With the evolving Web the Church needs to adapt to the
changes that continue to come. Popes have expressed the need for us to
get involved. An article in the Catholic Times introduces us to Web 2.0.
The Web 1.0 was mainly static but now we have interaction and
user-generated content.
With the Web 2.0 we have a new
way of involvement and a challenge to the Church--a dilemma. Catholicism is not managed according to democratic
principles, it has a fixed structure. When all can create information,
opinions and become owners of the new media, the one directional
information conveyed approach will be challenged.
Back
in the 90s most of the parishes established their own parish web-sites;
today they have few visitors and many have been discontinued. New
technology needs to be accepted and used. In 2000 we began using the
so-called Web 2.0. Users can now create data, process, preserve and
publish. We have SNS and UCC (User Created Content) and Wikipedia,
Tweeter and Facebook and the like.
Korea is familiar
with Web 2.0. Our diocesan bulletins are no longer only giving
information but the form and ways of accessing the bulletins have
changed. QR code ( a code consisting of black and white squares that
can be read with your smart phone) can allow one to access the bulletin
easily. One can interact with the site and in certain bulletins we have
a code that allows those with impaired vision to access the spoken
word. Podcasts are available.
When
the tools and methods of communication change, it is well known that communication's
enviroment changes: politics, economics, culture and society change.
The way we live and think, religion too will be affected. Our
understanding and behavior, the pastoral enviroment in which we live,
our Christians and the environment in which we seek to evangelize, and
our attitudes change.
One of the priests of the
diocese in an essay he wrote for the Catholic Times in 2004, at the
beginning of the Web 2.0 era said: "The flood of information calls for a
different behavior on the part of Catholicism." We have a paradigm
shift : "Catholics have to begin to get into the pastoral work of the
Church. This change has to take place before they leave the Church."
In the future we will have Web 3.0 and 4.0. Web 2.0 is interactive, Web 3.0 will have communication, customized to the individual.
If the Church is not to lose its essential nature she will have to adapt and plan counter measures. If we see the technological advances
as only something that is adding to our comfort we miss what
is important.The article concludes reminding the readers that all those
using the internet are no longer one way users of technology.
Everybody likes a wedding. After Mass, with a background of flowers,
when pictures are taken with the bride and groom at the front of the
altar, you have many of the congregation crowding around the
photographer enjoying the happiness they see expressed in the newly
wed.
A religious sister writes in View from the Ark,
in the Catholic Times, about her feelings at a wedding. Very naturally what comes to mind are prayers for blessings and graces for the married couple as they begin their journey to the horizon.
In
Asia, marriage was always considered one of the most important matters
in life. Many things have changed but marriage still retains this meaning. God
made us out of love and made us in his image. He wanted to see the love
that exists in the Trinity exemplified in the love that we humans
freely share with others. We realize ourselves when we love. All have
this calling to love, especially those who have been called by baptism.
Married
couples show us how God loves us. God loves us who are so different
from him, he respects this difference to love us. Couples are called to
overcome their differences in loving. They are called
to a bond of friendship.
One of the biggest
problems in society is communication, we understand differences but are unable to accept one another. We need to accept the other's humanity and dignity. Families should be in the forefront in doing this. In the sacrament of matrimony we announce
this love of God, protect it, and make it real. God's love is like a
tabernacle that remains in the couple. "We have come to know and to
believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in
love abides in God, and God in him"( 1 John 4:16).
Family as the basic church community is where the the first pastoral efforts are made. This should be
understood by all who are sacramentally married. Love in the family is not
the same love we know in the world; parents love nurtures and educates the children who in turn spread this love to others.
Words determine the thoughts we have. Laypersons in the Church are
the sleeping giant and movements exist to wake them up. We can
call them collaborators with the clergy or we can understand them as
co-responsible with the clergy. Pope Benedict expressed well the
understanding the Church has about the laity.
"Co-responsibility demands a change in mindset especially concerning the role of lay people in the Church. They should not be regarded as 'collaborators' of the clergy, but, rather, as people who are really 'co-responsible' for the Church's being and acting. It is therefore important that a mature and committed laity be consolidated, which can make its own specific contribution to the ecclesial mission with respect for the ministries and tasks that each one has in the life of the Church and always in cordial communion with the bishops."
Both
Catholic papers had articles on a symposium held in Seoul on the work
of the laity in the new evangelization: the topic was who and to whom?
Korea's Catholic history is different from every other country, and the
laity's rightful place in church life is easy to understand by looking
at their history.They brought the church to Korea, and was active in the
propagation of the Church without the help of the clergy. Laity who were poor and ostracized from society, were able even to increase their numbers, during the early years of the Church in Korea.
