The Laity's Role in Fostering Clericalism

The desk columnist of the Catholic Times brings to mind the Pope Francis interview with the atheist Scalfari. The Pope's way of handling himself during these interviews has become of interest to many of our Korean young people, he says, often generating plenty to talk about. The Pope's habit of treating subjects very openly that previously were deemed "hush-hush" have endeared him to many, non-Catholics as well as Catholics.   

He wants to open up the Church to the whole world, the columnist says, adding that the temporal interests of the Vatican seem not to be this Pope's chief preoccupation, since these concerns tend to neglect the world around us. And he believes the Pope will do everything possible to change this type of mentality. Is the Pope right in following this approach? he asks. This question is now being asked by some who doubt its effectiveness. But what can be said with certainty about the new approach is that what was once considered taboo when finding fault with the Church has now  become acceptable.

In discussing anti-clericalism, Scalfari said he is not anti-clerical but when he meets clericalism, he becomes anti-clerical and the Pope agreed with him, saying he has the same reaction with clericalism. Clericalism, he said, should  have no place within the  Church.  

This kind of talk on the part of the Pope is welcomed by many of  the laity. Everybody, the journalist says, has had some difficulty dealing with  a cleric or a religious. He doubted, however, whether the laity here in Korea have the right to  criticize clericalism within the Church. He  may be opening himself up to criticism, he says, but we have to be critical of ourselves.There are good reasons for being critical of clericalism within the Church; the renewal of the Church and its mature development demands it. But we have to see what the laity are doing to foster this  kind of clericalism.

He mentioned an incident during a news gathering when a journalist was hit by a book thrown by a cleric. Let us not be concerned with the circumstances, he adds. In response the journalist quickly left the room. One of the laypeople attending the gathering reprimanded the journalist, telling him that was not the way to behave to a priest, that it was disrespectful, and that he should apologize to him for walking out. 

This idea of unquestioning submission to the leaders and priests of the Church, from the time under the Japanese, has come under attack. Church leaders in the past were reluctant to have Christians get involved in society. Today it is just the opposite. Bishop conferences are speaking out on more participation in society, and the laity are often on the opposite side of the issue. What Pope Francis said about the Vatican-centered interest, which neglects the world around us, is difficult for many of our Catholics to appreciate and accept.

When the Catholic newspapers treat some of the troubling issues of society, even passively, they receive all kinds of protestations, most of which are essentially asking the same question: Why is a religious newspaper getting involved in politics? Pope Francis gave his answer: Because we are composed of body and soul.

And this insight also forms much of the thinking of the Second Vatican Council. Though there are some who are looking forward to another council, the Second Vatican Council's teaching is still valid, with its emphasis on the Church as a communion of the people of God, a Church with a horizontal not a vertical structure, and thus motivated by love and mutual respect. Overcoming clericalism has to begin, and end, with the clergy themselves, but we of the laity, he argues, have a great responsibility to help in advancing that goal. The lack of effort on the part of the laity in effecting this change, the columnist laments, is regrettable.

Inability to Write His Biggest Pain

 At the funeral Mass for Choi In-ho (Peter), celebrated by Cardinal Nicholas Chong, the Cardinal said in his sermon that "Choi was the best and most beloved writer of our times, and his works convey his insights into life as well as his affection for people." The Catholic papers provided some of the many reasons he is held in such high esteem. 

 
The novelist moved his readers because of his deep appreciation of life and its meaning. He was able to write in the genres of fiction and essays, and even wrote children's books.  During his fight with cancer, which took his life at the age of 68, he wrote for the Seoul Church Bulletin which gained for the bulletin many readers, and even changed the image of the bulletin. His fight with cancer also helped many who were dealing with similar difficulties in life. 
 
Many of his books became movies and TV shows which made his name even more well-known. He often said that even more than the pain of cancer, his inability to write gave him more pain.  He was a prolific writer, often including Confucian and Buddhist themes in his writings, along with themes from the Christian Scriptures. He made a thirty day retreat, intending to gather material on Jesus in order to write a book on his life that would help people come closer to him. But he wasn't given the time. During his last moments he is quoted as saying he considered the Gospel of John as being the Gospel within the Gospel.
 
