Education: Specific or General?

During this time of  year, students will be preparing for their college entrance exams: a very trying time not only for students but also for parents. A professor writing in the Peace Weekly notes that many students being interviewed for the exams are unable to answer the easiest of the questions. Their faces turn red and they cry, he says, which prompts him to ask a question he cannot refrain from asking: What is the reason for education?

The big difference between high school and college, he believes, is the student's decision to pick a major in college. The hope is that picking a good major and going deeply into it will enable one to find work and to succeed in one's chosen field. There would be few students who, on graduating, would not be thinking about what they will be doing with their major. There is a connection, most students believe, between picking a major that immediately prepares them for their future work--a connection that would be missing if they were to take any of the humanities, making them unable to compete in the marketplace with the better prepared students.  What is the realty? the professor asks.

He uses the example of the United States: Those who graduate with degrees from the humanities find work in many areas of life. Those who are in the field of education say the study of the humanities--though not immediately helpful in the marketplace--in the long run is a better choice in college. The days of staying on the job for a lifetime, he says, is over. A person who started off in his major and remains in that work for more than 10 years is not the norm. Persons change, work changes, just as the rivers and mountains change.

The business magazine Forbes reported last year that more than 60 percent of college graduates find work in a field outside their major. Which is the reason many are saying it is better to have a general and transferable education in preparation for both work and life.

During the Victorian days in England Cardinal Henry Newman was asked to start a university in Ireland, prompting him to write the book "The Idea of a University," from which the professor quotes the following: "A university  should be teaching a variety of subjects. Students can major in a small number of subjects but should immerse themselves in the traditions of the university and to  understand the whole outline of the system of knowledge, the underlying principles of knowledge, the breath of each course of study, their shadow and their light, the good and the bad points. General education is to cultivate the philosophic inclinations of the mind towards personal liberty, balance, serenity, the golden mean, and wisdom."

The professor ends by mentioning that about the same time as Newman, Wilhelm Von Humboldt in Germany took the initiative in starting a research university, whose ideas spread throughout the world. Now in the 21st century, the ideas of Newman are being rediscovered  and interest in the humanities is returning to the world of education, aided, it is believed, by the rapid changes in the world. The movement away from the modern specialization of education to a more general liberal arts education is, the professor says, a necessary step back into the past, where, as Newman believed, learning was valued for its own sake.  The professor would like to tell parents of high school students who are preparing for college in the humanities not to worry, for it is the most modern of the majors and the one that will give them the best opportunity for a fulfilling life. 

The Movement for a Better World (MBW)

The community aspects of Church, often overlooked, such as relationships, our neighbors, working for the common good and building communities of people of God, aspiring for communal holiness is the mission of "The Movement for a Better World (MBW). The Movement had its start in Rome in response to an appeal by Pius XII to the worldwide Church and gathered momentum from the preaching of Fr. Ricardo Lombardi S.J. It was given official approval by the Church in 1952. Fourteen years later Fr. Lombardi was invited to Korea to begin preparations for our own Movement, and in 1968 a team was formed, and by 1973 there were nine dioceses ready to begin the MBW.

The movement has many different courses of study on change, dialogue, secularization, the Church as the people of God and the world, and the new image of the parish.  There are also programs for renewal.

The Taegu diocese, in its recent bulletin, described the Movement and its success in producing many leaders. Taegu, on average, has about 10 programs each year. They can be evening programs lasting four evenings, or full-day programs lasting two nights and three days. They are intended for everyone--priests, religious and lay people--making the programs another sign of the communal aspects of Church. 

The programs seek to instill the thinking from the Second Vatican Council, that Church is a community of association and sharing, and introducing this thinking into the life of the parishes and dioceses. In this time of the new evangelization, renewing the faith life of the participants is an important aspect of parish life.

Over recent years there was sadness in seeing that in certain dioceses, the programs seemed to have disappeared and little was heard of the Movement.   Few articles have been written on the movement. The other movements within the Church are well-known and receive a great deal of publicity.  BWM makes a point of not calling attention to itself and wants to keep out of the press, which no doubt is the reason behind the absence of news about the movement.  In  the Taegu diocese, however, according to the bulletin, it continues strong and active.
 
 

A New Way to Live

Simplicity is a word that usually has positive overtones, especially in our hectic society where many have the desire to leave behind the hustle, artificiality and competition and return to a more natural lifestyle. We see this tendency in the return to the farms and occasional trips to the countryside by city dwellers. Many think the talk about simplicity is  excessive, that the desire to distance ourselves from a modern technological society is unintelligible, and yet the voices of those who speak about this need is growing, and not without reason, says a columnist on the opinion page of the  Catholic Times.
 
