SEOUL (UCAN) -- Priests, Religious and laypeople are grateful to a counseling center in Seoul for guiding them in their spiritual life.

Around 200 participants, many of them nuns, joined in the 20th-anniversary celebration for the Religious Consultation Center in Seoul on May 3. Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul presided at the anniversary Mass. The eight priests who concelebrated included Columban Father Jeremiah Cotter, the center's founder and former director.

Italian Father Vincenzo Boredo told UCA News on May 6 that the counseling he received once a month from Father Cotter for 12 years helped him firm up his spiritual life and sort out personal and pastoral problems.

The Oblate priest has helped poor and homeless people as well as youths in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul. But he said the Columban priest helped him maintain his identity as a missioner and find a way forward. "Father Cotter was a guardian angel to me for such a long time," he said.

Bertha, 73, a retired Church worker who did not want her full name revealed, thanked the counseling center for helping her identify "repressed feelings."

The laywoman, who worked with young laborers, told UCA News on May 3: "After counseling for six months in 2004, I could express my feelings freely. It (the center) offered me a great opportunity to reflect on my 40 years of work. Through it I could heal my inner wounds, which earlier I didn't even clearly recognize."

Sister Christa Lee Young-ok of the Congregation of the Sacred Word, told UCA News on May 6 that her congregation has had all applicants go through psychological testing at the counseling center since 2004.

"It gives some comments on each applicant's character, including strengths and weakness. I use it for reference in their spiritual growth and community life," the formator explained.

Bishop Yeom praised the center during his homily. "It took care of priests and Religious not only psychologically but spiritually, which was really needed," he said.

Father Cotter, who received a medal of gratitude from the center during the Mass, told those present it would be more appropriate for him to thank the counselees who came to the center for more than 20 years.

He later told UCA News why he founded the center. The number of Catholics in South Korea "rapidly increased" beginning in the 1980s, "and pastors and Religious often exhaust themselves, having to cope with relations with laypeople and among themselves in parishes and Religious communities," he said. "Sometimes they face a crisis of identity as a priest or Religious."

Theresa Hwang Chung-soon, the center's current director, talked during Mass about its work with 24,044 people during the past 20 years. Among them, 43.1 percent were Religious, 30.6 percent seminarians and applicants to Religious congregations, 23.7 percent laypeople and 2.6 percent priests. Women accounted for more than 80 percent of these people who used the center's services, which include group counseling, psychological testing and professional counseling training for graduate students of psychology.

In a video message presented during the Mass, Bishops Joseph Lee Han-taek of Uijeongbu and Peter Kang U-il of Cheju expressed their hopes for the center. Jesuit Bishop Lee said that through counseling, the center should help priests and Religious experience God's love more deeply. Bishop Kang asked it to introduce and develop pastoral programs for families.

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