Our Country of Korea

The general secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission of the Korean Bishops gives the readers some understanding of separated families from Japan in the Unity and Reconciliation column of the Catholic Times.

Not long ago, the priest general secretary received a call from a Japanese priest he knows who was visiting Korea to help separated families. He ministers to immigrants in Shimonoseki and also works to help people with Korean roots among his compatriots in Japan. However, this time, it was concerned with an ethnic Korean family from China. These ethnic Koreans who were expelled by the Japanese government were currently residing in Korea and their young daughter remained in China.
 
Her parents, who were born and raised in a border town between North Korea and China, said they moved to Japan about 20 years ago to make money. The two worked hard and lived as a happy family until their daughter,  born in Japan began attending middle school. However, their illegal residency status eventually brought misfortune. When they reported this to the government expecting leniency this became the source of trouble. They wanted to proudly settle down in Japanese society, but the result was forced eviction.
 
It was difficult to suddenly go to China, abandoning everything and the daughter who had grown up knowing only the Japanese culture. The father, who became a repatriation evader, had to spend four years in a concentration camp. His daughter, now a high school senior, is staying with her grandparents in China, but she cannot speak any Chinese and cannot attend school. Their dream is for their family of three to live together in Korea. However, unlike the ‘Chinese Korean’ parents who were able to obtain residency status, the issue of staying in Korea for their daughter born in Japan is the problem.
 
We met with the staff of the Tokyo Catholic Center, a Japanese priest, and the child's parents who had accompanied them for several years, as well as our diocese's immigrant pastor. Although we all knew that resolving visas would be difficult, Korean and Japanese priests and activists decided to continue their efforts to reunite separated families, feeling like they were grasping at straws. In the car on the way back, the columnist thought he should say something to thank the Japanese activist.  ‘Thank you for helping our people" but the voice of the Korean-Chinese mother who was interpreting seemed to tremble a little. At her parting, she said in her hushed voice, ‘Thank you for calling us the same people.’
 
 Although the term 'nation' seems to have gone out of fashion, not least because of the frozen inter-Korean relations, there are still people who feel warmth in the word 'nation'. This Chuseok, let us pray more earnestly for the comfort of the Virgin Mary to be conveyed to our scattered people.
 

Caterpillars Become Butterflies

 

In the Catholic Times, a novelist writing in the Sunday Chat column gives the readers meditation on the growth of Caterpillars.

She is sometimes asked what she regrets the most in her life. She used to answer: that she wished she had put more pressure on her children in their religious education.
 
When the children were young, she said: "Wouldn't it be better to let them make their own choices when they grow up?" Did she think faith was similar to a hobby? At the same time, she forced them to learn Korean, memorize multiplication tables, and get vaccinated, saying it was no use crying. If she had to go back and choose again now, her priorities would have changed. If only she had known then what she knows now.

Although it has already been more than a decade, she managed to persuade adolescent children to go to church. It was an achievement obtained with all kinds of conditions and nagging. But they didn't go very often. The classes at the academies are a problem she was told by the assistant priest of the parish.

She doesn't completely agree with him but it wasn't that she didn't have the same pressure of studying for the college entrance. As the priest said, she does have the bitter memory of not encouraging her children more.

Sometimes, when young priests tell her: "Even if I allow girl group songs, the kids don't come" She doesn't like to hear that and gets angry and laughs because she feels she is getting old.

Even in her childhood, she had tutoring and various studies at the academy [after school study]. What kept her going to church during those years were different impressions she received and was affected in ways this world was not able to do.
 
They packed their bags and went out to the parish church early Sunday mornings. She left for the slum by bus with packages of clothes, rice, ramen, soap, etc. that she collected for a week. In the afternoon, she visited orphanages, nursing homes, and hospitals, and sang songs, and it was night when she attended the Sunday evening Mass. She continued this activity until she was a high school senior. It was not because she had good physical strength, nor was it the wish of her parents. What she did was followed by feelings and impressions never experienced outside of what she was doing within the church.
 
The fundamental questions and answers were not present in the songs of this world but were present in the songs she sang at the Focolare Meeting.

She loved it and was fascinated by it all. At that time, were there any other possibilities that would have had the same results? She doesn't think there was.
 
Mitterrand of France, the left-wing president who abolished the death penalty in Europe was an atheist. He asked his friend Father Pierre in a hospital bed before he died: "Hey, is there really a God?"  

Father Pierre replied: "Of course, do you remember when we were young? There was a beggar on the way, so we gave him all the money we had. And yet we were happy. Even after doing that stupid thing. That's the proof that God exists."
 
