South Korean group helps Church in China
Seoul (AsiaNews/Ucan) A lay-run Korean group is raising money to help the "official" and "underground" Catholic Church in China. The wretched living conditions of clergy particularly of the underground Church in China led Korean businessman, Francisco Chung, to establish Nazareth China Mission Society (NCMS) in 2000, after a chance meeting with an underground Chinese bishop.
"Priests of the underground Church, even a bishop, live a wretched life," Mr. Chung said. They survive on "about 100 Yuan (US 12 dollars) a month" and they do not have " warm clothes for the cold winter." He remarked how "painful" it was to see the Chinese clerics not receive proper treatment when they are sick. Inspired by them, Chung remarked that, despite their pains, they have "faithfully walked the way entrusted to them by God."
Chung spoke April 27th at Peace Gallery, an exhibition hall run by the Seoul Archdiocese, just before the opening of an art exhibition designed to raise funds for a home for elderly priests and religious in China. It is just one of NCMS' projects.
The construction on the two-story home which will eventually house dozens, will begin in the middle of this year, with money for construction and maintenance costs coming in part from the sale of the 51 painting donated by Korean artists. Other resources will come from financial contributions of NCMS members, and Chung's own business profits.
Francisco Chung has not always used his financial resources to help the underground Church. He recalled that when he first went to China in 1995, he discovered excellent raw materials for making sacred objects, and began producing rosaries and selling them in the Korean market. The profits went into providing Bibles, clothes and money to ethnic Koreans in China, and also to help seminarians, priests and nuns of the Official Church. Then, after meeting an underground Chinese bishop, he turned his attention to the underground Church which, he says, "faces more difficulties." Chung refuses to disclose the details about his contribution to the persecuted Church, but he visits China around 10 times a year. His convictions allowed him to overcome original opposition from his family and South Korean priests who suspected he was supporting the Chinese Church for his own advantage. Now, he said, Korean Catholic lay people and priests, as well as his family, ardently support him and the work of NCMS.
Father Barnabas Kim Tjuekng-Nam, spiritual director of the service, says, "it is time" for the Korean Church to support the Chinese Church. He pointed out that it was the Chinese Church that first introduced Catholicism to Koreans more than 200 years ago.
Chung recently registered NCMS with the Seoul archdiocese to receive official support and guidance.
Despite its difficulties, the 'unofficial' Catholic church in China is believed to have 12 million followers, compared with some 4 million for the country's officially sanctioned church.
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