KOREA: Church called to practice
Option for the Poor

SEOUL (UCAN) -- The Church hierarchy needs to opt for the poor practically as well as officially to bridge growing economic disparity in South Korea, speakers urged at a bishops' committee seminar.

"Poverty problem and the common good: Korean society's poverty and the Church's role" was the theme for the June 25 event that drew more than 200 people to Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul. The Korean Catholic bishop's Committee for Justice and Peace organized the seminar.

Thomas Han Hong-soon, an academic and member of the bishops' committee, was the keynote speaker. "The Church hierarchy itself should opt for the poor in every aspect. Its leaders, individually and officially, should practice the option for the poor and lead other Christians to do the same," he advised.

The economics professor observed that income inequality has worsened even though the economy has improved, with the Gini coefficient for per capita income rising from 0.298 in 1996 to 0.358 in 2000.

The Gini coefficient is used to measure income disparity in society. It is a number ranging from 0 to 1, with 0 corresponding to perfect equality, in which everyone has the same income, and 1 corresponding with absolute inequality, in which one person has all the income and everyone else has zero income.

Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san of Inchon, committee president, also mentioned the widening disparity and his concern that it is threatening Korean society.

Han, also a member of the Vatican-based Pontifical Council for the Laity, said the Catholic Church "sees poverty not only as an individual's misfortune but as the result of unjust social structures." He called for Christians to stress the "option for the poor" individually and collectively, not merely through sympathy in individual cases but through an actual sharing of life with the poor.

Baptist John Ro Kil-myung, a sociology professor and panelist, stressed in his response to Han that the Church must go beyond charity and welfare activities in working to change "unjust social structures." The Church's commitment to justice has been "very limited" he said.

Prado Sister Jung Sun-ok, another panelist, said the poor should receive respect from society rather than sympathy and charity.

She maintained that no one could live out the Gospel without loving the poor. But clergy and Religious have a standard of living so relatively high that it is difficult for them to have solidarity with the poor, she added.

Observing that the Korean Catholic Church is parish centered, she suggested that the Church needs to reach out to the poor in and through parishes.

Bishop Choi explained that the seminar reflected concerns Pope John Paul II expressed in his message for World Day of Peace 2005.

He cited the late pope as saying that "the ethical requirements for the use of the earth's goods must always be taken into account" and "the principle of the universal destination of goods can also make possible a more effective approach to the challenge of poverty."

The bishops' Committee for Justice and Peace has held seminars annually since 1992 on various themes such as life and human dignity, national reunification and peace, and capital punishment. Since 2002, it has reflected on the theme and content of the papal message for the annual World Day of Peace, set by the Church for Jan. 1.

KO8506.1348     July 4, 2005