RSSThe local Church needs to prepare priests in the light of potential changes in North Korea and the hope for peaceful reunification of North and South.
“Changing North Korea and the Role of the Church” was the topic of a seminar the Korean bishops´ Committee for the Reconciliation of the Korean People conducted to mark its 10th anniversary. It held the seminar and a special Mass on June 18 at Hanawon, an institution the South Korean government established in the west-central city of Anseong to provide resettlement support to North Korean refugees.
About 250 Religious and laypeople took part in the seminar, which the organizers said they hoped would help the Church foster reconciliation and reunification of North and South Korea.
Martin Lim Kang-taeg, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification and a member of the bishops´ committee, argued that recent events in the North might cause rapid change there.
North Korea on May 25 detonated a powerful nuclear bomb and fired three short-range missiles from its eastern coast into the sea. Moreover, Kim Jong-il, the northern leader, was recently reported to have appointed Kim Jong-un, youngest of his three sons, as successor.
Lim sees these as attempts by the communist regime to strengthen itself that are unlikely to succeed. And if they do not succeed, he continued, the economy could collapse, sending North Koreans rushing for food outside the country.
“The change could be beyond our expectation, and we need to prepare before it´s too late. To prepare, the Church needs to train priests and volunteer groups to serve North Korean refugees,” he said.
The researcher also suggested the Church should prepare facilities to house these refugees and collect funds beforehand.
Seoul archdiocese in March accepted five seminarians who said they are willing to serve North Koreans. They will be ordained for Pyongyang diocese after their seven years of priestly formation. For now the diocese exists in name only. Its administrator, Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul, cannot visit, and it has no resident Catholic priest or Religious.
The archdiocese´s Association of Pyongyang Diocesan Priests counts about 30 members, 20 of them originally from the North and 10 whose parents came from there. Some of the “first-generation” priests did seminary studies there.
Auxiliary Bishop Lucas Kim Woon-hoe of Seoul, president of the reconciliation committee, said in his homily during the anniversary Mass: “Nobody knows when the time of reunification of North and South Korea will come. So we need to prepare for the day from now on.”
Although he acknowledged that “North and South Koreas are hostile to each other and a peaceful reunification has a long way to go and even looks impossible these days,” he insisted: “With our patience and prayer, we can make it possible.”
The Catholic Church, he added, “should be a stepping stone for the improvement of relations between the North and the South through prayers.”
The assistance it has offered refugees in the meantime drew praise from Hanawon director Youn Mi-ryang.
“For years the Catholic Church has helped North Korean refugees with their psychological stability and resettlement in South Korea,” she said, citing the reconciliation committee´s home-stay program.
The committee has run the program, through which refugees spend two days and one night with a South Korean family, since 2005. It also offers a weekly Mass and catechism class for the refugees.
Hanawon operates under the Ministry of Unification. Its task is to help North Korean refugees adapt to life in South Korea, teaching them about democracy and South Korea´s economic system and society.
The bishops´ reconciliation committee began as the Committee for Evangelization of North Korea in 1982 but took its current name in 1999.
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