월 스트리트 저널/타임 /뉴욕타임즈 (Wall Street Journal/TIME / New York Times)

[seoul]

12:58 pm KST
Aug 13, 2014

Politics

Protestants Hold Anti-Catholic Rally Ahead of Pope Visit

교황 방문 전 반대집회 개최한 기독교

Pope Francis, right, poses for a picture with father Oh Woong-jin at the Vatican, 2 August 2013. The pope will visit South Korea on 14 to 18 August 2014 to meet with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and there he will attend several events, including a gathering of Catholic youth from more than a dozen Asian nations, in his first visit to South Korea It will be the third visit to South Korea by a pope since Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1989.

Yonhap/European Pressphoto Agency

 

Not everyone will welcome the Pope to South Korea.

A group of Protestants held a demonstration on Tuesday, slamming the Roman Catholic Church as heretical.

Organizers say about 10,000 people attended the event at a convention center west of Seoul, where a number of Protestant pastors stressed the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches, according to local Protestant media.

모든사람이 교황의 방문을 환영하는 것은 아니다.

한 무리의 기독교인들이 화요일 가톨릭 반대 집회를 열고 가톨릭을 이단으로 정의하며 거세게 반대하였다.

해당 집회의 참가자들에 따르면 10,000명 정도의 기독교인들이 킨텍스 컨벤션 센터에 모였다. 지역 기독교 언론에 따르면 많은

 기독교 목사들은 그곳에서 기독교와 가톨릭이 엄연히 다른 것이라고 강조하였다

Rev. Song Chun-gil, the secretary general of the group, called Catholicism a perversion of faith, according to the reports. He has opposed recent moves among mainstream Protestant church leaders to form a relationship with the Roman Catholics, according to local media. (The Christian Daily has photos from the event.)

South Korea’s Protestant churches, divided into different alliances and denominations, haven’t issued a unified position on the Pope’s visit, which begins on Thursday

로마 가톨릭 교황 정체 알리기 운동연대 조직위원장 송춘길 목사는 "가톨릭은 이단이"라고 지적하였다. 지역 언론에 따르면

송목사는 최근 일부 주요 교회 연합단체 목사들이 로마 가톨릭과 일치운동을 형성하려는 움직임에 반대하여 왔다.

 한국 교회들은 여러 교파로 나누어져 교황의 목요일 방문에 대해 일치된 입장표명을 내 놓지 못하였다.

While South Korea’s Protestant Evangelical churches continue to have political influence on the national level, they have seen their followers decline in recent years—in contrast to the rise in the number of Catholics. Experts say many of the biggest Protestant churches have lost some public favor due to social conservatism and publicized internal struggles over power and money.

한국 교회들이 한국 전체에 미치는 정치적 영향은 커져가는 반면에 기독교인들의 최근 수년간 줄어가고 있다.

이와 반대로 가톨릭 신자의 수는 늘어가고 있다. 전문가들은 말하기를, 권력과 돈을 둘러싼 한국 대형 교회들의

 내부적 분쟁이 밖으로 표출되면서 사회적인 반감을 사고 있다고 지적한다.

Protestants made up about 18.3% of South Koreans in 2005 and Catholics about 10.8%, according to the most recent census data. Just over 46% said they didn’t have a religion and close to 23% identified themselves as Buddhists.

Calls to the phone number attributed to Rev. Song weren’t answered on Wednesday morning.

가장 최근의 조사결과에 따르면 2005년 기준 한국인 전체의 약 18.3%가 기독교인이며 10.8%가 가톨릭 신자이다. 

아무런 종교를 가지고 있지 않다고 대답한 사람은 46% 이상이고 약 23%의 한국인들이 자신들을 불교신자라고 밝혔다.

수요일 오전 송 목사에게 여러번 통화시도를 했으나 연결되지 않았다.

The South Korean government has welcomed Pope Francis’s five-day visit to the country, the first papal trip to East Asia in more than two decades. From Friday, Seoul’s main downtown boulevard will be blocked for a papal mass on Saturday.

한국정부는 프란치스코 교황의 방한을 환영해왔다. 한국은 최근 20년만에 이뤄지는 교황의 동아시아 첫번째 방문국이다.

금요일부터  서울의 주요도로는 토요일 이뤄질 시복식으로 인해 통제될 예정이다. 

기사 바로읽기: http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/08/13/protestants-hold-anti-catholic-rally-ahead-of-pope-visit/?KEYWORDS=rev+song+chun+gil

<TIME>

South Korean Protestants Rally Against Pope Francis’ Visit

Workers set a platform as they prepare for a special Korean reconciliation mass by Pope Francis at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on Aug. 12, 2014 Ahn Young-joon—AP

Not everyone is happy about the Pontiff's trip

Around 10,000 South Korean Protestants gathered at a convention center near Seoul on Tuesday to protest Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to the country.

약 만명의 한국 기독교인들이 화요일 킨텍스 컨벤션 센터애 모여 프란치스코 교황의 방한을 반대하는 집회를 가졌다.

