and encouraged. Doing so will give more life to the Korean Church.

The Culture of Life

Working to make a culture of life is an important mission for all, and as Christians we hear a great deal of how this can be accomplished. The columnist writing in the Culture of Life column in the Peace Weekly discusses how this can be accomplished when seen from an Asian perspective.

In her columns, she criticizes the narrow type of education offered to our students, which prepares them primarily to succeed in the marketplace. It's self-interest at the expense of others, she says, and shows a lack of courage to educate the whole person, being content to fashion the limited human beings we are now sending into the world. What is needed, she says, is "more doors and empty spaces," more access to one another. In her last column she considers our copy-cat type of life, the way we're conscious of what others possess, wanting more possessions for ourselves, and becoming enslaved by our possessions in the process.

One of the reasons for suicides in our society, she says, is not the loss of something one feels is necessary to live, but feeling the pain of that loss. "One can put up with an empty stomach but not with the pain in the belly", as a Korean saying puts it. The tendency to become despondent, she says, results from our dependence on possessions for making our life worthwhile.

In the above Korean proverb, the pain mentioned is of two kinds. The first comes from a desire to live, while the second comes from a desire for possessions. Which is made clear by the Korean saying: "When my cousin buys a piece of property, my belly hurts." This kind of hurt follows when we are not able to satisfy our desire for possessions, and is psychological in result.  Pain from an empty stomach is remedied by the first good meal, but the second hurt is only relieved by emptying oneself.

She mentions hearing an interview with a woman refugee from the North that clearly refers to what the columnist is saying. In the North, the woman said she was hungry and had to use all her energy to stay alive. In the South, she had plenty to eat but did not want to live here. No matter how rich, you eat only a limited number of times a day. The difference in how the rich and the poor satisfy their desires for existence, she says, is not obvious but is usually indicated by the possessions they have.

She mentions a politician who spent an extravagant amount of money for the care of the skin and was criticized by the media for it. For a certain segment of society, the appearance of the skin is a barometer of their place in society. Possessions and appearance are able to attract the gaze of others; life and death issues hold little interest for the vast majority.
 

In the 12th chapter of the Tao Te Ching,  we are told not to esteem the eyes over the belly. The word 'belly' is called by Lao Tzu the seat of life. In order to promote life, we have to fill the belly. If we only use the eyes, ears and tastes to gain the attention of others, we become slaves to the demands of our senses. As Lao Tzu says:  

 

                    
                   The five colors make the eyes blind; 

                   The five notes make the ears deaf;

                   The five tastes injure the palate;

                   Riding and hunting make the mind go wild with excitement;

                   Goods hard to come by serve to hinder progress.

                   Hence, the sage is for the belly

                   Not for the eye.

                   Therefore the sage discards the one
                   and takes the other.

 

She finishes the column with the words of Confucius: one can study to express what one has in the heart or one can study to please others and to succeed in life. The one who picks the latter will always be looking for affirmation of the other and will have no peace. Those who want to grasp honors and material goods will have people swarming around them like bees, but when they lose what they have, people will leave them like the ebbing tide. To realize the self by acquiring possessions is a futile effort. When we begin to educate the whole person and give expression to our true nature, we will have set firmly in place the foundation for a culture of life.

 

                 

Helping to save a Marriage: Retrouvaille

During the past year Korea had 143,000 divorces. The overall divorce rate, which is the number of divorces among the population during a given year, per 1,000, has been decreasing since 2003, reported an article in the Catholic Times. However, the number of divorces for those married over 20 years is 26 percent of the total divorces, and this continues to increase. Divorce of those in their twilight years is 2.4 times what it was ten years ago. Those married less than four years have 24.7 percent of the total divorces.

The article introduces us to the Retrouvaille (rediscovery) Movement website, which is the second time this blog has treated the Retrouvaille Movement.The Movement provides a program that begins with a weekend for married couples, followed by post weekend sessions. The program is prepared for those who are having difficulty in their marriage and want help in overcoming the obstacles that are preventing healthy communication.

Retrouvaille began in Canada in 1977 and has been enthusiastically received since then throughout the world. Their primary objective is restore the ease of communication between spouses that has been lost during the trials of a difficult marriage. A main reason given for divorce is the inability to deal with personality differences, resulting in misunderstanding the needs of the other and stifling communication.

The programs, although started under Catholic auspices, are open to all regardless of belief. Saving their marriage is upper most in the intentions of those present during these weekends, which are concerned with restoring trust and the willingness to forgive, the first stepping stones for many of them to a new way of communicating between husband and wife. All is accomplished without personal revelations to others; the privacy of each couple is preserved.

Even the newly-wedded are seeking to enroll in the weekends. However, this creates a problem because there is currently not enough supervising couples and priests to oversee the running of the weekend.  The next program will begin in June, with the hope they will have more volunteers willing to supervise the weekends.  The archbishop of Seoul, in his talk to the representatives of the Retrouvaille team, expressed the hope that they will be able to expand the programs to include other religious groups, and even society at large.

Are You Happy?

"Are you happy now?" The writer begins her article in the Seoul Diocesan Bulletin with  these words. Surfing on the Internet, these words in English perked her curiosity. It was a lead-in to an advertisement for a diet plan, claiming that fat people can't be happy. The diet promised that its diet will not only help users to lose over 5 kilos, but help them regain happiness. Isn't this preposterous? she asks. That you can't be happy if your fat?

The reason the writer was so agitated was that she recently saw a TV program whose theme was happiness. Over 40 percent of Koreans, when asked what was the number one condition for happiness, said it was money. The program mentioned that earning up to 4,000 dollars a month would cause the happiness index to go up. Earning more than that and there are problems. Spending additional time making money often disrupts family life and relationships with friends.  

It seems that happiness, she quips, has an expiration date. Is there no long-lasting happiness here on earth?  she asks. The writer believes there is. But it's not the happiness you want to show off to others. It's the happiness she wants for herself. Daily, she gathers and puts together, she says, the small moments of happiness in her life.

To the ad's question, "Are you happy now?" she does not hesitate to answer 'yes'.  Not because she is not fat but because of those moments of happiness, such as her daily warm cup of coffee and milk first thing in the morning, as she gradually becomes wide awake and in action mode. She has been in the habit of doing this from her early twenties, when she was mountain climbing, and has been doing this for over 30 years.

Another moment of happiness takes place in the evening. Before going to  bed, she writes in her diary, has a glass of wine, which the doctor recommended for improving blood circulation, and listens to music. It's the time she uses to look over the events of the day, and to enjoy a relaxed feeling of satisfaction for a day well-spent.

The third thing she does is to read poetry out loud. She has a habit of speaking fast so she began to do this from the time she was in high school in the hope of slowing down her speech. She reads the poems carefully with a loud voice. This has allowed her to memorize a number of the poems, and has been helpful in selecting words which she uses in her writing. She would like us all to find out how many of these small birds of happiness we currently have in our own hands but have not yet allowed them to spread their wings and fly.

Today is the feast of Pentecost and the day on which we remember to give thanks for the knowledge of the gift of the Spirit. We have a Comforter internal to ourselves that is not influenced by what is external to us.  We are temples of the Holy Spirit. This gift of gifts allows us to be open to the many  joys of our lives, once we rid ourselves of our self-imposed obstacles.