Pope knows and is known in our country, says Card Kim
Seoul (AsiaNews) The South Korean government announced that top South Korean officials will attend the first mass of Benedict XVI's pontificate on April 24 in Rome. Ching Dong-chea, Minister of Culture and Tourism, will lead a three-member delegation.
Last Wednesday, South Korean President Roh Mooo-hyu sent a message to Benedict XVI via the Apostolic Nuncio in Seoul in which he said he is looking forward to the Holy Father bringing hope, peace and blessings to the whole of humanity irrespective of differences.
Despite the hour (2 am), the election of the new Pope was welcome by the sound of the bells of Myongdong Catholic Cathedral which is located in downtown Seoul.
In the morning, celebrating a thanksgiving mass, Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk said: "God gave us a good Pontiff. We can be sure that, like his predecessor, he will be involved in promoting peace and human rights".
Another thanksgiving mass at Seoul Cathedral is scheduled for Monday; all of the country's bishops are expected to attend.
In interview with Catholic TV network Pyunghwa, Card Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, 83, said that the new Pope has a heavy cross to bear. He also said that he was asked to help the Pontiff with his prayers.
Cardinal Kim also said he was going to ask the Holy Father to give South Korea's Catholics (4.5 million) a second cardinal. "It would help in the evangelisation of the North, where the Church is silent," he said.
Korea was not present in the conclave. When John Paul II passed away, Cardinal Kim, who was very much respected and loved by the late Pope, went to Rome but stayed only a few days.
His great spirituality and charisma, which enabled him to be the voice of the voiceless under the military dictatorship, did not help him overcome Canon Law.
Although the new Pope has never visited Korea, he is known thanks to his writings.
Professor Jeong Jong-hyu, dean of the Faculty of Law at Chonnam University, met Cardinal Ratzinger in 1991 in the Vatican. He said he "was impressed by the depth and modernity of some of his writings."
"I had gone to Rome to ask him for the right to translate them. Not only did he authorise me to do so but he also accepted to write the prefaces," Mr Jeong said. In so doing, he showed he knew the "unique" history of the Korean Church.
"The Churches in Korea", wrote the Cardinal in the preface to the Korean edition of The Salt of the Earth, "were not brought by foreign missionaries but were founded by Koreans themselves."
Towards the end of the 18th century in fact, some Confucian scholars from Korea read texts by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in China and found the "doctrine of heaven" that could spiritually renew their country.
The new Pope is also well aware of the tragic situation of the peninsula. "The Churches," he wrote, "are faced with the challenges of Marxist secularism in the North and technological and economic secularism in the South".
Ms Kim Jung-hi, 63, professor of ethics, studied with Ratzinger in the seventies in Germany.
In an interview, she said that "Professor Ratzinger did not like either paralysing immobilism or rash progressivism. He always tried to integrate the two".
At a human level, she especially remembers his cordial personality. "He always took care of me, a small and poor Asian student. When I couldn't get a bursary he helped me financially and psychologically."
When she heard about his election, she could not hold back tears. "I am praying for him," she said at the end of the interview.
South Korea's press has given wide coverage to the new Pontiff in both news reports and editorial articles.
If The Korea Times congratulated the new Pope, some of the other newspapers emphasised his stern teachings, whilst maintaining a respectful tome.
Many have focused on the main sentence in the homily Benedict XVI pronounced during the pro eligendo pontifice mass: "Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labelled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be 'tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine', seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times."
Almost as if trying to warn against unjustified emotional reactions, The Korea Herald in an article titled "The new Pope and religions" quoted the new Pope from his first message to the College of Cardinals on the proper attitude towards ecumenism and dialogue: "I address everyone with simplicity and affection, to assure them that the Church wants to continue to build an open and sincere dialogue with them, in a search for the true good of mankind and of society."
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12/02/2016 15:14
14/04/2005