The demonstration, organized by fundamentalist Protestants who view Catholicism as blasphemous, underscores tension among some denominations in South Korea, where nearly 30% of the population is Christian.

보수주의 기독교인들에 의해 개최된 이 행사는 한국 기독교의 여러 교파들 사이의 긴장감을 고조시켰다.

기독교 보수주의 측에서는 가톨릭을 이단으로 단정한다.

Participants in Tuesday’s protests, the Wall Street Journal reports, sought to undermine recent efforts by moderate Protestant leaders to reconcile differences with the country’s Roman Catholic establishment.

월스트리트 저널에 따르면 화요일 집회는 기독교 진보주의 세력에서 최근 주장하는 가톨릭과의 일치 운동을 막으려는 노력이었다.

Pope Francis arrives on Thursday — making the first papal visit to East Asia in a quarter of a century — and will remain in South Korea for four days, during which he intends to beatify 124 Korean Catholics killed by dynastic leaders in the 18th and 19th centuries and also celebrate Asian Youth Day, a massive convention for the continent’s young Catholics.

프란치스코 교황은 목요일에 도착한다. 교황의 이번 방문은 약 25년만의 첫 동아시아 방문이다. 교황은 한국에서

사흘간 머물면서 188, 19세기 조선 왕조에 의해 처형당한 124명의 한국인 가톨릭 신자들을 위한 시복식과 아시아 지역

대규모 컨벤션인 아시아 청년의 날 축하행사를 주관할 예정이다.

There had been hopes that the Pope would be able to preach unity on the Korean peninsula, however these fell flat after authorities in Pyongyang declined his request to visit North Korea. The Associated Press reports that he will nevertheless issue a “message of peace and reconciliation for all Koreans.” 교황측은 한반도의 통일을 위한 연설을 희망했었으나

북한 당국이 교황의 북한방문을 거절하면서 취소되었다. 관련 언론에 따르면 교황측은 북한방문일정 취소여부와 관계없이

한반도에 사는 모든 사람들의 평화와 회복을 위한 메시지를 전달할 것이라고 전했다.

기사 바로보기: http://time.com/3106784/south-korean-protestants-rally-against-pope-francis-visit/

New York Times(뉴욕타임즈)|

Papal Visit That Thrills Catholics Is Unsettling to Protestants in South Korea

가톨릭 신자들을 열광시킨 교황의 한국방문,

한국 기독교 교회에는 분열을 가져오다.

By CHOE SANG-HUNAUG. 16, 2014

Inside

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SEOUL, South Korea — In a symbolic moment for the Vatican and South Korea’s 5.1 million Catholics, hundreds of thousands of people cheered as Pope Francis rode through central Seoul on Saturday to lead a Mass to beatify 124 martyrs directly in front of the palace of the old Korean dynasty that killed them more than a century ago.

“It feels like my heart is bursting,” said Yoon Ji-hyang, 45, between screams, as she jumped up and down to get a glimpse of the pope as Francis, waving and smiling, passed by on the city’s main boulevard.

Since the pope’s arrival Thursday, his visits to a center for handicapped children and his common-man touch have generated front-page news lavishing praise for his humility, which has been celebrated elsewhere. One news agency headlined its report: “Let’s Meet the Pope, ‘The Friend of the Poor,’ ” while the national public broadcaster gushed about his willingness to pose for cellphone pictures with ordinary Koreans.

But not everyone in South Korea has welcomed the pope, who is on a five-day visit meant to acknowledge Asia’s growing importance to the Catholic Church. And it is not Buddhists or Confucians — the country’s two major non-Christian religious groups — who are publicly expressing unhappiness with his visit, but members of Protestant groups who fear Catholic encroachment in a country where Christians make up 29 percent of the population.

Photo

Pope Francis in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, where 124 Korean Catholics who were martyred in the 18th and 19th centuries were beatified. Credit Pool photo by Chung Sung-Jun

“The enemy king has appeared at the center of our nation!” the Rev. Song Choon-gil, a Presbyterian pastor, shouted during a rally of hundreds of Protestants who gathered a few blocks from the papal Mass on Saturday. Accompanied by a band, the evangelical Protestants sang hymns and danced, shouting that they were sounding “the trumpets of spiritual war” against the “idol worship” and “satanic forces” they said Roman Catholicism represents.

적그리스도가 대한민국 중심부에 나타났다! 라고 대한 예수교 장로회 목사인 송춘길 목사는 집회시 발언했다.

이 집회는 교황의 시복식이 열리던 광화문 광장으로부터 몇 블록 떨어진 곳에서 이뤄졌다. 밴드의 연주에 맞춰

보수주의 기독교인들은 율동과 찬양을 하며 우상숭배와 사탄세력에 저항하는 영적 전쟁의 나팔소리를 외쳤다.

