Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Fides Service) - “Family for Life” was the theme of a symposium held in Seoul, organised by various Commissions of the Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference: Family Pastoral, Social Communications, Promotion of Women, Bio-ethics. The objective of the symposium was to examine the situation of the family in the Korean society and the challenges facing Christian families.
The symposium was part of preparations for the 8th assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences FABC to be held in Korea in August on the theme “The Asian Family and a Culture of Life”.
The participants at the Symposium agreed on the necessary to take into consideration the viewpoint of the Christian family in society: that is to examine social phenomena, circumstances and values. They also said that every diocese should have family pastoral structures and that at present only four dioceses have priests specially or exclusively charged with family pastoral care.
In his address to the Symposium Bishop Peter Lee Ki-heon, President of the Bishops’ Commission for Family Pastoral, said: “the family is where life is conceived and nurtured”, but very often life is not respected, and he deplored the fact that “in our society parent/child dialogue has been broken and this makes pastoral care of family and youth difficult”. The Bishop stressed the need to implement the social teaching of the Church with regard to the family and he called on families to “deepen their understanding of marriage and to live truly as Christian families”.
Themes for reflection included: family changes in Korean society; evangelisation of the family; family and consumerism; family and mass media.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 21/6/2004 lines 30 words 310)
