Communications on Dec. 28, 2001
* Let's Make Family a Domestic Church
On the occasion of the first Week for Family Sanctification from Dec. 30, 2001 to Jan. 5, 2002, the Most Rev. Peter Lee, President of the Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry, issued a message and appealed Korean Catholics to walk together to rediscover deep value of the family.
"The future of the humanity depends on the family, therefore, we have to build authentic family", he said in the message entitled 'To Establish Right Foundation of Family' and went on the primary principle should be the filial piety.
We have to create authentic culture of filial piety by honoring God and parents with all our heart in the example of Jesus, however, this should be done in mutual way not in one-way. Parents have to try to make the family a domestic Church by providing appropriate education to their children.
The message also underlined the importance of prayer by saying that Christian family, in order to establish right foundation of family, has to return to God who established the family institution.
The Most Rev. Lee asked the faithful to make appropriate efforts for it.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, by understanding the serious reality of Korean families facing threats and dangers of dissolution, established the Week for Family Sanctification at its 2000 Spring General Assembly and decided the last week of the year for it.
The Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry published Family Prayer Handbook and distributed it to the Catholic families across the country.
The Handbook recommends the family members to make liturgy of washing feet in the family to help to understand preciousness of each other.
For example, the Handbook reads: Let's have time to wash each other's feet to heal each other's scars and resentments. For this the head of family is invited to wash the feet of family members first.
* Different Religions Celebrate the Birth of Jesus
Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, Buddhist monks and Won-Buddhist administrators met together on Dec. 20, 2001 at Gaya Parish of the Diocese of Pusan to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
On the occasion of Christmas, the Interreligious Dialogue Academy of Busan (Advisor: Rev. Heo Seong. Joint representatives: Ven. Jeong Yeo of Buddhism and Rev. Minister Kim Sang-hun of Protestantism) organized a prayer meeting and music concert for peace.
Over 1,000 leaders and believers of different religions participated in the Christmas event to pray for peace in the world and to celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, Prince of peace.
The participants, holding candlelight in hand, read the joint prayer for peace in the world, especially for peace and stability in Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel and the Korean peninsula.
After prayer worship, the participants of different religions had joyful and fraternal time with songs and chants. Buddhist nuns choir sung "Lord, make me instrument of your peace" of St. Francis of Assisi, and the Catholic nuns choir responded to it by singing a Buddhist song 'Joy of vimukti' (deliverance from all passions and attachments).
The Most Rev. Augustine Cheong, Bishop of Pusan, in his congratulatory address, welcomed them and said that 'We the Catholics are very happy to share with brothers and sisters of other religions the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world."
The participants concluded the interreligious Christmas party for peace by singing hand in hand 'In love'.
* The Most Rev. Alexander Sye Passed Away
The Most Rev. Alexander Sye(64), a retired Bishop and former Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Taegu, passed away on Dec. 22 at the Holy Family Sanatorium located near Daegu by cronic disease he suffered from for several years.
The late Bishop was born in Daegu in 1937 and ordained a priest in 1962. Having offered pastoral care to the military for 24 years until one year after his episcopal ordination, he paved the way to the establishment of Military Ordinariate in Korea and its development. His contribution as head of military chaplains in the Army from 1985 is appreciated.
After being discharged from the military, he managed various administrative works of Archdiocese of Taegu and was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of the Archdiocese in 1994. He also served as Presidents of the Committee for Culture and of the Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry of the CBCK.
Faced with sudden news of his death, the Archdiocese of Taegu formed a committee for his funeral with the Most Rev. John Choi, Auxiliary Bishop of Taegu, as chairman. The funeral Mass was concelebrated with the Korean Bishops and the presbyterium of Archdiocese of Taegu on Dec. 26 with the Most Rev. Paul Ri, Archbishop of Taegu, presiding.
* First Chairman of "One Heart One Body" Movement's Bioethics Committee Elected
Dr. Park Chong-dae was elected as the first chairman of the Bioethics Committee of "One Heart One Body" Movement at its plenary assembly held on Dec. 13.
"It is very difficult to present solutions to controversial bioethics-related problems such as the use of human embryos and human cloning. However, we should not abandon the teachings of the Catholic Church and not compromise with anti-life attitudes. My effort will concentrate on coping with new problems promptly", he said.
