Last Foreign Bishop of Korea

Bishop McNaughton, the first bishop of the Inchon diocese, recently celebrated his 60th year of priesthood in a Korean Catholic parish of Boston. The Mass of Thanksgiving was written up in the Peace Weekly.

The bishop retired in 2002 and returned to the U.S., and his home state of Massachusetts. It gave the Korean community an opportunity to thank Bishop McNaughton for his many years of service to the Korean Church. During the sermon he recalled leaving for Korea on a boat from San Francisco, and 16 days later arriving at the harbor of Pusan. He was greeted by a delegation of Korean Catholics, which made him feel he was beginning life all over again.

His sermon, given in fluent Korean, said the journalist, was attentively listened to by the congregation. His forty one  years as the ordinary of the diocese and his zeal for the growth of the church was praised by many in the congregation, who admired what the 'old missioner' had accomplished. The bishop regretted learning that while the numbers of Korean Catholics have increased, those going to church have decreased. He asked the parishioners to have a love for the poor and to share their faith. After Mass, there was a celebration for the bishop in the church hall.

Bishop McNaughton began his missioner life in the Cheongju diocese. He was pastor of two parishes in the city, and in 1961 was made a bishop and the first ordinary of the Inchon diocese, which he led for 41 years. In the beginning of his tenure as bishop, there were 9 parishes, 19 clergy and 23,000 Catholics. Today, it is the fourth largest diocese in the country, with 20 parishes, 300 clergy and 460,000 Catholics. His retirement brought to an end a long line of foreign bishops in the Korean Church.

Maryknoll came to Korea in 1923, and this year will celebrate 90 years of pastoral work in Korea, which began in Pyeongyang, North Korea, at that time Korea was a  colony of Japan. In 1950, with the beginning of the Korean War, the Maryknollers moved South and were given the diocese of Cheongju, the diocese in which Bishop McNaughton began his missionary life.

One of the bishop's great achievements was building a seminary which has proven to be very successful, educating seminarians for  future work in North Korea and China besides the diocesan clergy. It is a fitting memorial to his long years of service to the Korean people and will continue to serve them well into the future. After the sermon, the pastor thanked Bishop McNaughton for his many years of service to the Korean Church, and said the Korean clergy will be paying back the debt by working zealously in the vineyard of the Lord.

Young People are like Kites Buffetted by the Winds

In the diocesan bulletin, the head of  one of the city youth centers discusses the differences among the young persons who come to the center for help. There are of course the young persons we would call ordinary, and  persons who have been raised in poverty, the single parent youngsters, persons who have been abused, and persons who have been hurt in other ways. They are all individuals with special personalities, and he feels that as a person responsible for the center, he needs to respect the individuality of each of them.

Using the metaphor of flying kites, he looks on some of these young people as kites flying at low altitude, with little of the string released. Adults, however, who have an abundance of string can fly high in the sky. They are flying high above the winds that the young people  have to contend with at their lower altitude. They are at the whim of the wind going high and falling low, always causing concern. Since the string they have doesn't allow them to go higher, they lose hope and their kites do at times nosedive to the earth. During this period, their emotions go to extremes. Environmental influences, which he refers to as the wind, can easily affect them. Like the quiet before the storm, they never know what to expect, he says, and as a result they often feel agitated. Since they feel confined (the string), they have difficulty with their own identity, and with those who are trying to hold on to them. One solution for some of them during this time of struggle and mental confusion is to break the string, to run away from  home.

Many at the center, not surprisingly, have low self-esteem. One young man is not able to associate with his classmates and doesn't speak during the whole day. Another, when on the receiving end of a joke, cries, and  one stays by himself all day long. After a year at the center, however, there are many who do change, he says. They approach you and greet you, and are willing to talk about what bothers them, whether with friends or with teachers. This is a sign that the interest that is shown them at the center does have good results.

Returning to  the kite example, the adults want the young to fly higher and even though the wind is not blowing they give them more string; when the young do not want to go in that direction, the adults want to control the direction of flight. Our interest should be on the kite, the young person, and then, trusting them, give them enough string to fly where they want to go.

