* The National Integrated Yangeop System Started Its Service
The launching ceremony of the National Integrated Yangeop System, a national digitalization project of the administrative affairs of the Church in Korea, was held at the conference room of the Archdiocesan Office of Seoul on September 24, 2008. His Eminence Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Jinsuk, Archbishop of Seoul, the Most Rev. Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul, Rev. Peter Pai Young-ho, Executive Secretary of the CBCK, Rev. Patrick Ju Ho-sik, Representative of the Conference of Diocesan Computer Director Priests, and Mr. Lee Jong-hwi, CEO of Woori Bank, participated in the ceremony.
‘The Yangeop System’, a digitalized system for administrative affairs started in the Archdiocese of Seoul in 1998, developed into ‘the Integrated Yangeop System’ in each diocese in a decade. Thus, facing the information-oriented era, the Church in Korea can set a foundation to work out future-oriented pastoral projects and strategy for evangelization.
The Integrated Yangeop System is the first integrated digitalization project of the whole Church in the world. It has been prepared by the Church in Korea with the cooperation of Woori Bank. The preparation was started in 2004 and the full-scale system development began on September 10, 2007. The Integrated Yangeop System started its first service in the Archdiocese of Seoul and the Diocese of Uijeongbu on September 20, 2008, and then the rest 11 dioceses will start the system on October 18, 2008.
Cardinal Cheong said, “2000 years ago, the letters that St. Paul the Apostle sent were an epoch-making method to proclaim the Gospel. In the same manner, today we proclaim the Gospel through the most advanced information technology. It is significant that the Integrated Yangeop System was named after Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop, the second Korean priest, meaning ‘good work’.” At the ceremony he also awarded appreciation plague to CEO of Woori Bank, saying “I give thanks to those people of Woori Bank and the Church who made great effort for the digitalization of pastoral administrative affairs of the Church in Korea.”
With the Integrated Yangeop System, pastoral administrative affairs, such as digitalized original documents, will be standardized, and accounts transparency will be assured accepting accounting principle requested by the civil law. Furthermore, since duplicate data through cross-checking service between dioceses and parishes will be removed, more accurate statistical data can be offered. The Integrated Yangeop System also strengthens security functions to prevent leakage of personal information of the faithful.
