President of Korean bishops: We hope the Pope will help our society mature on all levels
Cheju (AsiaNews) - In the last half century South Korea has
experienced, "an impressive development from the standpoint of economic,
political and religious. We have made incredible progress, but now we need to
stop and reflect on our maturity as well as the Church Catholic. Pope will help
us to move one step
forward from mechanical economic development to a more integral human
development". These are
the words entrusted to AsiaNews by Msgr. Peter Kang U-il, chairman of
the Korean Bishops' Conference and Bishop of Cheju.
Your Excellency, what fruits do you hope Pope Francis' visit will bring
to Korea?
Now Korean people, not only Christians but also many others who do not belong to the Catholic Church sincerely wait his visit with great hope and many different expectations. One of the most desired expectations would be that he would open a new momentum for the reconciliation and unity between the two Koreas, the South and the North. We have always lived during the last 64 years under apprehensions and threat of war. It was said that the global Cold War era ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union but in Korean Peninsula we were obliged to live continuously under the tension of Cold War. Innumerable family members got divided by DMZ(demilitarized zone) and never allowed to meet together for more than half century. Those who left their home during the last Korean War(1950-1952) desperately wait for the reunion since many of them are passing away because of their age and disease. Many Koreans feel that political leaders have their limits and are not capable of eliminating the curtain of confrontation and hatred. And we feel recently we got sandwiched between the super-powers in North East Asia. It is our dream that only the Lord could remove all the obstacles and hindrances lying between the North and the South Korea and have His peace realized truly. We Koreans sincerely hope that Pope Francis would open a new era of reconciliation and dialogue launching his message of peace in Northeast Asia which would certainly contribute a lot for the peace of our planet.
What are the most pressing needs of Korean society and church today?
It is said that the South Koreans have made a rapid development during the last 50 years which may need at least a century in other countries. It is estimated that for the last half century Koreans have achieved a very rapid change in the field of industrialization, democracy, as well as evangelization. However in the process of this rapid progress we had to come through several adverse reactions which still produce many sufferings and protests among people. In the realm of politics we still experiment an extreme confrontation between conservatives and liberals. In the realm of economy though the country reached the most successful statistical point as far as the GDP shows, the gap between the very few richest and the mass poorest is becoming so unbearable. In the realm of evangelization the Church also has made a great success in terms of the number of conversion. During the last half century the Catholic population has increased from 500,000 to 5 million. But we start to raise questions on the quality of evangelization we made so far. The Church in Korea may have converted a great number of people to our religion but we are not very confident that we could evangelize the life of Korean people so that they could witness the evangelical values in the society. The Korean society needs to move one step forward from mechanical economic development to a more integral human development, from outward democracy to a spiritual democracy which truly respects human rights and human values of each individual, from external missionary activities to an evangelical maturity in the Church.
What missionary value does this Papal visit have?
Tracing back the visits Pope Francis made so far, we realize that he has been very sensitive towards suffering poor people wherever they may be, in Lampedusa, Brazil or the wall between Palestinians and Israelites. We believe that he wishes to visit this country because here we still face a permanent peril of war and in this peninsula the tension of global superpowers is gradually accelerated for their own interest and for their military hegemony in Northeast Asia. It is our hope that Pope Francis will draw out an opportunity to mitigate the hostile confrontation and make sprout the peace. We also pray that he will stimulate the Korean society to get an authentic human maturity at all levels.
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12/02/2016 15:14