She is not interested in going to a church where they have more girl groups singing. That's what the world is much better at. If you compete with the world, the world wins. The church will always be second-rate.

Someone said. The growth of a caterpillar is a butterfly. Not being a bigger caterpillar.

The Abbandoment Of Religion In Society

 

In the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times, a pastor gives his reflection on what he sees happening in the religious life in Korea.
 
Have we really entered an era of 'dereligionization'? According to a recent survey by a Protestant research institute, only 4 out of 10 Koreans consider themselves religious. If we look more specifically, in our country, religious people are 37% and non-religious people are 63%. Compared to the past, the decline in religion is serious.  
 
Twenty years ago, in the early 2000s, religious people accounted for more than 50%, but since 2012, the phenomenon of 'dereligion' has accelerated in all religions, including Buddhism, Protestantism, and Catholicism. Of course, the negative impact of COVID-19 may have also played a role. Moreover, only 19% of the young generation, especially those in their 20s, are religious. Only one out of five young people consider themselves religious.
 
According to these statistics, the percentage of Catholics decreased from 10.1% in 2012 to 5.1% in 2022. In other words, the number of believers has halved in 10 years. If this trend continues, it is expected to decrease to 2.5% in the next 10 years. He can't believe this phenomenon. Since this is a statistical survey focusing on the current status of Protestantism, he wonders about the accuracy regarding Catholicism but feels anxious.
 
We introduce information that can be used as a reference in the statistical survey on Protestant churches. It is said that the number one reason Protestants gave up religion was ‘because they were not interested in religion.’ It is said that the second most common reason for abandoning religion was ‘distrust and disappointment in Christianity.’ However, an interesting fact is that the top reason given by non-religious people for not believing in religion was ‘not interested in religion’, and ‘distrust and disappointment in religion’ were also ranked second. I think that if we Catholics were to conduct a survey, similar results would probably come out.
 
The fact that the biggest reason religious people abandon their religion is ‘because they are not interested in religion’ means that times have changed greatly. As our country has now entered the developed world and its social, economic, and cultural standards have increased, our way of life has changed greatly. As the 4th Industrial Revolution occurs, digital culture is evolving into robots and AI, and various sports and entertainment are influencing the world. Therefore, regarding the phenomenon of 'dereligionization', a scholar's statement that “we are increasingly less inclined to agree with the transcendental nature of religion” seems very credible.
 
The church must learn how to persuade critically orientated modern humanity of Christianity. That leads to the task of new evangelization or cultural evangelization. I believe that the future of the church will depend on whether or not the church provides an appropriate alternative to this task. In addition, we must reflect on the second most common reason for abandoning religion, ‘disbelief and disappointment in Christianity,’ from the Catholic perspective and reflect on this.
 
Last week, the statue of Father Andrew, Kim Taegon, Korea's first priest, was installed at Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the first for an Asian in Catholic history, serving as an opportunity to raise the status of Korean Catholicism globally. Nevertheless, he is concerned that internally, we are in a ‘league of our own’ that cannot escape the boundaries of the church, closed and church-centered.
 
I think one of the ways for religion to survive despite the inevitable trend of the abandonment of religion is to realize the ‘public nature of religion.’ The values and meanings presented by religion must be able to give meaning to the times and people's lives. To that end, he believes that only churches that are open to the community, churches that communicate with the community in various ways, and churches that can play the role of care and healing as a field hospital at any time will be sustainable in the future.
 

The Culitivation of the Garden of Our Hearts

 

The Catholic Peace Weekly in the Golden Faith Column, the priest columnist gives us a meditation on the seed planted in the garden of our hearts.

We live in an age of consumption. It seems that everything has become an object of consumption. Even spiritual things are being commercialized and sold. However, we often forget that the consumer culture we enjoy leads to the production of waste. Since the seminary was preparing a retreat for sponsoring members, there was talk of lunch boxes to serve as many as 500 visitors, but due to the waste problem, the school decided to prepare soup and rice themselves. Although it was just  soup, kimchi, and radish he hoped the sincerity and love contained within it would warm the hearts of the retreatants.

 

As we live in an age of consumption, there are times when religion is also considered an object of consumption. However, faith is not an object of consumption, and a church is not a service center. The difference between believers and consumers is that believers are spiritual beings who continually develop and pursue change and growth. In this regard, the ‘parable of the sower’ (see Mark 4:1-9) gives us much to think about.

