Fifty Years After the Second Vatican Council

"Church opened to the world, renewal and adaptation"  were maxims  used after the close of the Second Vatican Council: 2015 is the 50th year from the end of the council. Korea has still some way to go to implement the changes according to the participants of a recent international conference on the theme: "Gospel and evangelization, 50 years after the  II  Vatican Council."  The following are the subtopics: *Dialogue among religions and evangelization  *Paradigm change in evangelization *Evangelizing Church * Mediums for the Gospel in evangelizing.

Interrelgious dialogue has been part of our reality from after the council. Reason for the dialogue is not to convert the other but as  companions in search of truth. This, said one of the participants, is a change from our traditional ways.

Our understanding of evangelizing  has changed from  understanding others only as people to be saved by baptism. In the Americas, missioners  risked their lives to go to the  aboriginal peoples and using pressure to save them was the understanding of  evangelizing. Salvation of the non-baptized was the thinking and the council has shown us  a need to walk  with others and discover how God speaks to them in their culture, a need for inculturation: not only to receive a response of religious faith but sowing  love. The lives of the Christians  become attractive and people want to join, not imposing but proposing. 

One of the results of the Council was a  Reforming  Church: always in need of renewal for it is  continually being secularized. We need to renew the face of the earth with God's original plans for the world. We need to help those who are weakest to appreciate their dignity and showing them God's love. Another participant said more than stressing the word renewal is to live a life of renewal: a poor church, poor priests, born again Christians. 

We have to give Jesus by our lives. We have to work for justice and peace for the common good. This work for justice when seen by others will be admired and people will want to join.

The process of catechizing in Korea has been by transmitting knowledge; we have to change to accompany them. It is not changing the way we have worked in the education of the Christians but to add another facet to what we were doing.

Lay people should feel free in giving  their opinions and the clergy and the diocese should listen. Dioceses have to spend money in the education of  lay people.

One of the participants stressed that the Council was a pastoral one, and this must be remembered. Lay persons must realize they are the church. He wonders whether most of the lay people see themselves only as  objects of pastoral work and as  helpers of the clergy, but they are the church and have been given their mission by Jesus. Both papers had articles on the conference. On the front page of the Catholic Times, the article ends: without change in the thinking of the clergy the ideas that have followed from the Council will be impossible to achieve.  

How Objective Is Our History?

Anything  that is written is done with a bias.  Historians admit this rather obvious reality. Some biases will help one get closer to the truth than others. One danger is that history, for the most part,  is written by the victors and written by the most favored in society.
 
Korea is conflicted at present by the governments desire to control who writes the history books used in the secondary schools. Schools can choose the books they want but from 2017 all schools must use the books selected by the government. Present government does not like the left-leaning, American bashing, and pro-North Korean  language. How much that is the case is a matter of debate. In the Peace Weekly a  history professor, emeritus, gives his opinion on the matter by answering a series of questions.  

History is the combination of fact and interpretation. There is much room for interpretation, and this gives life to what we read. We don't have any established theories unless it is controlled.   

To the question, whether we have any international standards to go by, he rules out being influenced by ideology or politics. With the United Nations, history is turned over to the historians. Most of the developed countries do not get involved with the history books used and turn this over to those  writing the history. Those using the books have freedom to  select the ones they deem the best. When the government does the selecting, we are approaching totalitarianism.   

He reminds us  the books considered left-leaning now in use were approved by the government, and if there is a left-leaning, the Education ministry is at fault and not the editors of the books.   

When history has to be approved by the government, we have a black-and-white  camera with pictures that are in color. History is not to be interpreted by a certain class of society or written to  imbue patriotism in the citizens. Danger is high that, controlled by the government, it will be written to build up love for the country. 

A Christian way of looking at history would see it with the glasses of love and peace and the universal extension of  fundamental rights, which would not be much different from the way the historical academy would see it. If we have a love for humanity, peace and the  pursuit of happiness  as values, they will  help in the  writing of history: against war and on the side of the poor. We have to keep in mind the universal common values: a proper view of the  world and life requires  a universal outlook on values that serve as our starting point for interpretation and teaching.

Living Like We Should

Renewal, reformation, being what we are called to be is an ever present desire on the part of many. Seven religious groups Buddhist, Protestants, Catholics and others began the movement for the members to live according to their own groups' teachings: like human beings, like religious people, like government officials, like workers, like fathers, like mothers and so forth.