A
seminary professor gave a talk on the poor, and the new
evangelization. What do we mean by poverty,who are the poor and why
does the Church have a predilection for the poor? We should not only rid society of forced poverty but each member of the community should desire to live voluntary
poverty, and the community itself to aspire to a more simple life of
voluntary poverty. Forced poverty is the poverty that comes because of
the structures of society and the difficulties that come with financial
matters; voluntary poverty is poverty that one chooses.
With voluntary poverty we are helping to change forced poverty.
Those who are living a forced life of poverty by the way we preach the
Gospel will have a new understanding of what voluntary poverty means. The professor also said that the Church chooses the poor first because they can serve as means of liberating others. God will work through the poor to liberate all of society.
Another
presentation stressed that the laity are in the world as the yeast;
they are God's sign and tool to those in the world. The lay people
imitating Jesus in their lives are a sign of what God wants to do in
society through the laity. Laity are the presence of God in society, the sign of God, and this is
their true identity the gift that they have received.
Today is Pentecost the birth of the Church.We can see the feast day as the reversal of the results of the tower of Babel. On that day we have speaking and communicating with other people and the appearance of tongues of fire. God's desire is to see his creation communicating and living in harmony with others, an extremely difficult task and yet the mission that we have been given.
Regional problems are present in most countries of the world; the
Catholic Times' editorial brings to the readers' attention the
Youngnam and Honam historical conflict. Daegu and Gwangju would be the
metropolitan cities, respectively.
Back in the the
time of the three kingdoms of Korea: Baekje and Silla made up what we now know as the southern part of the Korean peninsular.
Baekje was overcome by Silla and in government and society they were
ostracized, no longer the case, but the
discrimination continues even to this day.
In society at large, efforts have been made to come
together in academic, literary and artistic ways to overcome the deep
seated prejudices in society.This has not been the reality in the past
but it's an effort we see at present. Where is the Church in this
effort? Is a question the editorial asks. Not easy, says the editorial,
to find efforts of the Church.
Both
groups of students, from the two dioceses of the country, remembered the
movement for democracy on May 18th. Both joined a walking pilgrimage to the 5:18
Democratization Movement Archives, historic sites, and the democratic
cemetery where they had a Mass celebrated together. Meetings of the two sections of the
country should be a common event. Bruises from local feelings should not
be allowed to continue beyond the older generation.
What
was the teaching of Pope Francis' visit to Korea last year? Love, peace, consolation, forgiveness, reconciliation, hope, compromise,
sharing.... In order to live these teachings we have to meet one
another.
Local
sentiments and feelings are natural but when they harm the common good it has reached an impermissible level-- we have to eliminate it. Politicians and the mass media should especially be sensitive to this malady, and
the Church make known this disregard in public life. We
are beginning a time for national reconciliation, a new era. The
Church should be involved. We who want to see the justice of God spread, meeting each other, is the way we grow in affection. The
editorial ends with a wish people of faith find the
opportunity for the two areas of the country to meet often.
We all came into the world empty handed and will leave empty handed.
These words start the article in the pastoral bulletin that had been
taken from Osho an Indian mystic. The article deals with the desire to
be number one but does it bring happiness?
The world tells us to grasp what you can, get more than the other-- it can be money
or virtue, this world's goods or the other world's goods. Be
attentive or otherwise you will lose what you have. Don't let it be taken and make sure your taking. We have heard this from early years. From the
time in school to college we have heard the need to compete.
Real
education does not teach us to compete but to cooperate. Fight to be
first is not what is taught. Do not compare yourselves with others, Be a
creator, a person who loves, be a happy person. Be better than another
be number one, and be happy, is not what is being taught.
You
will not absolutely not be happy being number one. Being number one
will require a great deal of hardship, and in the process your body will
be accustomed to this. To become a president or statesman will require
a lot of hardship. That hardship becomes a second nature. That is all that is known. Worry and anxiety have become a way of life. You
have become number one but you are impatient, fearful, you can't
change the desire to be number one.
Real education
does not teach you to be number one. Whatever you do the results are
not important you are meant to enjoy what you are doing. That is what the
artist aspires to. There are two ways to paint. One is
to imitate another person but than what you paint becomes a style of another, you are imitating. It is not you that is painting. You want
to be recognized as an artist. In this case you are not absorbed in what you are doing, and will not
enjoy what you are doing. You are only interested in success. You are
on an ego trip.
