ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - Soul Mirror

ASIA/SOUTH KOREA – A film about St. Andrew Kim, pioneer of dignity and equality among men

Daejeon (Agenzia Fides) – “The film ‘A Birth’ narrates the life of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon. The examples and virtues of our saint ask us spiritual questions about how to live today. The title of the film refers to the birth of Saint ‘Andrea Kim in our hearts, which is none other than the resurrection and life in Christ within each of us.” This is what Fr Paolo Lee Yongho, a priest of the diocese of Daejeon, former Rector of the Shrine of Solmeo, birthplace of St. Andrew Kim Taegon (1821-1846), declared to Agenzia Fides, commenting on the topicality of the Korean saint, at the eve of the official release of the film dedicated to him. The film, entitled “A Birth”, tells the life of the first Korean priest and martyr and, in parallel, the flourishing of the Christian faith on the Korean peninsula. Born into a family of Christian converts in 1821, Andrea traveled to Macao where he studied and then became the first Korean Catholic priest, ordained in 1845 in Shanghai. Returning to his homeland, he was persecuted and arrested by the Joseon dynasty for his missionary work and was martyred in 1846 at the age of only 25.
Written and directed by director Park Heung-shik and co-produced by the Korean Catholic Cultural Center “Alma Art”, the film opens in Korean theaters on November 30. Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy, when he was Bishop of Daejeon, promoted and supported the project, in conjunction with the bicentenary of the saint’s birth, celebrated last year.
Starting from that anniversary, Fr Paolo Lee Yongho remarks: “In 2021 the Church in Korea celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon. To commemorate the anniversary, liturgical celebrations, cultural meetings, charitable initiatives were organized. Against this backdrop, the Church in Korea wanted to promote a film on the spirituality and life of Saint Andrew Kim,” he explains.
“Over 200 years ago – recalls the priest – the Korean peninsula was under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, in a feudal society, ordered in castes. At that time, the Joseon dynasty pursued a policy of closure towards the outside world. At the same time , it was a time when infectious diseases such as cholera and smallpox spread throughout the country via diplomats traveling to and from China.
“At that time – he continues – there were young people who sought the truth: in 1784, the young people of Joseon went to China to learn about the Catholic faith. There they received baptism and began to spread the Catholic faith in the Joseon kingdom. I Joseon faithful wanted to have Korean priests. In response to this desire, the French missionaries chose Andrea Kim and two other young men and then sent them to Macao, China, where they began to live as seminarians in the Society for Foreign Missions in Paris”.
A journey of Christian faith was fruitful for them: “During their formation in the seminary, the first Korean seminarians knew and experienced the love of God and welcomed with joy the truth that all people are born with the same dignity, given by God the Father. Therefore, they became convinced that by giving this truth the people of Joseon could be saved.” This was the impetus for Andrea’s mission: “Our saint – says Don Paolo Lee Yongho – thought that every person’s life was precious and should be protected deeply. Andrea Kim was a pioneer of human dignity, spreading the truth that everyone men and women are equal and have the same dignity, in a caste-ordered society. This truth is also current today, in a society that takes the capitalist economic and social system and its inequalities to extremes. This causes a culture of contempt for human life”. “When he returned to the Joseon kingdom as a priest – he recalls – he abandoned his noble caste and tried to live in equality with everyone. He preached faith in God and was a man who opposed feudal society in the name of the dignity of every person, made in the image of God”.
This approach of his, he notes, is highly topical: “We see that in today’s society there are new forms of caste and inequality. In the sharing of goods, that is, in charity, there is the Christian way to overcome a crisis such as the pandemic. For example, from this reflection, the vaccine sharing movement was initiated, which for us was the sharing of the life and love we received from God”, observes Fr Lee.
The priest continues, emphasizing another aspect: “Our saint was also a man of openness, not closure. Saint Andrew Kim was the first Korean who saw the world beyond Korea, China and Japan and recognized the interconnection of all societies in the world. He pioneered and promoted the need for academic and cultural exchanges for a better world. He studied Western languages and, for example, drew a map of the kingdom of Joseon by writing many Korean place names for the first time with the western alphabet and thus introduced them to the world. He was also the first to write the name of the capital of the kingdom of Joseon with the correct name of Seoul. From the outside, then, he knew how to take the good: for example from French missionaries he learned and spread the measures to prevent epidemics such as cholera and smallpox, benefiting the Korean people”. The film that today narrates his life, he concludes, is today, for the Korean Church, “an opportunity to rediscover and update a message that can still say a lot to the modern world”.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/11/2022)