Doing what we are called  to do by our duties in society, giving an example to society with the hope society will follow. Since over half of the Koreans have a religious affiliation this would make a difference in society. The movement was written  up in the Catholic papers and also in the secular press mentioning a diocese that in a general meeting, 461 priests promised to carry out the proposal, the first group of priests in the country to do so.

*They have  promised to be faithful to their duties as priests.

*To be evangelizers to the best of their ability and live by the Gospel.

* Read the breviary devoutly and be an example of a prayerful life.

* Serve God's people.

*Will work for the unity and fraternal love among the priests of the diocese.

They have promised this in the presence of their communities.

They have also decided to help with a gift of about 1,000 dollars for all the families with a third child, and for any third child 1,000 dollars for high school, and if accepted for college, another 2,000 dollars.

In surveys made to determine the first need for renewal within the church, the answer in first place was  priests' authoritarianism and clericalism. The response of the diocesan priests is an understanding of this reality and an effort to bring about a change. It was a surprise to many to see the response of the diocese  to the movement 'to live like we should'.

Dec. 8th begins the Year of Mercy and the diocese has decided to set up a permanent place for confessions, and next year in May, they will have a day for all all couples with a renewal of the marriage vows.The response of the diocese has already moved another diocese to follow their example  next year.

Cruelty Experienced by Korean Separated Families

Recently, Korea had a three-day  meeting of separated families in the North's Diamond Mountain resort. One of the columnists in  the Peace Weekly writes about the meetings with a great deal of feeling. North and South never signed a peace treaty, so we are dealing with a truce and continuance of conflict. 

One of the elderly Koreans  who is just short of his ninetieth year, after 65 years met his daughter who was only 3 years old when he left his family for war. His wife died 35 years ago and the child he left is now a grandmother of 68. She wanted to hear her father sing, an  accomplished singer in his day. The father was only a father in name to the daughter. She held her father's hand while he sang and cried and never stopped. When the time came to separate there was no promise of a future visit only wishes for good health.
 
After some time, we have resumed the visits of the separated families which begin with tears and end with tears. Meeting family members, not knowing whether they are alive or not, is always a happy moment but shortly ends with the beginning of pain. Joy turns to pain, and we see the cruelty of the situation. Watching the meeting of families on television is filled with great sorrow on the part of the citizens, not difficult to understand the pain of those meeting each other.

Families  have done nothing to merit this separation. Nothing can justify this evil, and cruelty inflicted on so many families. Russia and the United States both looking for hegemony divided the country with the help from both sides: a symbiotic hostile relation that has brought  pain to many. Each side looks only to its own benefits, and forgetting the good of the citizens. We are all accomplices in this evil, he laments; we all sat idly while this was accomplished.

In the last eight years, we have had only four meetings of separated families. We can ask the two governments of the South and North why should this be. The previous 'liberal' government had 16 meetings of separated families. No matter, the reasons given the columnist found this difficult to accept. Those who profess the name conservative should  have a great respect for family and should be working to  decrease the pain that the separated families endure. The age of the separated families continues to increase, and the hope of meeting is left unresolved. 

He hopes the two governments will allow regularly a place where the separated families  can easily meet. He hopes they will think more of the families, instead of their own advantages and disadvantages. He would like the Cardinal of Seoul to use his position as the acting ordinary of Pyongyang, North Korea, to work to overcome the heartburn that so many in both parts of the peninsular have to deal with, and want to see resolved before they die.

Is It Pleasure or Happiness?

Pleasure is the gratification of the senses, fulfilling our desires. The opposite would be pain. Hedonism is the school of thought where pleasure is the highest good.  These are the words that introduce an article in the Kyeongyang magazine, by a Catholic College President, writing about one of the ever-present temptations we face. 

Pleasure's common element is being temporary;  we are gratified, but it soon disappears and we long for something else: 'hedonic adaptation' followed often by addiction.

We hear that modern man is losing his roots, his inner pillars are shaking and she seeks self-preservation in pleasure. One becomes alienated from the self. Young people, no matter how hard they work and save for the future,when obstacles are too many to overcome, the danger of falling into a life of pleasure is present. 