He plans to develop life movements in cooperation with civil institutions, along with informative campaigns for the faithful and promotion activities. "Together with the members, all experts in each field, I will try to understand the teachings of the Church and seek ways to apply them to our society", he said.
"For centuries, the Catholic Church has fundamentally emphasized the dignity of human life and defense of it. Especially, Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, turned his eyes to the problems of human rights such as poverty, hunger and prostitution, not confined to the biblical or theological dimension of life. Not unlike him, we also should look at the problems related to life in a broader view of point", he continued.
He also added that "Even the believers do not have firm conviction of life and strong determination to practice the teachings", and "I hope they can be better aware of the teachings of the Church through Catholic media".
He, presently the Director of Research Institute for Life and Culture and President of Graduate School of Education of Sogang University, has made various efforts to combine theory with practice in bio-related problems through interdisciplinary study based on social sciences. He graduated from Seoul National University majoring in philosophy in 1967, and studied theology at Catholic University. After receiving the master's degree at Jesuit-run University of Philosophy in Munich in 1976 and Ph. D, at Munich University in 1982, he has taught philosophy at Sogang University since 1982.
* Cana Program of Archdiocese of Taegu Completes Its 300th Session
The Archdiocese of Taegu completed the 300th session of Cana program, the first instruction course for marriage of the Catholic Church in Korea, since the first session was started on Sept. 10, 1967.
The program, prepared for young people who are about to marry, has the purposes of helping them to understand true meaning and values of marriage and presenting conjugal life desirable in the views of the Catholic Church.
Until now, the number of people who completed this course reaches 30,000, including 30% of non-believers. It is also a noticeable change that the number of male participants amounts to 40% now while most of participants were women in the beginning.
Nowadays we often see the traditional view of marriage being destroyed; one out of three married couples divorces and premarital cohabitation is not rare. In this reality, it can be said that the presence of Cana program itself serves as a warning to modern society.
On Dec. 16, a Mass was held and a special lecture was given to celebrate this occasion. The Very Rev. Msgr. Chrysanthe Lee, lecturer of the day, emphasized that "Only when people have proper view of marriage they can live up to true purposes of marriage, that is, marital love and procreation of children".
On the occasion of the first Week for Family Sanctification from Dec. 30, 2001 to Jan. 5, 2002, the Most Rev. Peter Lee, President of the Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry, issued a message and appealed Korean Catholics to walk together to rediscover deep value of the family.
"The future of the humanity depends on the family, therefore, we have to build authentic family", he said in the message entitled 'To Establish Right Foundation of Family' and went on the primary principle should be the filial piety.
We have to create authentic culture of filial piety by honoring God and parents with all our heart in the example of Jesus, however, this should be done in mutual way not in one-way. Parents have to try to make the family a domestic Church by providing appropriate education to their children.
The message also underlined the importance of prayer by saying that Christian family, in order to establish right foundation of family, has to return to God who established the family institution.
The Most Rev. Lee asked the faithful to make appropriate efforts for it.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, by understanding the serious reality of Korean families facing threats and dangers of dissolution, established the Week for Family Sanctification at its 2000 Spring General Assembly and decided the last week of the year for it.
The Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry published Family Prayer Handbook and distributed it to the Catholic families across the country.
The Handbook recommends the family members to make liturgy of washing feet in the family to help to understand preciousness of each other.
For example, the Handbook reads: Let's have time to wash each other's feet to heal each other's scars and resentments. For this the head of family is invited to wash the feet of family members first.
* Different Religions Celebrate the Birth of Jesus
Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, Buddhist monks and Won-Buddhist administrators met together on Dec. 20, 2001 at Gaya Parish of the Diocese of Pusan to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
On the occasion of Christmas, the Interreligious Dialogue Academy of Busan (Advisor: Rev. Heo Seong. Joint representatives: Ven. Jeong Yeo of Buddhism and Rev. Minister Kim Sang-hun of Protestantism) organized a prayer meeting and music concert for peace.
Over 1,000 leaders and believers of different religions participated in the Christmas event to pray for peace in the world and to celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, Prince of peace.
The participants, holding candlelight in hand, read the joint prayer for peace in the world, especially for peace and stability in Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel and the Korean peninsula.
