austraLasia 1365
Living the Gospel of life - the Korean way.
They say a cat has nine lives - well, the story below beats that by far!
SEOUL: 23rd December 2005 -- News has just come in of a Vigil and March for Life to be sponsored by the Salesians in Washington DC in January. That's a story worth keeping an eye on in the month to come, but in Korea, the December pastoral letter from the Archbishop of Seoul, Nicholas Cheong, has taken another angle on the life issue, urging the Catholic population to seriously consider blood and organ donation as well as the adoption of children. The context is the conclusion of the Year of the Eucharist. It seems that the Korea Salesian Province has long ago taken this message to heart. Of the 112 members of the Province, 24, including the Provincial, are registered with St. Marys Catholic Hospital in Seoul for organ or whole body donation.
A movement in this direction, especially amongst Catholics, has been in place in Korea for at least 15 years, following the Eucharistic Congress there in 1989, when the Korean Church began to urge practical self-giving as a way of living Eucharist. This took the form of things like a huge rice jar at the entrance to the Church, blood donation, adoptions and a whole missionary spirit of helping poor young churches of Africa and South Asia.
According to a Korean Parliamentary report this year, 642 patients died this year because of the lack of appropriate organs which could have been available through donation. There is an added difficulty of resistance in a country based on Confucian principles, where the body is one's parents' heritage, so not so easy to 'give away'. But the movement to donate organs, particularly amongst the Catholic community, is now well in place, beginning with eye donation and extending, for many, to whole body donation.
Since 1997, the Auxiliary of Seoul, Bishop Stephen Choi, along with eight priests from the Social Pastoral Department, publicly announced their decision to donate their organs. Other dioceses quickly followed suit: Suwon's Bishop Paul Choi and 95 priests, Chuncheon's Bishop John Chang with 63 of his priests....
KONOS, the Korean public organ donation centre, has registered some 79,000 organ donations. Catholics make up 20% of the figure. It is said that with the present standard of medical care, one person's complete donation at the time of death can save the life of nine others!
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
Living the Gospel of life - the Korean way.
They say a cat has nine lives - well, the story below beats that by far!
SEOUL: 23rd December 2005 -- News has just come in of a Vigil and March for Life to be sponsored by the Salesians in Washington DC in January. That's a story worth keeping an eye on in the month to come, but in Korea, the December pastoral letter from the Archbishop of Seoul, Nicholas Cheong, has taken another angle on the life issue, urging the Catholic population to seriously consider blood and organ donation as well as the adoption of children. The context is the conclusion of the Year of the Eucharist. It seems that the Korea Salesian Province has long ago taken this message to heart. Of the 112 members of the Province, 24, including the Provincial, are registered with St. Marys Catholic Hospital in Seoul for organ or whole body donation.
A movement in this direction, especially amongst Catholics, has been in place in Korea for at least 15 years, following the Eucharistic Congress there in 1989, when the Korean Church began to urge practical self-giving as a way of living Eucharist. This took the form of things like a huge rice jar at the entrance to the Church, blood donation, adoptions and a whole missionary spirit of helping poor young churches of Africa and South Asia.
According to a Korean Parliamentary report this year, 642 patients died this year because of the lack of appropriate organs which could have been available through donation. There is an added difficulty of resistance in a country based on Confucian principles, where the body is one's parents' heritage, so not so easy to 'give away'. But the movement to donate organs, particularly amongst the Catholic community, is now well in place, beginning with eye donation and extending, for many, to whole body donation.
Since 1997, the Auxiliary of Seoul, Bishop Stephen Choi, along with eight priests from the Social Pastoral Department, publicly announced their decision to donate their organs. Other dioceses quickly followed suit: Suwon's Bishop Paul Choi and 95 priests, Chuncheon's Bishop John Chang with 63 of his priests....
KONOS, the Korean public organ donation centre, has registered some 79,000 organ donations. Catholics make up 20% of the figure. It is said that with the present standard of medical care, one person's complete donation at the time of death can save the life of nine others!
_________________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
