austraLasia #1885
A modest contribution to national reconciliation
SEOUL: 22nd June 2007 -- Sunday 24th June - apart from being the Rector Major's name day (he follows the tradition of Don Bosco's choice of the Feast of St John the Baptist) also happens to be the day this year when Bishop Kim Won Tae, auxiliary of Seoul, will ordain 5 young Salesians to the priesthood. But for the South Korean Catholic Church in general it is an annual celebration called Reconciliation Day.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called God's children", is the theme for Reconciliation Day, taken from Mt 5:9. The Salesian Family has been offering its own modest contribution to reconciliation, for example by its open-door policy in the Don Bosco Youth Centre, a policy which sees many young refugees from the North pass through its doors. The Salesian Sisters have opened a facility for juvenile refugees, a group home. The Caritas Sisters are involved helping refugee families with social welfare issues, health care, family visits.
A celebration of a national reconciliation day amongst Catholics is a challenge to many. The Bishops invite the faithful to carry on with the hope of one country in spite of the huge political and ideological gap. Many southerners, and especially young people, have serious doubts about unification since they assume it might mean a backward step economically and socially. The Church's presentation of a spirit of openness to unification, and of striving for it, is a response to these doubts, reminding Southern Koreans that a unified Korea will be more open to the world, to the Asian continent, that the national economy would develop, especially since the huge military expenditure on both sides of the border could be reduced. The bishops also promote the notion of increased 'social capital' through the removal of distrust and competition. But the strong faith-oriented motivation is to remind Koreans that they will achieve true religious freedom, an evangelical hope to be able to preach the Gospel to all the nation.
Of 10,000 North Korean refugees who are in Seoul, around 1350 of them have been through the Hanawon educational centre where they come in touch with Catholic volunteers for catechesis and cultural programs. Some (around 135) have been baptsied as a result. They are seen as a bridge to the other culture and mentality and a front line for evangelisation in the near future.
The secular press is full of news these days about renewed efforts and contacts, especially between North Korea and the US. The story tends to revolve around missiles and starvation. But there have been other and more important contacts between North and South themselves: the May 20th north-south train, for example, that made the journey through the demilitarised zone - the first such journey since 1953. The number of South Korean visitors to the North has jumped sharply from some 26,000 in 1994 to around 90,000 in 2006. The story is similar though the numbers fewer, from North to South. It also has to be said that the number of defectors annually from the North has risen sharply since the year 2000 - from a three figure to a four figure number.
austraLasia has been following this story occasionally since 2005. It makes interesting reading to follow these items up in sequence: #1001, January 2005; #1337 24 November 2005.
Important note: the SDL server is currently down, so apologies to those attempting to access it. The amount of material now being added to SDL is exponential, and this has resulted in the need for a larger, more stable server. The entire exercise is a prelude to a major expansion of availability of documentary material of the Congregation which will be available in as many as forty languages, so a brief wait of a week or two is acceptable, hopefully!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contactadmin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia1
A modest contribution to national reconciliation
SEOUL: 22nd June 2007 -- Sunday 24th June - apart from being the Rector Major's name day (he follows the tradition of Don Bosco's choice of the Feast of St John the Baptist) also happens to be the day this year when Bishop Kim Won Tae, auxiliary of Seoul, will ordain 5 young Salesians to the priesthood. But for the South Korean Catholic Church in general it is an annual celebration called Reconciliation Day.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called God's children", is the theme for Reconciliation Day, taken from Mt 5:9. The Salesian Family has been offering its own modest contribution to reconciliation, for example by its open-door policy in the Don Bosco Youth Centre, a policy which sees many young refugees from the North pass through its doors. The Salesian Sisters have opened a facility for juvenile refugees, a group home. The Caritas Sisters are involved helping refugee families with social welfare issues, health care, family visits.
A celebration of a national reconciliation day amongst Catholics is a challenge to many. The Bishops invite the faithful to carry on with the hope of one country in spite of the huge political and ideological gap. Many southerners, and especially young people, have serious doubts about unification since they assume it might mean a backward step economically and socially. The Church's presentation of a spirit of openness to unification, and of striving for it, is a response to these doubts, reminding Southern Koreans that a unified Korea will be more open to the world, to the Asian continent, that the national economy would develop, especially since the huge military expenditure on both sides of the border could be reduced. The bishops also promote the notion of increased 'social capital' through the removal of distrust and competition. But the strong faith-oriented motivation is to remind Koreans that they will achieve true religious freedom, an evangelical hope to be able to preach the Gospel to all the nation.
Of 10,000 North Korean refugees who are in Seoul, around 1350 of them have been through the Hanawon educational centre where they come in touch with Catholic volunteers for catechesis and cultural programs. Some (around 135) have been baptsied as a result. They are seen as a bridge to the other culture and mentality and a front line for evangelisation in the near future.
The secular press is full of news these days about renewed efforts and contacts, especially between North Korea and the US. The story tends to revolve around missiles and starvation. But there have been other and more important contacts between North and South themselves: the May 20th north-south train, for example, that made the journey through the demilitarised zone - the first such journey since 1953. The number of South Korean visitors to the North has jumped sharply from some 26,000 in 1994 to around 90,000 in 2006. The story is similar though the numbers fewer, from North to South. It also has to be said that the number of defectors annually from the North has risen sharply since the year 2000 - from a three figure to a four figure number.
austraLasia has been following this story occasionally since 2005. It makes interesting reading to follow these items up in sequence: #1001, January 2005; #1337 24 November 2005.
Important note: the SDL server is currently down, so apologies to those attempting to access it. The amount of material now being added to SDL is exponential, and this has resulted in the need for a larger, more stable server. The entire exercise is a prelude to a major expansion of availability of documentary material of the Congregation which will be available in as many as forty languages, so a brief wait of a week or two is acceptable, hopefully!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contactadmin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org. To contact austraLasia by voice on Skype, the Skype name is austraLasia1