He reflects on John 1-4:  "Whatever came to be in him found life, life for the light of men," after reading a sign at a construction site: "We are sorry for the inconvenience but everything will be returned shortly to as it was." The last words "as it was" kept spinning around in his head. Yes, material things can be replaced, he says, but not the life that has been destroyed.

In Genesis 1:28, we read: "Have dominion over...all living things that move on the earth." These words are meant for us to take care of life and not to destroy it. Pope Benedict, in his peace message of 2010, used as the theme of the message: "If You  Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation." However, the columnist believes we are not sufficiently sensitive to the natural world  to see the value of all life. In our headlong pursuit of economic development we very easily destroy life, forgetting what the geoscientists tell us. When the butterflies and bees disappear from the earth, humanity also will cease to exist.

If this is true of the small forms of life, how much more will this be true of human life? he asks. At present, the biggest cause of death of those under forty is suicide. Korea is a country that is driving its citizens to kill themselves, he says, as it inadvertently creates a culture of death. One reason for this situation is the extraordinary educational demands of the country and the economic structures that have been built. How many more have to die before something is done? he asks. Have we become a world that worships money?

He remembers reading the words of an American Indian that made a big impression  on him. "When the last tree dies, the last river polluted, the last fish caught; we will know we can't live by eating money."
 
What are we to do? he asks at the conclusion of the column. Change the way we live, he answers. Be content with less and with a little more discomfort. We have to cut back on our eating, our clothing and the homes we build. We have to learn that with less we can have more satisfaction and live happier lives. During this month dedicated to the martyrs would be a good time, he says, to take the first steps in this new way of living.

Pope Francis and War

Pope Francis has asked all of us to pray and fast for peace in Syria. In the Catholic Times, both the desk columnist and the editorial reflect on the words of the Pope and their practical application to all of us. Even the Great Mufti invited all Syrian Muslims to pray for peace in mosques in Damascus and across Syria, in communion with the Pope. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, joined with Pope Francis in praying for peace in Syria.

The pope said, very pointedly, the columnist reports, that there is doubt about the motives of the United States for wanting to attack Syria. Is it for humanitarian reasons or is it to sell more weapons of war? These words of the pope, the spiritual father of Catholics throughout the world, could not have been easy to say, according to the columnist.

The popes in recent history have been spokespersons for peace in the world, coming out strongly against all forms of violence. Much of what is going on in the world is not for the good of humanity as a whole, but rather the consequences of an extreme hardhearted and unfeeling self-interest, he says.

In the past, the Church  supported the just-war understanding, and has promoted this thinking and  participated in what was considered just-wars, the crusades being one example of this thinking. One of the symbols of this thinking remains in the Vatican Swiss Guards. Pope Julius II, during the Renaissance, led his Catholic troops into combat dressed in full armor. However, in the 20th century, most everyone would agree that the preferred method for solving problems is by dialogue and negotiations.  Benedict 15th worked to end the first world war and Pius 12th the second world war.

Reasons for the change, says the columnist, are the development of weapons of mass destruction, and the number of innocent people injured and killed--collateral damage, as it's euphemistically called-- in modern warfare. War no longer can be seen as an option under any circumstances, the columnist says, but as an absolute evil.

The editorial states categorically that the use of chemical weapons has to be prevented but this has to be done following international law and not unilaterally by a strong country with their use of force. Fortunately, there now seems to be a way out with the proposal that the stockpile of chemical weapons be turned over to supervision by the UN, and ultimately destroyed.

The  whole issue is surrounded with a great deal of ambiguity, and the US threat to use force has not disappeared. The editorial says that as long as the motive of selling arms continues, the end is not yet in sight. The pope has clearly stated that the Catholic Church is against the use of military arms, and that everyone should be against all wars and supporters of peace.

Pyongyang Vicariate

 

Maryknoll's work in Korea started in 1923 in the Vicariate of Pyongyang, given to Maryknoll by the French Foreign Missionary Society. The above picture and article appeared in the Peace Weekly this past week; it is the penciled drawing of an old photograph taken in front of the Tai Shin Li Church in Pyongyang. This was the second parish built in the Vicariate after the Maryknoll Society began working in North Korea.  Under the Japanese occupation, they had to change the name of the church to follow administrative regulations. After liberation, it was changed back to the original name, but soon after the work of the Society come to an end with the Communist takeover of the North. .

The first Korean priest of the Vicariate, Fr. Ryang Ki-sep, was assigned to Pyongyang and built the church that we see above. According to the "Korean Mission History of the South," by Fr. Robert M. Lilly M.M., Fr. Ryang, after leaving the North, assisted in project work for the Seoul archdiocese. He had dual citizenship which facilitated travel for fund raising. Through a grant from Miserior, he built the original Saint Mary's hospital which has since moved across the Han river to the south side of Seoul. He later improved the pilgrimage site where the martyr Hwang Sa-yang wrote the silk letter to the bishop of Peking. Fr. Ryang died in 1982.