 

The sower sowed seeds, and some fell on the road, some on rocky ground, some in thorn-bushes, and some on good ground. This parable can be understood in terms of the various aspects of people, but if we consider Jesus' pedagogical intention, it can also be understood in terms of the various stages of our own lives.

 

Faith can be said to be the process by which the word of God is sown in people's hearts, sprouts, grows, and bears fruit. However, as we live, we may forget the Word immediately after hearing it, stumble due to tribulation or persecution, or fall into the worries of the world and the temptation of wealth and fall away from faith. However, after going through these times, we may receive the Word anew. Good soil is not something that exists from the beginning, but rather a heart that has become fertile enough to sprout and grow by accepting the Word in the  various moments in life.

 

On the other hand, Jesus' parable also tells us how important the environment is for faith to grow. In order for seeds to sprout, there must be a good combination of temperature and humidity. However, no matter how good the environment is, if the seed is not prepared, it cannot sprout. In order to germinate, seeds must accept moisture and wait for the moisture to penetrate deeply. And finally, you need a moment to open and break yourself. You could say this is the process of dying to yourself.

 

What is the environment of our lives like? Television, smartphones, consumption and the leisure cultures... some may enrich our lives, but others may prevent the Word from taking root in us. What we most require in order to create an environment for the Word is silence. He recalls seeing the words of Buddhist monk hanging on the wall of a retreat house run by a convent. "In order to become something, we must learn the silence of the seed dying in the ground." Just as a seed breaks itself, sprouts, and takes root, we must also take the time to empty and abandon ourselves in silence, the time to break ourselves.

Jesus adds one last thing: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mark 4:9). In order to bear fruit, we must be prepared to listen and become seekers. If you don't find it, you can't make anything your own. On the other hand, the future is open to those who seek, who open their hearts, wait, and prepare for a better life and a better world.

Now let's ask ourselves: Where are we in the clearing of the garden of our hearts?

 

Overcoming Discrimination

 

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In the Catholic News Here/Now a young man tells the readers of the site about his life as an orphan and how the realization that he was different came to him.

He grew up in a nursery from birth until he was 19. It was after entering middle school that He realized that he was an orphan. When he went to school outside the orphanage for the first time he naturally realized: "I don’t have any parents." He realized that the person he called mom was a social worker, and that she lived a different life from that of an ordinary family. That was his first encounter with people outside the nursery.

When he first entered middle school, the teacher handed out a piece of paper for each student to write down their home address. He wrote down his address and one child looked up his address on the Internet and asked him: "Isn’t this a daycare center?"  He was so embarrassed that he couldn't say anything. In this way, the fact that he lived in an orphanage was revealed to his classmates. From that day on, he got teased a lot by the children.

One day, his homeroom teacher told him to bring his mom's, older sister's, or younger sister's skirts for they  were having a talent show at school. One of his friends said: "Teacher, he can’t bring their skirts the mother isn’t there. What should he do?" She looked at him,  everyone in the class laughed. He was so embarrassed that he couldn't say anything.  

On days when there were open classes at school, his friends said to him: "You don’t have parents, so no one will come."  These all became triggers for his anger that described him to his classmates: "he gets angry easily because he comes from an orphanage."

At school, friends from difficult families were called and invited to the hallway in front of the teacher's office. During break time, other friends were all passing by, and the teacher said: "Since he is not good at cultural activities due to financial difficulties, the school will support me, so let’s all get together and go to Namsan on the weekend." He hated the teacher who talked openly about other people's family situations in front of all his friends.

Having experienced this in middle school, he thought that he would never let others know that he was from an orphanage when he he entered high school. He felt if his situation was revealed, his entire school life would be ruined.  

One day his homeroom teacher suddenly called him during the finale class and said: “You grew up in a different environment than others, but your orphanage is a large facility, so there is a lot of support, so think positively." At that time, the kids in his class looked at him, and and he wanted to hide.

His high school years were also very difficult. The children started whispering behind their backs that they were orphans. There weren't many friends who would talk to him, and the ones that did come up to him were for the purpose of arguing or teasing him.

When he gave a presentation at school, they even ridiculed him, saying that he was studying for no reason when he wouldn't be able to go to college because he didn't have money anyway. This happened a lot.  

 

Later, he couldn't stand it anymore and warned the eight children who were teasing him that he would open a school violence committee. At that time, the friends said: "You don’t have a mother, so do you have someone to call?" he was at a loss for words. He hopes that his juniors will no longer experience the social discrimination they had to endure because they were orphans.

