by Pascale Rizk
Quehue – “When you play football with children at 4,000 meters above sea level, you realize that being a missionary also means testing your own physical limits…” This is how Korean priest Michele Kim, from the Archdiocese of Gwangju, describes his experience in the Quehue district of Peru. He recounts his experience after returning to Rome to continue his studies, after a summer of traveling to visit fellow Korean missionaries in various countries of South American countries.
Currently, three Korean missionaries serve in three parishes and 70 communities spread across the mountainous region of Cusco, Peru, an area known for its Inca ruins and Spanish colonial architecture. One of the three, Father Francesco 부재환, who arrived from Jeju Island, South Korea, collaborates with the Society of St. Colombanus for Foreign Missions, serving in the parish of Quehue, in the Diocese of Sicuani. He tells us: “The dream of becoming a missionary was born when, during seminary, I went to Cambodia for a year of missionary training. At that time, I lived with Jesuit priests and religious, and I was deeply impressed by the way they lived with sincere love alongside the local population.” He has now been in Peru for four years, years during which he has been able to experience the reality of several parishes in the region. According to the Catholic Times, Korea’s oldest Catholic newspaper, founded by the Diocese of Daegu in 1927, exactly 44 years ago, on October 11, 1981, “for the first time in the Catholic Church’s 200-year history in Korea, four priests were sent on a mission to Guinea. The Korean Missionary Society, founded to spread the Good News to the nations, is sending its first ordained priest in the eight years since its founding, along with three diocesan priests, making this a landmark event.” The Catholic Church in Korea had begun to consider the mission ad extra in 1975. After his resignation from the Diocese of Busan and a stay in Germany in 1973, Bishop Jae-seon Choi was called in 1974 by the then president of the Korean Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Stefano Kim, and at the invitation of the Prefect of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Agnelo Rossi, to preside over both the Episcopal Commission for the Mission and the National Office of the Pontifical Missionary Union, which was part of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Convinced of the missionary character of the universal Church, Choi worked to establish the Korean Mission Society to assist the universal Church and repay the support received from foreign missionaries. Together with two “Fidei Donum” missionaries from the Diocese of Suwon, Father Enrico and Father Lorenzo, who arrived just a month ago, they serve in various parishes, focusing on the celebration of the sacraments, the liturgy, and the care of vocations. Social infrastructure, including healthcare, is scarce in this mountainous and remote area of Peru, and educational services are also limited, not to mention the difficulties arising from poor road conditions and the lack of electricity. “Probably the first concern is to encourage community participation in Sunday Mass,” explains Father Francesco. To the Korean missionaries, the Peruvian Church seems deeply immersed in the culture of the people. Most people go to church to participate in Masses during community or family events. Although there isn’t always a strong connection to parish life, “the devotion to Our Lady and the saints is very intense,” explains the Jeju missionary. “Although they don’t seek to transmit Korean culture, with their presence the missionaries offer these small communities the opportunity to experience a different culture,” comments Father Michele Kim. Sometimes through Korean dishes, other times through the rich meals prepared for the priests, these create opportunities for authentic cultural interaction between missionaries and the Peruvian population. The missionaries also celebrate Mass in Quechua, with a translation that is being reviewed by the competent Dicasteries of the Holy See. “A culture centered on the family and the local community takes priority over the experience of faith and the teachings of the Church. This is the context in which the work of missionaries, particularly the Koreans, is carried out, who place great importance on the community of faith and the “spirituality of the martyrs,” concludes Fr. Michele, who also experienced missionary work in the Philippines as a seminarian. The Peruvian Church has designated October as the month of the “Lord of Miracles” celebrating the veneration of the Lord of Miracles throughout the month with festivities throughout the country. In the church of Pachacamilla, in the center of Peru, in Lima’s historic center, the painting of Jesus Christ, which miraculously remained intact after an earthquake in 1655, is venerated especially on October 18, 19, and 28.
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