austraLasia #2365

Remembering Cardinal Kim
Fr. Jack Trisolini, SDB
Pastoral Ministry to Migrant Workers, Archdiocese of Seoul

SEOUL: 21st February 2009 -- The long lines of people at Myong Dong Cathedral paying respect to deceased Stephen Cardinal Kim vividly witness to the esteem of the Korean people for this unique person. I only wish I were in better health. Then I too could pay a final visit to a great pastor and a good friend, but I’m on crutches and need regular dialysis. Nevertheless, my heart is with the thousands who braved a long wait in the cold to pay their final respect to someone who loved his country and his people dearly.

I first arrived in Korea in 1959 as a young seminarian doing a pastoral experience and stayed till 1962. I returned in 1968 after finishing theological studies in Europe. That’s the year Cardinal Kim became Archbishop of Seoul. I attended his installment ceremony but my first really personal meeting with him came later that same year when he visited Do Rim Dong Catholic Church. I was the assistant pastor then and I was also accompanying the Young Deung Po Young Christian Worker groups.

Cardinal Kim had been the bishop in charge of the YCW and had to defend the YCW girls who were fired when they organized a labor union in a textile factory in Kang-Hwa in 1967. The Kang-Hwa incident was only the first of many labor struggles like the ones in Won Poong Textile and Dong-Il Spinning and Weaving in which Cardinal Kim would be called on to support ordinary working people.

In March 1971 Cardinal Kim was very worried about the influx of people, especially young people, from the countryside to the cities. In fact, in the space of one or two decades Korea went from an 80% rural country to one that now has 85% of its population in urban areas.

Seoul and the surrounding cities were bursting at the seams. Cardinal Kim organized a committee of priests to study the situation and named me to chair the group. Thus began the Seoul Archdiocese’s Labor Pastoral Commission.

There had already been major problems in the manufacturing sector and Cardinal Kim was deeply concerned. A young worker named Kim Jin-su had already died in an incident in Young Deung Po in 1970 and soon after Chun Dae-il burned himself alive in protest against the inhumane working conditions in the garment industry. Cardinal Kim had Chun Dae-il treated in St. Mary’s Hospital.

Factories were sprouting up all over Seoul. Both salaries and working conditions were often deplorable. People had been bulldozed out of their homes and resettled in what became huge slum areas.

Every train and bus arriving in Seoul in those years seemed to disgorge more and more people looking for work in the city. There was no work to be had in the countryside. Economically it was truly a dog-eat-dog atmosphere. Politically it was military dictatorship. Export now to survive and reap the benefits sometime in the future was the name of the game. In the midst of all this dizziness and confusion Cardinal Kim was a beacon for the downtrodden and a friend to the oppressed.

Cardinal Kim would call me often to hear what I knew about one or another worker incident. I remember one day he called me and requested I come to see him right away—“Take a taxi!” he told me. On another occasion we spoke for a long time in his office. He had missed lunch and so had I. He called down to the kitchen and asked the lady to bring us two bowls of ramyon (noodles), and we continued our talk.

Cardinal Kim never preached hate for anyone—especially for the authorities. And only God knows how much distress the ruling class had caused him. I once asked him how I should deal with the police, the KCIA and the CID who had harassed me and others I worked with. His answer was rapid and sure. “They too are human beings. Treat them fairly, respectfully and humanely.”

At masses he celebrated for migrant workers, he showed deep concern for their “dirty, difficult and dangerous” work conditions and often apologized to them for the inhuman and unjust actions of some of their employers.

At my 60th birthday celebration my mother made her first and only trip to Korea. Cardinal Kim had another engagement that day but he called and asked us to hold up the celebration for 10 or 15 minutes so that he could be there with us.

His motto was “for you and for many!” His life was lived not only for the Catholic Church but for all Koreans and for all people but especially for the little ones. As I watched the T.V. broadcasts of his talks and of his memoirs, I realized that like many other people, I’ll miss his smile, his laughter, his humanity and his unique way of showing us the love of God.
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Title: australasia 2365
Subject and key words: EAO General Cardinal Kim
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2365