In the Seoul Bulletin he wrote the prayer he called the Piece of Taffy. “Lord, this body is a piece of taffy at the bottom of the wooden box. You can cut it up with scissors or play the taffy-cutting game; it is the taffy master's choice. Only allow that the words I have written be sweet daily food for the poor and sick. I pray this in the name of the master of taffy."
 
A fellow novelist writing in the Catholic Times mentions that Plato in the Symposium, using Socrates as his spokesperson, says there are two ways of attaining immortality in this world. One is to have children and the other is to give birth to art or knowledge. A prominent novelist in our time has died and been buried, he said, but his spirit is still with us. Though he noted that Choi wanted to die still writing till the last moment, his friend said that he was not  able to write a parting message for Choi, because he is still very much with us.

Maturing in the LIfe of Faith

 "Finding a road in the desert" was the headline of an article by a poet who entered the Catholic Church some  years ago and now retells her story to the readers of the Kyeongyang  magazine. She remembers a day in spring when the weather was cold and her own spirit colder, trying to find a place for herself in the big city, without money and confidence. But Jesus, she writes, embraced her that day.

She was walking with her head down on a large open space when an old man asked her for directions to the nearest Catholic church. She had  just walked  past the church and so simply retraced her steps to lead him there. Opening the door, the man entered as a  Mass was in progress; she followed after him, and very awkwardly did what everybody else was doing.

On the way out, in front of the holy water font, she noticed a desk with holy cards. One of the cards had Jesus taking his cloak off and putting it on a beggar boy. The writer felt that she was like the boy on the card, beggar-like, and from that time on she continued going to Mass, though not knowing what was going on at the altar.

Although she had been going to Sunday Mass for a number of months no one ever gave her any directions or even talked to her. But she overheard the names Peter, Mary and the like, and wondered what she needed to do to get a name. She inquired and was told she had to be baptized and then would receive a name.

If you ask a Catholic why they became Catholic many will say it's not like the Protestants, it's rather easy and not burdensome. Catholics, she noted, are lukewarm when it comes to evangelizing and not very good at reading the Scriptures. When talking to a Protestant they easily quote Scripture, and you are left at a loss for words, she remembers.

She has been studying the Scriptures since 2003 and, wanting to convey her enthusiasm to others, she began to volunteer her services by teaching the Scriptures. However, there are times she still has difficulties, she admits, and so she recommends two book: Contemplating Jesus by Robert Faricy and Robert Wicks, now out of print, and a book by Franz Josef Ortkemper, Go the Way  your Heart Directs.

She mentions two incidents from the Scriptures that she came to understand on a deeper level: the story of Babel, which gives us, she believes, an image of our inner self desiring the summit but it is God who resides there. The other is Abraham, who is called the ancestor of  believers, but his actions, she says, are difficult to understand. He is told by God to go to the promised land but he takes a route different from the one recommended, and gets out of a difficult predicament by giving  his wife to the Egyptians, followed by other absurd acts which might endanger his becoming the father of a great nation.

We can all become saints was her conclusion, she says, from her reading and study, including the provocative and puzzling acts of Abraham. (It's well to remember that Scripture does not give us the story of heroes but of temptations, errors, and depravity besides the acts of  heroism.) The contrast between Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) and Job raises us up to a new level of understanding. The book by Ortkemer helped her to see the Scriptures in a different light and to rid herself of much of the alienation that came from her first readings of the Scriptures.

Life Need Not be Boring

Life can be tiring and boring and the results can be seen daily in our newspapers. Obviously, this is not the way it should be. A seminary priest-professor, in the Kyeongyang magazine, comments that such a lifeless attitude frequently comes about when there is so much to do, accompanied by our inability to respond in the way we would like, leading to anger,frustration and depression--all brought about, says the professor, by a mental state that can be pathological.  

To avoid this, most cultures, he says, have built-in solutions: sporting events, festivals and holidays, art shows and literary events, and personal occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries, that encourage spending a night out dining and drinking. We attempt to overcome our tiredness and boredom by all kinds of distractions. What we really want, the professor says, is rest, but we continually take on more activity.

Our spiritual life is no different, he says. We should be concerned about our relationship with God and experience his presence in our lives, but the accompanying values and rules become discordant with the society we are in, being seen as musty with old-age and now unimportant. But even those who have been Christian for some time can feel tired and bored, wanting relief from such feelings. Prayer also can become arduous, further increasing our fatigue and feelings of being burnt out by what we believe is demanded. When we do not experience God and his grace, this is bound to be its natural outcome.