We say the youth are the leaders of the future but these leaders, he strongly points out, have to be given a future now.  When they see the value of the present, the future will be all the brighter. We should trust and encourage them, accommodating ourselves to the direction they want to go. That, says our writer, would be enough.

The dilemmas faced by parents are extraordinarily difficult, characterizing the frustrations they usually encounter by the oft-used statement: "You are damned if you do and damned if you don't."  It is important for all to realize that children are raised, as we hear often, not only by parents but by all of society. The health of society will determine how successful the nurturing will be, and is reason enough, he says,  for all of us to be concerned with what is happening in the world around us. 

North South Conflict Remains After 60 years

Most people  are not pleased with their personality or situation in life and would like to see a change, says the Catholic Times columnist writing in a recent View from the Ark. This is not all, he continues, for they want also to change the world. This wanting to change the world is stronger in the young, for they have the higher ideals, and a greater dissatisfaction. Most of the changes in the world come, he believes, from those who have this  dissatisfaction, and one might even say, he points out, that those who have attempted reformation, revolution, and innovation are similarly motivated.

The Chinese character used in  the above three words--reformation, revolution, innovation--refers to leather, and the verb would be 'to embellish leather.' With the passage of  time, the meaning becomes 'to change' and 'to fix'. To clean and polish any fine article requires care and earnestness. This is also true for the changes in the world, which only humans can accomplish. What is necessary to change the world? he asks. Without the need for discussion, the only thing necessary, he says, is a changed heart; and young people actually want to see this change.

What enables a person to change his way of thinking? Is it criticism, ridicule, pressure? This can develop quickly into conflict, as history tells us. One of the famous nationalists and patriots, Shin Chae-ho, expressed a view of history that evolves around competition between the “I” and the “non-I”.This has been a fact of our history, and we know it leaves aftereffects. There is no quicker way to bring about change, he says, but it's also the way of inflicting much pain and sorrow to both winners and losers.

We have seen this in our conflict between the North and South: Even after  60 years we are still experiencing the aftereffects. The results of change that come from war show that it was better never to have gone to war. With war, we leave the area of the heart and enter the material realm to achieve our purpose.

With war we have left behind the interior dimensions of the heart and opted for the material. Using our material strength we bring about great devastation. Obviously this is not the best way to bring about change. Conflict and war presupposes hostility between the parties, which is seen as  criticism, ridicule, pressure.This is certainly better than conflict and war but when it happens those who should be subjects are made into objects.

What each party to a conflict should try to understand, he says, is to see the situation through the eyes of the other. There has to be sincerity and love for this to succeed, only then will we see change. This will enable the two parties to acquire what each one lacks. This is the teaching of all religious leaders of all persuasions. Sincerity and love will naturally be followed by praise and awe. And with humility, each party will not be afraid to do what the world would naturally affirm as the right thing to do.

Obstacles in Building Small Christian Communities

Setting up small christian communities has been an important goal the Church in Korea has been endeavoring to achieve for the last 20 years. The results are not as favorable as many would like, and efforts have been made over the years to improve them. Recently, the Bishops Pastoral Research Center conducted a workshop for priests from nine dioceses; 23 priests attended whose specialty and expertise were working with small communities. They  discussed the problems and aimed to draw up a Korean model for what these communities should be. The Catholic Times had an editorial on the workshop and two articles that summarized some of the ideas that were shared during the workshop.

Several presentations on the small community concept, and the discussions that followed on what has already been accomplished, dealt with diagnosis and assessment. Important as these were, more interest was shown over the proper role of the pastoral leader in the small community.

Is it possible to build small christian communities in Korea? was a question that was often raised during discussions. The clergy in Korea have been so central to the work that to overcome this thinking and the secularization that has been experienced by the Christians will make a return to the Gospel message very difficult. The place of small communities in the  pastoral vision is not helped by  the understanding of the common good held in our society. But more to the point: the Church has not  stressed enough the place of fellowship in community. Consequently, as one of the participants suggested, if we look at our situation dispassionately will we not agree that we have built a middle-class Church?