The second pastor of the parish was Fr. Patrick Duffy. At the start of the Second World War, the following story about Fr. Pat was told: The American missioners were considered enemy and confined in a large Protestant compound in Pyongyang. Fr. Duffy had two passports, Irish and British, and in order to remain within the group, he first presented the British passport, which made him an enemy alien. After several months of that experience, he got fed up and thought he might do better back in his own place. So he presented his Irish passport which made him a neutral, giving him the right to demand his freedom. Returning to his parish again, he became a prisoner there and not allowed off the compound. He couldn't meet anyone and was in worse shape than before, having to stay under house arrest until the end of the war while his follow Maryknollers were repatriated in 1942 and 43. 

He was assigned back to Korea, after the war, but with the country now separated into two halves, north and south, with the occupation of Soviet, and United States forces, the situation provoked a great deal of suffering for the Korean people. After the silencing of Catholicism in the North, Fr.Pat went to Japan where he spent the other half of his 54 years on the missions.

Always Conscious of God

What does a priest do when during his sermon a toddler with unsteady steps makes his way down the main aisle to the altar, calling out Abba Abba, the sound getting louder as he arrived at the altar?  asks a columnist on the spiritual page of the Catholic Times. Since it happened so quickly no one was quick enough to respond to the situation, and no one could anticipate how the situation would develop. The priest stopped speaking, looked at the infant and said:

"Child, why are you making our relationship known to the whole world?" He then left the pulpit, picked up the child and brought it to the toddler's room. The mother couldn't imagine her child walking to the altar, and  stood transfixed, not knowing what to do. At the priest's words, the whole congregation broke out in  uncontrollable laughter.

The mother took the child from the priest and, with her head down and very much embarrassed, went back to the room. The priest returned to the altar and continued with the Mass and told the congregation that, like the child  who was calling out Father as he was coming to the altar, he will try to be the good Father and priest. When life comes to an end he wants to be able to go to God the Father like the child coming to the altar. The congregation broke out in applause and laughter as if everybody in the congregation wanted to be like the child  going to God our Father.

The columnist mentions hearing the complaints of a mother who was asked to leave the church because the baby she was holding was crying.  And at the children's Mass, one of the teachers said the penalties given to children for not behaving were difficult to accept, for she herself tries to enter the children's world to learn how to go to God with the innocence of a child.

The columnist wonders how many, like the priest in the incident with the child, have the presence of mind and the spirituality to respond as the priest had done when events suddenly take us by surprise. Do we revert to our ordinary way of behaving? Or do we recall how Jesus showed us how to behave when sudden events surprise us? Jesus was always acting appropriately because he was always conscious of God. 

Filial Piety and Loyalty of Korean Martyrs

Most people consider life their most precious possession. However, there are times that other values are more important: parents will sacrifice their lives for their children and  children for parents. And sacrificing oneself for an idea or a belief has often occurred throughout history, always for what was thought to be of greater value than their own life.

A professor emeritus writing for the diocesan bulletin reflects on  the sacrifice of life by the Korean martyrs, as they would have seen it. Often we hear that the martyrs of Korea belonged to a foreign religion. When they list the Korean traditional religions, it is natural not to include Christianity. However, when  martyrs sacrificed their lives for what they believed, it was not something separate from their being Korean, says the professor, but was an integral part of who they were.

When the Korean martyrs gave their lives, the professor points out, they did not do so for a foreign religion but for what they believed in. They accepted their Christianity as having many of the same traditional values of the Korean culture, and interpreted Christianity from this background. When Catholicism entered Korea, one of the most important values widespread throughout society was respect for parents and loyalty to the king. The cultural values of respect and loyalty were root and trunk of the Korean ethos, with loyalty valued higher, says the professor, than filial respect.

The martyrs of Korea, because of their great respect for God, called him, in keeping with their cultural heritage, their Great King and Great Father. They felt a greater, more lofty loyalty and filial piety for God  than they did for their earthly king and parents. They remembered the filial piety Jesus showed his mother when he was on the cross. The martyrs were very much taken up with the thinking of the times, and since filial piety and loyalty were so  important in the culture, it was only natural that they would direct these values onto God the Father. This is where the Korean values of loyalty and filial piety and the Christian teaching become one. Therefore, to say that what was done by the Korean martyrs is foreign to the Korean culture does not fit the facts, says the professor.

The Christians knew that God was a just God and that the filial obedience they owed to parents should also be directed to God. This filial respect is fundamental to our Korean religions, the professor maintains, adding that the filial piety of our Koreans is the same kind of piety the Christian martyrs showed to God.