* Message for the 13th Farmers' Sunday

The Most Rev. Boniface Choi Ki-san, President of the Committee for Justice and Peace of the CBCK, issued a message for the 13th Farmers' Sunday on July 20, 2008.

In the message entitled "Cultivating Life Is Our Vocation!", Bishop Choi expressed concern over Korean rice market opening through a renegotiation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the matter of rice imports , the import of U.S. beef which was a prerequisite for the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and the import of genetically modified agricultural products.

Bishop Choi said, "A matter of agriculture is a matter of life. The internal and external situations around Korean agriculture have futher deteriorated so that the life of the whole nation, let alone farmers, is in danger."

He also emphasized that the believers are called to defend agriculture for life, saying "The world talks about agriculture from the perspective of progress and competition according to neo-liberal market logic, and considers it as an object of development and profits. However we Christians should observe agriculture and the rural community in the light of life."

* Symposium on the Spirituality of Water and the Ecological Matters on the Korean Peninsular

The Subcommittee for Environment of the CBCK Committee for Justice (president: The Most Rev. Boniface Choi Ki-san, Bishop of Incheon) held a symposium concerning an ecological spirituality under the theme of "The Spirituality of Water and the Ecological Matters on the Korean Peninsular in the Light of Church Teachings" at Myeongdong Catholic Center in Seoul, on July 12, 2008.

Bishop Choi said, "I hope that this symposium will be an opportunity for a profound discussion both about the spiritual significance of water and the risk of developmentalism."

Sr. Han Sun-hee, professor at the Catholic University of Korea, gave the first presentation on the topic of "Spirituality of Water". She said, "Water shortage and its environmental disruption cast a dark cloud over future of all creatures. When we conserve water in its nature as a precious gift of God we cooperate in the creation of God."

Fr. Vincent Kim Il-hoe (Diocese of Incheon) and Dr. Leo Hwang Jong-ryeol (Research Institute for an Ecological Spirituality) made a presentation with the theme "Viewpoint on the Progress in the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church of Today." They observed Catholic social teachings concerning the progress described in the papal documents such as the encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII and the encyclical Centesimus Annus of John Paul II, and then emphasized that progress must be achieved not by anthropocentricism but by theocentricism.

Mr. Kim Ji-hyeong, professor at Korea University, with the theme of "Response of the Church to the Pan Korea Grand Waterway Project", said that the Church in Korea should play a role in watching out for the observance of proper procedures during the debate on the project.

Mr. Han Myeon-hee, professor at Chonbuk National University, also presented a paper entitled "Assess the Pan Korea Grand Waterway Project from the Viewpoint of Korean Spiritual Culture." He asserted, "The Pan Korea Grand Waterway Project is not in accordance with the national sentiment on nature."