Catholics also have a great deal of habitual acts to perform as part of our faith life, and if there is no sweetness and tang to the life, we will become tired and bored.  When we lose the meaning and awareness of what we do as Christians, weariness will appear. When we are not aware of the graces we receive daily, we will be overcome with distractions and worldly thoughts.

Not only is this true for the laity but priests also have the same problem. And when obligation is the only motive for action, the same problems arise.  Mass, the Sacraments, the breviary, counseling, visits to the sick--all can be very tiring. Without joy in the life of the priest, these duties can become unbearable and lead to burn out and dereliction of duty. 

To find reasons for the boredom and fatigue, one has to look within, the professor says. Before we take an alternative route, we need the discipline to uncover the driving force for our actions, and work to purify our motivation. A small change in our thinking, we know, can bring a great change in our actions. The grace of God is always there to move us from stagnation, or something worse, to a new life of health and grace-filled living.

How One Christian Philosopher Sees Secularism

Secularism  defined briefly is the denial of the supernatural; our  greatest value is the  world we can experience. With these words a high school principal and professor of philosophy, a priest, begins  his article in the Kyeongyang Magazine headlined: Is this  world everything?

Secularism, he says, has entered the cultural life of society, changing our traditional ways of thinking, both consciously and unconsciously. The transcendent, the spiritual and holy, has been pushed to the periphery, out of our daily concerns.

What is left, he says, is a world centered on the Ego, the 'I'  becoming all important. Reason, our traditional guide to right behavior, is being overturned by a reliance on personal feelings of what is right. From a God-centered world we are moving to a human-centered world, discarding our supernatural measuring sticks, content to behave in accordance with an intuitive judgement of ourselves.

Many philosophers, he said, helped to spread this emphasis on the individual's right to determine his own behavior without regard for any other governing authority, mentioning in particular the pre-eminent German individualist anarchist Max Stirner (1806-1856). By emptying our minds of the transcendent, the supernatural, and relying solely on the personal desires of the individual to determine our behavior, we end up, the priest says, with absurdity and, very likely, using others as means in pursuing our own desires.

Enlightenment brought the ideas of individuality, rationalism, empiricism, and psychology to the culture. Mankind was now in a position, with the new knowledge and technology, to control nature. By getting rid of God and deifying both the "I ' and science, he says we have effectively diminished the relevance of everything else.

During the 18th century, secularism put on another face; it was accepted as an essential component of all scholarly work, especially in physics, history, natural science, law and art. Theology and metaphysics were dropped. There was no longer any desire to acquaint scholars with the principles handed down from the past. Reason, he says, was taken away from faith, and virtue was removed from religion, which was pushed to the periphery of the scholarly world. Repentance, grace, salvation and similar concepts were considered meaningless, as being outside the legitimate boundary of what can be known.  

A new group of philosophers, in the 19th century, with the appearance of atheism as a school of thought, made man into a God. Our knowledge became more specialized and individualistic, but when metaphysics, the root of our philosophical knowledge, was discarded, he maintains that it is now impossible to rid ourselves of conflict, and the result is a secularism without a center. We have lost, he says, our identity and have become skeptical and  disillusioned.
 
Nobody denies, he points out, that knowledge and technology have brought a great deal of material comfort into our lives. But knowledge and technology alone cannot solve all our problems. To solve our problems, he believes we must take on the secularist culture with a contrary and corrective culture. Not an easy task but that, he says, is the project of religion.

For a Christian, Jesus is the object of our faith. He is the source of our hope and the way we can overcome the crisis of our civilization. When Jesus is the foundation of our efforts, humanity, our neighbor, nature and natural law become the means by which we can overcome individualism and materialism, and begin to make real a civilization of love--because the God we believe in is a God of love.

Life is Full of Encounters and Departures

Life is full of encounters and departures, of hellos and goodbyes. A priest writing in the With Bible magazine reflects on his own departure from his first parish. Though eagerly looking forward to what the future will bring, he recalls those five years that went by so quickly with its joyful and sorrowful moments.