 

When he attended Aloysius Elementary School, he joined the basketball team."We've been working hard since we were kids, so were all really good at sports. So when we went out to a basketball tournament, our school swept the awards." Whenever this happened, parents from other schools said: "This is why we shouldn’t sponsor children in daycare centers." An indescribable sadness came over him.

 

He strongly agrees with the statement that it is not your fault that you graduated from an orphanage. It is not the children's fault that their parents were unable to raise them from birth or in the middle of their lives and left them in an orphanage. Their childhood environment was not their choice and is not their responsibility. If they have friends who criticize or ridicule them just because they are orphans, they are wrong.  He has forgiven all those friends. The act cannot be justified, but when he thinks about it now, those friends were also very young. He hopes they reflect on their past actions.

 

It is really difficult and painful to be ridiculed at school or in society because you are from an orphanage during your school days. People who grow up with these experiences may deny themselves or feel worthless. This is a situation that can create really sensitive emotions, and it can have very serious emotional repercussions. There are many children who have difficulty finding meaning in life as they go through these difficult experiences. In severe cases, people even think about death.

 

During his school days, he was bullied so much that it was difficult to put it into words. However, he is now  currently focusing on life and living it diligently. This is because he thinks that if he stays in the past, and remembers what those friends did to him, and gets angry and resentful, his life will  only become more difficult and unhappy. This is really unfair, he wants to  live a good life to show that it can be done.

 

As a young adult preparing for independence, he is  taking a leave of absence from the university he attended and preparing to re-enter the major of his choice. He studies at an academy during the day and works hard to make a living by working part-time as a video editor at home in the evening.

 

Uneasy Peace: North and South Korea

In the Catholic Times  a principal of a Korean School in New Malden, England, wrote in her column:  Reconciliation and Unity of the work she has done with prisoners of war some years ago.   

New Malden is home to the largest South Korean community in Europe, the home for Koreans living in the UK. They account for around one third of the area’s population, estimated to be about 10,000.

Around 700 North Koreans currently reside in New Malden, making it the world’s largest North Korean settlement outside the Korean peninsula. May they all enjoy the New Harvest Festival that the Koreans are celebrating these days.

In September 2000, 63 non-converted long-term prisoners returned to North Korea. The repatriation was a measure in accordance with the June 29 Joint Declaration. Among them, a teacher Mr. Kim, whose  oral life history the columnist  later published as a book: "I am a member of the Korean Workers’ Party" (Seonin, 2001).

At that time, her mind was complicated. This is because it reminded her of other people who would not have had the opportunity to leave a record of their lives for posterity. Like Mr. Kim, who returned from the South to the North, there will be many people there who still have to return from the North to the South. 

 

More than 20 years later, she came across the book: "No one came to get me" (Deep Sea Dolphin, 2023) contains the stories of nine South Korean prisoners of war who escaped from North Korea and returned to their hometown after living in captivity in North Korea for over 50 years. She did not know that there were as many as 80,000 South Korean prisoners of war detained in North Korea who could not be repatriated despite the ceasefire. Most of them worked in coal mines, their descendants were discriminated against, and they didn't know that the Korean government wasn't looking for them.

 

When non-converted long-term prisoners were welcomed on a grand scale in Pyongyang, we could not estimate the sense of disappointment and betrayal they felt. Each individual’s story is amazing. When the war started, it was the People's Army, but later it became the ROK Army. Some people ended up spending their entire lives in coal mines as ROK POWs, while others were captured three days before the signing of the armistice agreement. 

 

I met the author the writer Lee Hye-min (Teresa) who wrote in the preface the reason why she devoted herself to this work for 10 years:  "I did not meet the returned South Korean prisoners of war to expose… Neither a liberal nor a conservative, I just listened to and recorded the lives of war victims as a human being... I hope you read this book slowly, remembering the mothers of South Korean POWs who passed away while missing their sons who never returned."

 

There are still many stories in our land that need to be heard and recorded. Wouldn't there be someone who listens to these  stories so that the deep wounds of division in the hearts of those who suffered can be healed even a little? "Sister Hyemin Lee and I prayed together to guide us in what we should do."

 

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Closure And Opening of Borders

 

 

In the Catholic Times a Fellow of the Catholic Institute for Peace in Northeast Asia gives us some thoughts on boundaries  and  connections.

Overseas tourism, which had been limited due to quarantine issues related to the COVID-19 virus, are becoming active. Acquaintances are visiting Mt. Paektu frequently, and photos of nearby scenery are being posted on social media once every one to two weeks.