After prayer worship, the participants of different religions had joyful and fraternal time with songs and chants. Buddhist nuns choir sung "Lord, make me instrument of your peace" of St. Francis of Assisi, and the Catholic nuns choir responded to it by singing a Buddhist song 'Joy of vimukti' (deliverance from all passions and attachments).
The Most Rev. Augustine Cheong, Bishop of Pusan, in his congratulatory address, welcomed them and said that 'We the Catholics are very happy to share with brothers and sisters of other religions the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world."
The participants concluded the interreligious Christmas party for peace by singing hand in hand 'In love'.
* The Most Rev. Alexander Sye Passed Away
The Most Rev. Alexander Sye(64), a retired Bishop and former Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Taegu, passed away on Dec. 22 at the Holy Family Sanatorium located near Daegu by cronic disease he suffered from for several years.
The late Bishop was born in Daegu in 1937 and ordained a priest in 1962. Having offered pastoral care to the military for 24 years until one year after his episcopal ordination, he paved the way to the establishment of Military Ordinariate in Korea and its development. His contribution as head of military chaplains in the Army from 1985 is appreciated.
After being discharged from the military, he managed various administrative works of Archdiocese of Taegu and was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of the Archdiocese in 1994. He also served as Presidents of the Committee for Culture and of the Committee for Family Pastoral Ministry of the CBCK.
Faced with sudden news of his death, the Archdiocese of Taegu formed a committee for his funeral with the Most Rev. John Choi, Auxiliary Bishop of Taegu, as chairman. The funeral Mass was concelebrated with the Korean Bishops and the presbyterium of Archdiocese of Taegu on Dec. 26 with the Most Rev. Paul Ri, Archbishop of Taegu, presiding.
* First Chairman of "One Heart One Body" Movement's Bioethics Committee Elected
Dr. Park Chong-dae was elected as the first chairman of the Bioethics Committee of "One Heart One Body" Movement at its plenary assembly held on Dec. 13.
"It is very difficult to present solutions to controversial bioethics-related problems such as the use of human embryos and human cloning. However, we should not abandon the teachings of the Catholic Church and not compromise with anti-life attitudes. My effort will concentrate on coping with new problems promptly", he said.
He plans to develop life movements in cooperation with civil institutions, along with informative campaigns for the faithful and promotion activities. "Together with the members, all experts in each field, I will try to understand the teachings of the Church and seek ways to apply them to our society", he said.
"For centuries, the Catholic Church has fundamentally emphasized the dignity of human life and defense of it. Especially, Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, turned his eyes to the problems of human rights such as poverty, hunger and prostitution, not confined to the biblical or theological dimension of life. Not unlike him, we also should look at the problems related to life in a broader view of point", he continued.
He also added that "Even the believers do not have firm conviction of life and strong determination to practice the teachings", and "I hope they can be better aware of the teachings of the Church through Catholic media".
He, presently the Director of Research Institute for Life and Culture and President of Graduate School of Education of Sogang University, has made various efforts to combine theory with practice in bio-related problems through interdisciplinary study based on social sciences. He graduated from Seoul National University majoring in philosophy in 1967, and studied theology at Catholic University. After receiving the master's degree at Jesuit-run University of Philosophy in Munich in 1976 and Ph. D, at Munich University in 1982, he has taught philosophy at Sogang University since 1982.
* Cana Program of Archdiocese of Taegu Completes Its 300th Session
The Archdiocese of Taegu completed the 300th session of Cana program, the first instruction course for marriage of the Catholic Church in Korea, since the first session was started on Sept. 10, 1967.
The program, prepared for young people who are about to marry, has the purposes of helping them to understand true meaning and values of marriage and presenting conjugal life desirable in the views of the Catholic Church.
Until now, the number of people who completed this course reaches 30,000, including 30% of non-believers. It is also a noticeable change that the number of male participants amounts to 40% now while most of participants were women in the beginning.
Nowadays we often see the traditional view of marriage being destroyed; one out of three married couples divorces and premarital cohabitation is not rare. In this reality, it can be said that the presence of Cana program itself serves as a warning to modern society.
On Dec. 16, a Mass was held and a special lecture was given to celebrate this occasion. The Very Rev. Msgr. Chrysanthe Lee, lecturer of the day, emphasized that "Only when people have proper view of marriage they can live up to true purposes of marriage, that is, marital love and procreation of children".