A real artist has to rid herself of
the ego. He needs to get rid of the desire to be famous and selfishness, and lose oneself in the painting. It is then that the beauty of the universe
will enter into the painting, and your brush and hands will make something beautiful. Egoism will not help you
to make a masterpiece but without ego and with abnegation you will have what is necessary. Jesus reminded us of this with: the first will be last and the
last first.
In a bulletin for priests, the writer wonders if society is headed for serious confusion. People are condemning with 'swords', under the banner of justice, and enjoying
it. The writer has an eerie feeling
towards what is happening. Even though those who have been singled out
for the 'sword' for their wrong doing and immorality, they are
wielded cruelly.
He doesn't feel that the condemnation
is for the betterment of society but rather like the hunter who has
hit his prey with the arrow, those on the sidelines seeing
the blood yell: kill, kill. Externally it seems there is an interest
in justice, but he can't help but feel that the interest is more in
the cruelty of the violence.
Years ago, an experiment in which a person who had a slight justification to throw a stone, when he does, becomes sadistic. The Stanford Prison Experiment
prepared by the psychologist Zimbardo who selected 24 student from
middle class backgrounds to roll play prisoner and guard in a mock
prison, showed this to be the case.
The aim of the experiment was to see how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and
prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life.
Surprisingly, the experiment had to be discontinued after just a week for
the guards began to act sadistically towards the prisoners.
Zimbardo
determined from his experiment that no matter how kind a person may be
when the enviroment is evil and one is given the right to punish, this easily turns into cruelty. In the beginning it may
start off as a joke but the students when they were
given authority, internally the latent power, desire to control, and gratuitous
attacking appeared.
When
we condemn someone, the same dynamics are experienced. In this case the
one who is punishing the condemned, feels a sense of superiority and a feeling of pleasure in that he is realizing justice, which can
increase the degree of condemnation. What is even worse
is the righteous anger with which we are filled, sees others
who are not concerned as escapists, small minded, and cowards. There
are many in society who see the corrupt as sinking the society as the Sewol sank, and are speaking out.
This
kind of thinking is very natural to us. We
have to be careful with these feelings. Do the stones we are throwing
really have something to do with justice or a way to
resolve our own violence? We need to examine
ourselves to determine if these words of condemnation are for the sake of
society or coming from our brutal nature. If not we are like
the Khmer Rouge who killed the innocent without any sense of guilt.
May, the month of the family and Mary's month. A beautiful month but
we don't always hear beautiful things about the family. A professor emeritus in the Peace Weekly relates some of the problems we face.
We had killings in Seoul of
parents for inheritance last year; almost half of abuse of
the elderly was committed by sons. A country that was know for its
filial piety is no longer seen as such. Last year police department
statistics say that over 5% of the murders are in the family--more than the United States and England.
We like Cain have
the tragic possibility of disobeying the call of God: selfish acts we see in ourselves daily. Those who commit murder are not conscious of the connection we have with each other. The inability to see the strong connections we
have with one another are replaced by individualism
and selfishness even in families, weakening family bonds.
Industry
in our capitalistic society makes us worshipers of money and its slave.
The sudden development of technology has brought into the family TV, and
the smart phone which have become family. This ends
family communication, the family's values and ethics give way to each
his own understanding of family. This is not only a Korean
problem but a world wide problem, and the synod on the family which began
last year and will continue this October, has this as one of the issues.
Families in Korea have serious ailments, and the wounds have to be faced. We
have one of the lowest birthrates in the world and the number of suicides
are highest. The older one is, the greater are the chances of suicide.
Family problems arise in the eyes of many in the desire to succeed which is the answer to everything. From
an early age study is first; fixed in the head is competition, and
what follows is stress and depression. Number one reason for deaths among the
youth is suicides, and the number of young people who have thought
of suicide continues to rise. Young people who have stopped going to
school and those who have run away from home are many.
Over
20,000 have run away from home and over 60% are girls. Recently a girl of 14, a runaway, when
she ran out of money sold her body for sex, and was killed shocking the nation. This is one of the reason the bishops in synod will be
considering children on the streets.
When adult this
stress does not disappear; this way of living follows them in adult
life and they continue to be self-absorbed. After marriage rather
than solving their problems with love and understanding we often have violence. Instead of the beautiful understanding of marriage as the joining of two for a life time is destroyed, and we have separation and divorce and the violence that is seen in the family is handed down to children.
Our
professor concludes asking for prayers for the coming synod on the
family that it may help us in treating some of the problems
families have in society, and hopes it will be a light to us in Korea. Pope John Paul said the future depends on family
life.