During the farewell Mass he cried, he said, surprised by his tears. Isn't the life of a priest full of encounters and departures? he asked himself. What had built up this emotion? He was leaving without any mishaps; there should be a feeling of relief from the responsibilities of parish life. After all, he will be living under the same heaven as his parishioners, though he feels he will not meet them again.
One of the phrases often heard is that none of our meetings is forever. God does not want us to have encounters that do not end in this world. The vehicle we travel in repeatedly picks up and drops off its travelers as we journey through life.

The writer reflects on the many people he has met and separated from daily. Names and faces he doesn't remember, much like the wind that comes and goes. Or like those who came into his life like a violent storm and shook it completely. Sadly, there have been some, he admits, who came into his life to leave scars but many have been a great blessing to him. With these plentiful encounters and departures, seemingly relating together harmoniously, he has become, he believes, the person he is today.

What is it that lasts forever? Shusaku Endo (1923-19996), in his novel The World around the Dead Sea, has Pilate ask this question of Jesus. Jesus answers: "Those in life who have been touched by me, even if only fleetingly, will forever be encountering me." This is true of us also, says the priest; every person we have touched in any encounter will remain forever with us. It's also important to remember that every one of our actions and words can be either helpful or hurtful to that person.

What traces are left behind after the encounter and departure? This is what is most important, he says. Buddhism says that even touching the garment of another is destiny. But more than with encounters, in farewells everything seemingly comes to mind: the folly and the mistakes, the good and the bad, the love received and given, the care, the friendship, the acts of forgiveness. It is, he says, very much like separating from your first love. The priest loved  his first parishioners and hopes only the good traces will remain now that he has bid his farewells. He is certain that the meetings and farewells of our lives, even when they have long ago slipped into the past, will remain an important part of our lives.

Honesty and Ideological Positions

Writing in the Peace Weekly, a member of the Bishops Pastoral Research Committee begins her article by referring to a visit, while a student overseas, to the Dachau concentration camp where many Jews were slaughtered, some being used for medical experiments before being killed. In the camp many reminders of the past, she said, could be seen: the railway that brought the prisoners to the camp, the guard posts, the water moat, the barbed wire, the high-voltage instruments, and the incinerators. Also on display were pictures of various areas of the concentration camp, and posters the Nazi government had disseminated to popularize and defend their brutal activities. 

Outside the camp, on a stone slab are the words, "Never Again," which left her, she says, with an unforgettable memory of the trip. But during her time in the camp, she said not once did she notice any words critical of Hitler or the Nazi government. She surmises that such information would have been unnecessary, that a deliberate decision had been made to allow visitors to the camp to see firsthand the horror that took place there, and to judge for themselves the meaning of it all. And the facts, she agreed, spoke more loudly than any official commentary could.

And what are the facts, she asks, that will be included in the textbooks now being prepared, presenting the history of Korea. There has been, she says, a lot of infighting between liberals and conservatives on what to include. Efforts are being made to correct the mistakes in previous textbooks, but it is a problem not easily solved; those who have the job of checking on the revised history do not have the trust of many critics.

In Korea, it is said that a person who acts according to principles is like a textbook. A textbook should follow fundamental rules: be accurate, fair, universal. A textbook, she emphasizes, should not be a place for personal convictions, values and philosophy. When what is said conforms to the beliefs of those in authority, and they fabricate laws and systems for their own benefit, change untruths to truths and beautify what is not, this becomes a great embarrassment to all. When the ideological disputes among our adult generation, she says, affect the way textbooks are written, we are blinding our children to the past and preventing them from entering a more secure and predictable future.

No one questions, publicly at least, that history books should be written solely with the intent of presenting the facts of the past as accurately as possible. Judging the accuracy of these facts will however have to be made, she points out, by those viewing the facts and will depend not only on their knowledge of history but on the qualities of heart that often inform what is known. And it is precisely in this area that the Church has spoken out clearly (in discussing the transformation of humanity, in Evangelization in the Modern World #19): "For the Church, it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and, as it were, upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration, and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation."

We as Christians look at history through the eyes of the Gospel. We evaluate what has happened in the past and analyze it with our understanding of Gospel values, in order to contribute to a better world. Since the Church is interested in evangelizing the culture, we can't help but be interested in the factual writing of history, and concerned that the forthcoming revisions of the textbooks on Korean history be done accurately.