hankyoreh

general director of the Little Jesuit Family

On May 20, Father Park Seong-gu, general director of the Little Jesuit Family, held a press conference in front of the Vatican embassy in Seoul, joined by number of disabled people in wheelchairs. They had gathered to urge Pope Francis not to visit Kkottongnae, characterizing the home for the sick and disabled as a “Korean version of the Mafia.” It’s quite rare to see Catholics criticizing religious centers belonging to the same faith, or sending open letters to the Pope.

The center of this particular firestorm is Father John Oh Woong-jin. In 1976, Oh founded Kkottongnae in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, as a center to care for charity patients and disabled people. He is also a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service named after the former president of the Philippines. The Pope, during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, had himself wanted to open a Kkottongnae branch in the diocese. Now he is scheduled to pay a visit there during his visit to South Korea this August.

Oh has become known as a “father to the poor,” but that shining reputation is matched by some equally dark shadows. Since 1999, he has been repeatedly investigated on various charges of corruption. Oh’s camp insists that disgruntled businessmen filed a complaint when a mining effort near Kkottongnae in Eumseong was blocked, though he was cleared of any charges.

It’s up to the courts to decide whether there was any corruption, but there’s an even more serious issue. The reason Kkottongnae has earned the “Mafia” tag is because of the way it dominates local government budgets, not just in Eumseong but in other communities with branches, such as Gapyeong and Ganghwa Island. Of its total county social services budget of 96.7 billion won (US$94.4 million), Eumseong lavishes 25.6 billion won (US$25 million) just on Kkottongnae. The situation in Gapyeong is very similar. Park, who runs a welfare center called House of Joseph in Gapyeong, says 21 smaller facilities in the county were denied any support at all because of all the budget money going to Kkottongnae. He has petitioned the local and central governments numerous times, and says the so-called “bureaucratic mafia” has not only sided with Oh, but even retaliated with orders to close his facility. With Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk (who once oversaw Kkottongnae as Bishop of Cheongju) and even Archbishop of Seoul Andrew Yeom Soo-jung (whose mother’s tomb is there) defending the home, Park is considering going to Rome himself to put the facts before the Vatican.

Under the circumstances, there are serious doubts about whether Pope Francis needs to go to Kkottongnae when he visits South Korea this summer. A visit to such a controversial place, at a time when he has declared his commitment to rooting out corruption in the Vatican, could end up a black mark on his own reputation. He’s only going to be in South Korea a short time - just four days. Apart from visiting the Blue House, his plans are only to attend Catholic events, including a beatification ceremony and this year’s Asian Youth Day.

As someone who has reached out warmly to the weak and suffering, the ones the Pope should really be visiting while in South Korea are the family members of the Sewol victims, who are going through tremendous pain right now. And if he were to visit the Demilitarized Zone or the Kaesong Industrial Complex to send a message of reconciliation between South and North Korea, it would be a meaningful gesture from a true apostle of love and peace.

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