When education is not for the building up of  the human and aimed only towards wordily success, young people will not have the necessary knowledge and virtue to overcome difficulties of life.When the culture and the social order begin to fall apart, and morality becomes muddied, values are confused. 

Happiness that comes from pleasure is located in the body; the fullness of happiness comes from the mental and spiritual.  What do we learn from this distinction between the two? Bodily happiness may start with spice but leaves us with a thirst. It is only the authentic happiness that has God in the equation that will last.

Psalm number four shows us what the spread of the hedonistic culture will mean for those that confront the culture."Men of rank, how long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love what is vain and seek after falsehood? Many say... put gladness into my heart, more than when grain and wine abound."

Searching for pleasure is a temptation for those with a religious belief and a challenge. Will it be this emotion for pleasure that needs repeated changes or will we realize we are weak and repent? This is the way of living as a Christian.

Alternative Education for the Whole Person

The education ministry and other interested groups in society acknowledge that with alternative methods of education, fewer would drop out of school. With this in mind, the Daegu Diocese had a seminar on alternative methods of education.
 
“The time in school should be happy; for many it is a time of unhappiness, we need to listen to the children." These were the words of one of the participants in the seminar, reported by the Catholic Times. The money spent on those in school and those not in school is vastly different. We need to show interest in those who do not  find a  place in our public school system. The seminar was working on the curriculum that an alternative system would find appropriate for the dropouts.
 
One of the participants compared the educational systems of Finland and Korea: rated first and second for achievement by the OECD. Both developed countries have methods at the two extremes. Finland does not distinguish between the first and the last, with a non-competitive approach to education, while Korea asks for answers to ordinary problems for competitive entrance exams.

One has to determine whether the school is making  students unable to adapt or are the students the ones not adapting. Students who are not able  to adapt to a strict regime, and want freedom need an  alternative type of education to keep them in school. In Korea in one year, over 50 thousand young people were not in school who should have been in school; many of them will end up as problem teenagers.

Conscious are educators that Korea is different from the past, large numbers of citizens and inhabitants have different cultural backgrounds. Often their facial features and color are different from the Korean students and consequently, meet up with  discrimination, and often ignored, a reason they give up on their studies. We know what it should be but facts show discrimination and drop outs. All students  have to be made to feel they are Korean.

We need an opening to these alternative forms of education, which do not see  students as losers and delinquents. The first full time alternative school was the Gandhi School  authorized by the Ministry of Education in 1997, but it never developed into a system of similar schools.

Alternative schools are not to complement the public schools but to keep the learner at the center with experience, and the student's humanity in mind: understanding the gifts each student has and to work to develop them, customized to the individual. We should be having happier students and persons who understand that education is not  only of the mind.

The Year of Consecrated Life

2015 is the year of the consecrated life. A religious sister writing in View from the Ark in the Catholic Times, reminds us of  the subjects of the consecrated life. In Korea, the word consecrated life has become a  synonym for the religious life, secular institutes and those living a celibate single religious life. After the  Second Vatican Council, we are told the consecrated life is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, and the religious life is one of the many varieties of this consecrated life. Heartbreaking, says sister, is the fact that it is associated only with the religious life.

More lamentable is that many others who have been given this gift do not realize it,  a reason there is little interest in this year of the consecrated life. Moreover, the married couples and those baptized don't reflect on the gift and mission they have been given with baptism and marriage.

She mentions the three kinds of consecrated life: priestly, religious and the married life. All three have baptism as their foundation. All three have their own particular characteristics, and calling to love in their different particular ways. 

This year we put a light on those who have consecrated themselves by the three vows and with great meaning, we just finished the synod on marriage. They are both, said Pope Francis, a calling from God one in the forming of life and the other in evangelizing, both working together. Families have many problems; she quotes Pope Francis: children, quarreling, in-laws and the like, there is the cross but also the resurrection.

She was especially surprised in the words Pope Francis used when speaking about creation when he said God created the family which he called the most beautiful part of creation: he made man and woman and entrusted all to them. He gave the world  into their hands. He didn't just create two people but a family. All that he created in love was handed over to them.

In conclusion she mentions the short prayers, Pope Francis introduced to the couples when saying the Our Father: "give us today our daily love"... To those engaged or married: "teach us how to like  to love each other." Both religious and families are on a journey to the God of love, should we not ask for our daily portion of love?