The Justice & Peace Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul held a seminar on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the promulgation of Rerum Novarum at Catholic Center in Myeongdong on May 11, 2011

Rev. Andrea Park Dong-ho, Director of the said committee, presented his paper entitled “The Catholic Church and society in Korea in light of the Rerum Novarum”. In his paper Rev. Park said that the Rerum Novarum was issued in 1891 when Europe was in the very middle of a drastic change in society, economy and politics. He said nobody expected Pope Leo XIII to promulgate the Rerum Novarum. In conclusion, he said that the Church must try to communicate with the world to understand it. It was the reason that the Second Vatican Council suggested the communication with the world along with renewal and evangelization as the pastoral goals of the Church.

At the panel discussion, Dr. Kang In-cheol, Professor of the Department of Religion and Culture of Hanshin University, said that the Rerum Novarum had been recognized as the “charter of labour” since the beginning of the movement of Jeunesse Ouvriere Chretienne (JOC) which was one of the centers in Korea struggling for the good of the poor during the era of rapid industrialization and military dictatorship in Korea.

Dr. Park Mun-su, Vice-Director of the Korean Catholic Culture Institute, said that the Catholic Church in Korea must examine if the teaching of the Rerum Novarum and the freedom of association of the ecclesiastical lay employees were properly practiced in the Church.