Korea
It certainly will seem strange for me to start with a mission of which I was not in charge. Our mission in Korea
was started by one of the Mexican Provinces, which was the only activity of the Mexican Province in the Asian
Marist sector. It was the General Administration that first asked me to make a visit to our mission in Korea,
which had been started a few years earlier. The Brothers there were teaching mainly college students and were
encouraging their first candidates to complete their regular educational training. After a few years there, they
were successful in getting a number of candidates to follow all the Marist prayers and customs in a temporary
Novitiate, which was also a house for the Provincial community. When the first candidates were ready to make
their vows, the General Administration asked me on the occasion of my visit to Japan to please preside at the
ceremony and to receive the vows of the Novices in the name of the Mexican Provincial. I was also asked to
preside over perpetual profession of the Brother who was to be the Master of Novices, and it was in that capacity
that I had been asked to preside at the ceremony.
I was always deeply interested in our mission of Korea. In fact, one ofmy old friends who had been with me
originally when we first started in Rome was now here attached to the Korean mission. It was my pleasure
several times to visit in Korea and spend time with Bro. Alphonse Wimer. For years I had been, and am still in
correspondence with, the present visitor of that mission. It was a unique occasion to have the Master of Novices
take his final vows at the time of the first profession of Korean candidates. After that first visit, each time I had
occasion to go to our Marist Asian Center in Manila, I would choose to eat with the young Brothers who were
candidates from Korea.
Our Brothers were running college classes for young men of the nearby colleges who came to our communities
for help and were also in charge of a boarding school for boys who were under the care of the government. This
was our apostolate, and there were also the retreats given by our Brothers for the college students, but the very
unique work of our Brothers in Korea was the charge of a special hospital for the Korean lepers. The patients
were all gathered from eight areas of the Diocese and lived in separate villages for lepers in each sector. Our
hospital used to make weekly trips to the eight villages to take our cured patients back home and gather together
those who needed to come back to the hospital for treatment. Three Brothers, three nuns, three nurses, and a
doctor who was only there during the week staffed the hospital. The lepers were well cared for and provided
with the medication needed. My great admiration was for our Korean Marists who came each summer to take all
the young students away from their leper village and bring them to spend their summer vacation at one of our
houses where they would have organized sports activities, see movies, and go on tours to further their education.
Champagnat must have been very pleased at this Marist project.
I must add here that when I went for a visit to Hong Kong, we used to go to a special place where one could see
across the ravine into the hills. On the opposite side, the Chinese military were training and were anxious to keep
Mary out of their country. It was there that we would say the rosary for the Marist Chinese whom I could not
visit, who could not come out, and who had to live underground or else with relatives. Even an Assistant General
could not visit with them. I was then determined that some day I would make it. I did, but I will mention this
later.
The best tribute I ever heard about our Chinese Brothers and their training was from Ignatius Cardinal Kung, the
Bishop of Shanghai. I had attended a very special Mass for celebrating the 100th anniversary of our Marist work
in China in 1991. The dear Cardinal had spent years in prison before being released to come to the U.S.A. He
told me that every day when he goes to the altar to celebrate Mass he stops to say a prayer for the Marist Brother
Chang who prepared him for his First Holy Communion.