The small communities were to be the future, a new way of doing pastoral work--a variety of different expressions were used to describe our intentions, but most turned out to be little more than empty words. On the parish level, where they were working with the small communities, there were serious problems in their successful implementation. We were not able to have a model for our people that fit the situation. The attempts at inculturation and making it fit our Korean situation have been slow.

The Church has been more intent in facing and coming to grips with our everyday challenges, according to the Catholic Times, than having a Christ-like vision for the work. We have to make our own a common vision of pastoral ministry, and do away with the imperial authority structures for the proper evangelization that is the mission of the Church. When this problem is acknowledged, this will be the first step in the shortcut that will facilitate the building of successful small communities and constructing a workable model for small communities here in Korea.

Janitor in a Korean Sauna

In the Kyeongyang magazine, a man who retired from his government job writes of his recent experience as a janitor in a Jjimjilbang, a gender-segregated public bathhouse furnished with the traditional Korean saunas and massage areas, and places to eat and sleep, all for a reasonable price. It was not what he expected to be doing after retirement; he saw himself doing some kind of volunteer service work. 

However, after his severance pay was gone and needing pocket money, he looked around for work. Though he appeared to be in his fifties, his life history made it clear he was at that time in his late sixties (now 75). Nobody was  interested; if an accident happened there would be serious problems, he was repeatedly told.

For a couple of years, he continued to look for work without any results. He then heard there was work available in a Jjimjilbang; without any thought of what kind of work it would be, he accepted the job. Not only did he have to sweep and clean the premises but all the accumulated trash had to be separated and readied for disposal, which was difficult to do at his age. Even using a mask, he found the smell awful. And in the winter his fingers would become ice cold, and in the summer he would perspire so much it felt as if he were in a sauna. But he did manage to stay with the job,now going on for three years.

During this time he was the secretary of the parish purgatorial society, but found he could no longer manage both jobs and told the priest he had to leave his parish work. He said he was doing the janitorial work for money, but it was also penance for the sins in his past life. He had been very active in the parish over many years, serving as parish council president and the president of many parish groups. 

Because of his work in the Jjimjilbang, he met many Catholics and workers that he knew from his past work places, and felt embarrassed, he said, to be seen doing janitorial work. One visitor to the Jjimjilbang was a subordinate he used to work with; the man told him he found it difficult to continue coming to the sauna and seeing his old boss working as the janitor.  Overcoming the problem of 'saving-face', he realized, was also a problem that others had to deal with when they met him in this situation. He remembers reading that humility is a difficult virtue to practice, and without God's help difficult also to understand.

Whenever he's asked now about his work, he answers without hesitation: a janitor. Putting into practice what he has learned about humility, he is perfectly at peace and has no problems with the work. Jesus used the word peace, after the resurrection, to greet those he met. Without God's help, it is difficult to experience this peace. He ends his article with a request: asking his readers for their prayers as he continues to work to clean his own interior of the garbage that is still there.

Learning to be Friends to the Disabled

A priest recently assigned to head a center for the disabled writes about an incident that brought sadness to the inhabitants of the center, and vividly shows the difficulties the disabled have to face in society.

A middle school child whose disability was not serious came to the center to attend one of the programs. After the introductions were over, he said he wanted to go to the toilet. When he did not return to the class, the priest sent someone to find out what happened and  was told they found the boy in the flower bed in the back of the building. The priest called for an ambulance and the boy was taken to a hospital. There was no danger to life, but he would have  a long period of treatment and convalescence.

The priest asked him why he threw himself out of the small window of the fourth-floor toilet, and was told he no longer wanted to live. The priest on the way to the hospital was filled with a thousand different feelings. Why would the young man want to kill himself? He felt miserable.

The boy had a problem with tics, which made it difficult to control certain bodily movements, provoking misunderstanding and causing his classmates to shun him, and some of the rougher students to beat him. The world  he had to face was filled with exclusion and avoidance, alienation and loneliness. These experiences left the boy with distrust of others and fear of the world.
 
