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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA the Church As THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Church as Communion in Small Christian Communities in South Korea A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Sacred Theology © Copyright All Rights Reserved Daesup Kim Washington, D.C. 2011 The Church as Communion in Small Christian Communities in South Korea Daesup Kim, S.T.D. Director: Msgr. Paul McPartlan, D. Phil. In light of the development of an ecclesiology of communion in the Catholic Church in recent decades, the Catholic Church in South Korea has implemented a structure of small Christian communities (SCCs) in each parish. However, there has been a lack of real understanding and analysis of SCCs in terms of the idea of the Church as communion. Instead, they have generally been regarded as one of the best ways for evangelization and for parish renewal. This seems to be because the SCCs have been implemented while mostly focusing on the mission of the Church, without fully considering the essential nature of the Church as a whole. This dissertation traces the implementation and establishment of SCCs in the Church of South Korea. It then analyzes this development in light of the ecclesiology of communion developed on the universal level in the teaching of Vatican II and subsequent magisterial teachings (noting Christological, ecclesial, and evangelical dimensions of the idea), and on the regional level in the documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC; noting especially understandings of communion as liberation, as dialogue, and as harmony). It is concluded that SCCs in South Korea have promoted communion in the Church, especially in terms of personal communion with Jesus Christ through meditation on the Gospel, friendlier communion among the parishioners, more active participation of the laity in the parish and in the evangelization of their neighborhood. However, there are still some issues to be resolved and points to be developed, in order to find a truly inculturated model for the SCCs and proper methods of Gospel-sharing and of lay spirituality fitting for the Korean environment. The dissertation makes suggestions towards that end. SCCs have been true expressions of ecclesial communion and centers of evangelization in South Korea. Accordingly, it can be said that with the help of the SCC movement the Church in South Korea is in process toward becoming a true local Church, a true Church-in-communion. This dissertation by Daesup Kim fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Sacred Theology approved by Paul McPartlan, D. Phil., as Director, and by John P. Galvin, Dr. Theol., and Michael G. Witczak, S.L.D., as Readers. _________________________________ Paul McPartlan, D. Phil., Director _________________________________ John P. Galvin, Dr. Theol., Reader _________________________________ Michael G. Witczak, S.L.D., Reader ii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………….... 1 . CHAPTER ONE: THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES (SCCs) IN SOUTH KOREA …………………………………..…..……. 5 1. The Backgrounds of SCCs in South Korea …………………………..…………. 6 2. The Process of Implementing SCCs in South Korea ………………..………. 17 3. The Characteristics of SCCs in South Korea in Comparison with Other Related Communities ……………………………………………………...……..….……. 32 4. Present Statistics on SCCs and Parishes in the Korean Catholic Church ......…56 5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………….....……….… 59 CHAPTER TWO: THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, THE CHURCH FATHERS, VATICAN II, THE 1985 SYNOD, AND THE 1987 SYNOD ..… 62 1. Communion in the Tradition of the Church …….………………………..……. 63 2. Communion in the Documents of Vatican II …………………………....….… 79 3. The Church as Communion According to the 1985 Synod ……………...… 103 4. The Lay Faithful in the Church as Communion According to the 1987 Synod and Christifideles Laici …………………………………...…………………..…… 131 5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………............ 149 CHAPTER THREE: THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION ACCORDING TO THE DOCUMENTS OF THE FEDERATION OF ASIAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES ………………………..…… 155 1. The Context of Asia ……………………………………………………… 157 2. Some Further Aspects of Communion in the Documents of the FABC …….... 168 3. The Life of the Church in Asia as Communion ………………………...…. … 203 4. Conclusion ………..…………………………………………………..….....… 233 iii CHAPTER FOUR: AN EVALUATION OF THE SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH KOREA ………………………………………………………………………...………… 235 1. An Evaluation of SCCs in South Korea in Terms of the Triple Dimensions of Communion ………………………………………………………………..….… 237 2. An Evaluation of SCCs in South Korea According to the Further Understanding of Communion by the FABC ………..……………..……………………… 259 3. SCCs in the Communion of the Church ………….………………....…… 271 4. Toward an Inculturated Ecclesiology of Communion in South Korea .….… 287 5. Conclusion ………..……………….……………………………………….… 302 CONCLUSION ………………………………..............................................................… 306 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………… 313 iv INTRODUCTION In official ecclesiastical documents and in much theological literature since the Second Vatican Council, there has been a growing awareness and agreement that an idea of the Church as communion best explains the essential nature of the Church. For instance, the “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion,” issued in 1992 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke of the concept of “communion” as being “at the heart of the Church’s self-understanding,” 1 and said that “the concept of communion ( koinonia ), which appears with a certain prominence in the texts of the Second Vatican Council, is very suitable for expressing the core of the Mystery of the Church, and can certainly be a key for the renewal of Catholic ecclesiology.” 2 More specifically, the bishops who participated in the 1985 Extraordinary Synod proclaimed in the latter’s Final Report that the ecclesiology of communion was the central and fundamental idea of the Council’s documents, and in so doing they urged that the idea of the Church as communion be more clearly understood and concretely incorporated into people’s lives. This ecclesiology of communion was affirmed at the 1987 Synod on the laity, in which the Synod Fathers discussed the vocation and mission of the laity in the Church and in the world in light of an understanding of the Church as mystery, communion, and 1 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion,” no. 3. Text is in Origins 22, no. 7 (1992): 108-12. 2 Ibid., no. 1. 1 2 mission. Proceeding from this concept, John Paul II emphasized in his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici , that the parish community is most suitable for celebrating the Eucharist, which is the living source from which it is built up and the sacramental bond of its being in full communion with the whole Church. He also stressed that small Christian communities (SCCs) or basic ecclesial communities (BECs), where the faithful can communicate the Word of God and express it in service and love to one another, are “true expressions of ecclesial communion” and centers of evangelization. During the Fifth Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC, 1990), the Asian bishops suggested as a response of the Church to the demands of evangelization in Asia the formation of SCCs that are similar but not identical to the basic ecclesial communities described in Latin American liberation theology. The bishops stressed that the Church in Asia will have to be a communion of communities, where laity, religious, and clergy recognize and accept each other as sisters and brothers. In response to the teaching of the Asian bishops, the bishops of South Korea have encouraged the formation of SCCs specifically in order to promote communion and participation in the local Church and to evangelize culture and society. Since 1992, when Cardinal Stephen Kim, the Archbishop of Seoul, proposed that the basic structure of the parishes in his archdiocese be that of a communion of SCCs, other dioceses in South Korea have also formed SCCs as an integral part of parish life. The purpose of this dissertation is to present the ecclesiological dimension of the SCCs in South Korea and to analyze it in the light of the ecclesiology of communion developed in the teaching of Vatican II, in the Final Report of the 1985 Synod, and in 3 subsequent magisterial documents. The dissertation will trace the implementation and establishment of SCCs in the Church of South Korea and analyze this development in the light of magisterial teachings and the FABC documents. There are four chapters, as follows: Chapter one will present the historical, theological, and pastoral background of the development of SCCs in South Korea. The discussion will compare these SCCs with the Ban Gatherings that had already been formed in South Korean parishes, with SCCs in South Africa, and with BECs in Latin America, respectively. The chapter will describe present statistics on SCCs and parishes in the Korean Catholic Church. Chapter two will deal with the ecclesiology of communion and will begin by studying the idea of communion in the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. Further significant background texts to be considered here
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