[Paektu Mountain is the highest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China. Korea and Manchu people give a mythical quality to the mountain and its lake and consider the mountain to be their ancestral homeland]

 

The routes to climb Mt. Paektu are divided into the eastern route, the western route, the southern route, and the northern route. Except for the eastern route, which passes through Samjiyeon in the north, all routes must be taken through China. So, those who have made  the trip are quite proud.

 

Meanwhile, there has been some limited opening measures between North Korea and China following the adjustment of quarantine levels in August 2023, 3 years and 7 months after the border was closed in January 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

 

In July 2023, Chinese and Russian delegations entered the North to celebrate North Korea's Victory Day, and on August 16, a North Korean delegation moved to China via the Yalu River Railroad Bridge to participate in the World Taekwondo Championships in Kazakhstan. Flight operations between Pyongyang and Beijing and Pyongyang and Vladivostok were resumed, and North Korean residents who had been staying in China and Russia for some time returned to Pyongyang via Air Koryo airliners.

 

Of course, it seems that it will take time to fully open the country, such as allowing Chinese tourists to enter the country or cargo trucks to operate. Nevertheless, he is envious of the official ‘opening of the border’ between North Korea and China for visits to Paektu Mountain.

 

Until now, ‘border’ has meant closure and disconnection, and the region has no choice but to be economically underdeveloped. The border between us and the North is still the same as before, but the border between the North and China seems to be one of connection, cooperation, and coexistence rather than closure and disconnection. 

 

Suddenly, he remembers a manuscript he presented at an anti-communist speech contest when he was in middle school in the early 1980s. “There is an old saying that everything changes in 10 years. However, the 155-mile ceasefire line here, which should have changed four times since liberation, remains the same... "The speaker standing here shouts loudly and powerfully that we must gather our hearts and unify."

 

Since then, the river and mountain have changed again four times. But our borders are still intact. Moreover, it is no longer a simple border between South and North, but is now the forefront of maritime and continental powers. He wants  to  empathize what people  who participated in the independence movement, would say when they see us today. “Can’t we stop now  and act differenly?” .” Wouldn’t it be like this.

 

In the Catholic Times a Fellow of the Catholic Institute for Peace in Northeast Asia gives us some thoughts on boundaries  and  connections.

Overseas tourism, which had been limited due to quarantine issues related to the COVID-19 virus, are becoming active. Acquaintances are visiting Mt. Paektu frequently, and photos of nearby scenery are being posted on social media once every one to two weeks.

[Paektu Mountain is the highest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China. Korea and Manchu people give a mythical quality to the mountain and its lake and consider the mountain to be their ancestral homeland]

 

The routes to climb Mt. Paektu are divided into the eastern route, the western route, the southern route, and the northern route. Except for the eastern route, which passes through Samjiyeon in the north, all routes must be taken through China. So, those who have made  the trip are quite proud.

 

Meanwhile, there has been some limited opening measures between North Korea and China following the adjustment of quarantine levels in August 2023, 3 years and 7 months after the border was closed in January 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

 

In July 2023, Chinese and Russian delegations entered the North to celebrate North Korea's Victory Day, and on August 16, a North Korean delegation moved to China via the Yalu River Railroad Bridge to participate in the World Taekwondo Championships in Kazakhstan. Flight operations between Pyongyang and Beijing and Pyongyang and Vladivostok were resumed, and North Korean residents who had been staying in China and Russia for some time returned to Pyongyang via Air Koryo airliners.

 

Of course, it seems that it will take time to fully open the country, such as allowing Chinese tourists to enter the country or cargo trucks to operate. Nevertheless, he is envious of the official ‘opening of the border’ between North Korea and China for visits to Paektu Mountain.

 

Until now, ‘border’ has meant closure and disconnection, and the region has no choice but to be economically underdeveloped. The border between us and the North is still the same as before, but the border between the North and China seems to be one of connection, cooperation, and coexistence rather than closure and disconnection. 

 

Suddenly, he remembers a manuscript he presented at an anti-communist speech contest when he was in middle school in the early 1980s. “There is an old saying that everything changes in 10 years. However, the 155-mile ceasefire line here, which should have changed four times since liberation, remains the same... "The speaker standing here shouts loudly and powerfully that we must gather our hearts and unify."

 

Since then, the river and mountain have changed again four times. But our borders are still intact. Moreover, it is no longer a simple border between South and North, but is now the forefront of maritime and continental powers. He wants  to  empathize what people  who participated in the independence movement, would say when they see us today. "Can’t we stop now  and act differently?"  "Wouldn’t it be nice to see a change?"