In the introduction on that day of the accident, the boy expressed his despair by the way he introduced himself, which the priest found deeply moving. To live in such circumstances, the priest knew, would be difficult for anyone to accept.

Even though the center is separated by a large road from residential apartment buildings, there was opposition to building a center for the disabled. The main reason was  the belief that such a center would change the atmosphere of the neighborhood, and property values would decline. This is the way society looks upon those they consider losers in life, the weak who can't compete successfully with others.

Adults are the mirror for the young. When adults have little sympathy for the weak and the disabled, the children will very likely have the same feelings. Rather than embracing the weak, the delicate, the disabled among us, and helping to defend them; we are more likely to find that living with them is uncomfortable, and sometimes give vent to our feelings by using violence against them.

The priest mentions that he found it difficult, at first, to accept the assignment to the center, acknowledging feelings of resentment for having to accept such an assignment. However, living among the disabled, he was able, little by little, to appreciate the depth of the sadness they have to live with daily. His heart has been changed, he says, to one full of gratitude, and he asks for prayers that he may continue to be a good friend to them.

Learning from Water

The possibility of less water for human use, some are predicting, could be a concern for future generations; some even stating it could be the reason for the start of the 3rd World War. This warning begins an article by a research philosopher at the Sogang Philosophy Research Center. The World Water Forum is currently trying to solve the problems associated with having less available water in the future. The research professor attempts to add to the suggestions, in her article in the Peace Weekly, by recalling the way Asians traditionally viewed the attributes of water, and the lessons that were learned.

Looking at water resting in a washbasin, the ancients were reminded, she says, of the needs of the body and spirit and the desire for purification. In the Analects, Confucius says that those who are wise love water and those who are gentle love the mountain. In this tradition, water is the sign of daily renewal, a sign of wisdom. When water stagnates, it putrefies and is not able to give life. When water continues to flow, however, it continually renews itself and is then able to give life. The strength of water comes from its softness.There is, in this traditional view, an intimate relationship between softness and life.

In the philosophy of Lao Tzu, the softness of water is the origin of its vitality. Humans while living are soft; at death they become stiff. The world in which we live is always changing and if our thoughts and heart become hardened, we will have difficulty adapting. If we are careless about disciplining ourselves, we also lose our flexibility and our ability to communicate with others. Inability to communicate means death. Flexibility allows us to communicate well with all manner of persons, and tends to nurture the life of all creatures. Consequentially, she advises, if we are to keep on going along the way of softness and flexibility, we have to fight to maintain these life-nurturing qualities.

When water enters dry objects it makes them soft: land, trees, any dried up plant, when water is received, they become soft and return to vibrant life. There is nothing softer than water, and yet it still is able to overcome the hardest objects on earth. Wisdom, she says, is having the freedom to communicate like water.

Water is the visible aspect of the way (virtue) in Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In chapter 8 there is the verse:

The highest good is like water.
Because water excels in benefiting the myriad creatures
without contending with them and settles where none would like to be,
it comes close to the way.

In a home it is the site that matters;
In quality of mind it is depth that matters;
In an ally it is benevolence that matters;
In speech it is good faith that matters;
In government it is order that matters;
In affairs it is ability that matters; 
In action it is timeliness that matters.

It is because it does not contend that it is never at fault.

There were other sages who expressed similar ideas, the professor reminds us; she ends with chapter 66 of the Tao Te Ching.

"The reason why the River and the Sea are able to be king of the hundred valleys is that they excel in taking the lower position. Hence they are able to be king of the hundred alleys." When a statesman follows this wisdom and lowers himself and works for the benefit of the people he very naturally takes the position of leader.
 
When we realize that these thoughts on water are all from reflections on life without the benefit of revelation, we can appreciate how these wise men of the East prepared many for accepting the teachings of Jesus. The professor sees the possibility of solving the problems we are likely to have with water with  the lessons these wise men passed down to us. Simply put, she says we must learn to think like water, and to live like water.