Although tensions between South Korea’s Catholics and Protestants are not new, the pope’s visit has brought into focus the often ugly rivalry between churches vying for hearts and souls in South Korea. It also comes as the country is still reeling from accusations by prosecutors that the pastor of a relatively small Christian church siphoned money from the company whose ferry sank in April, killing more than 200 teenagers.

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The broader Protestant community has officially welcomed Francis’s visit, the first by a pope to the country in 25 years, and the pope planned to meet the country’s religious leaders on Monday to promote harmony among different faiths. But even many mainstream Protestants feel unsettled by the trip, which comes as some denominations are suffering image problems and stagnating membership after decades of explosive growth.

“What is interesting is that there is very little mention of the pope’s visit to Korea in Protestant media, even though it is the biggest news in the country right now,” said Koo Se-woong, an expert on Korean religions. “That silence itself speaks to the resentment Protestants feel toward the Catholic Church, which enjoys a greater level of public trust than the Protestant side.”

"주목할만한 점은 교황의 한국방문이 한국사회에 있어 최근 가장 큰 뉴스들 중 하나임도 불구하고 한국 기독교 언론들이

그것에 대해 별다른 언급이 없다는 것입니다." "기독교 언론들의 이러한 침묵은

기독교 교회의 가톨릭에 대한 반감을 대변한다고 할 수 있습니다."

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Catholics first brought Christianity to Korea more than two centuries ago. But Protestant churches pursued aggressive evangelism, especially in the 1970s and 1980s when they reached out to the millions of people who migrated to cities during a period of rapid industrialization. The country is now home to some of the largest megachurches in the world, all of them Protestant, including Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, the world’s largest, with a congregation of more than 800,000.

Competitive proselytizing, however, also created some of the problems now dogging South Korea’s Protestant churches. Some non-Christians are offended by Protestants who seek converts on Seoul’s streets and subways, sometimes shouting through megaphones that nonbelievers will be relegated to hell.

In 2007, Protestants’ evangelizing zeal was criticized after young Presbyterian missionaries from South Korea were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, raising questions about whether church leaders had been reckless in sending them there.

Competition for believers has also increased in recent years with a proliferation of small Protestant churches. South Korea has long been open to the creation of new churches that share some beliefs of other Christian groups but are also shaped by the personal beliefs of their founders. Many of the churches are affiliated with major denominations but are so small they are squeezed into buildings crowded with restaurants, hair salons and bars.

Some, however, are more controversial and have no official connection to other denominations. While the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church is now more accepted in South Korea despite its highly publicized mass weddings, some of the newer groups have been labeled “cults” for their unique interpretations of the Bible and for the notoriety of their leaders.

The head of one such church is serving a 10-year prison term after persuading women to have sex with him in the belief that it would save their souls.

And more recently, many South Koreans were angered by the news about the church leader with ties to the ferry company. The man, Yoo Byung-eun, who was found dead in June while on the run from the police, was both a co-founder of his church and the head of a business empire, according to prosecutors, who say he and his family were enriching themselves even as they scrimped on safety measures for the ferry.

Mainstream Protestant churches have also suffered financial scandals in recent years as some preachers have been accused of misusing church funds to build their family’s fortunes.

Such scandals are thought to have contributed to troubling news for Protestants: In a widely cited annual survey conducted in December by the Christian Ethics Movement of Korea, South Koreans selected Catholicism as the most trustworthy religion, followed by Buddhism and then Protestantism.

“Unlike other major religious organizations that have suffered numerous financial and sexual scandals over the years, the Catholic Church in South Korea has proven to be remarkably clean,” Mr. Koo said. “So I am not surprised that the South Korean Catholic Church, with its strong moral authority, is enjoying a resurgence in the age of moral vacuum, while Protestant churches have stagnated, plagued by the perception of moral decrepitude and obsession with building megachurches.”

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The Catholic Church has suffered its own problems, mainly criticism that it has focused less attention on the poor in a country already troubled by a growing wealth gap.

Still, the church is more often associated with the downtrodden than are Protestant groups, which generally embrace capitalism wholeheartedly and are aligned with some of the country’s wealthiest citizens and most powerful political leaders. That alliance was especially pronounced under the former president, Lee Myung-bak, a Presbyterian elder and a former business leader; when he was the mayor of Seoul, he vowed to “consecrate” the capital to the Christian god. Catholic leaders, on the other hand, often played a visible role in left-leaning causes, some of which resonated with a public that is generally enthusiastic about capitalism but increasingly concerned about social inequality.

Choo Chin-woo, a local newsmagazine reporter who has specialized in covering the country’s churches, said Francis’s comments expressing concern for the poor and his criticism of capitalist greed had made clear the difference between the pope and the Korean leadership of both Protestant and Catholic churches.

“In the standard of the mainstream Korean churches today,” Mr. Choo said, “the pope is clearly a ‘commie.’ ”

기사 바로보기:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/world/asia/huge-crowds-watch-in-seoul-as-pope-francis-beatifies-korean-catholics.html?_r=0