Fall Convocation

Today all the priests of the Archdiocese of Louisville were invited to a fall convocation, an event designed for on-going formation and for building a sense of community among the priests.

The speaker for the day was a monk from St. Meinrad Seminary, Br. John Mark Falkenhain, OSB, who offered some theological reflections on the practice of celibacy for priests. It was an interesting and informative presentation.
At the end, Archbishop Shelton thanked Br. John Mark and then opened the floor for any comments or questions about anything. He does that at every priest gathering to encourage communications.

On the Road Again…

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A special feature of this ADCC was the presence of Fr. Dong, the second deaf priest in the diocese of Seoul. It is going to be great having him organizing and leading in Asia for the next generation. He has been ordained two years.
This conference was so well organized! There were lots of non-business, fun things to see and do and learn. One Korean deaf man, a skilled calligrapher, helped people to write their names in the Korean language. I got a good grade on mine but I had an unfair advantage of 13 years writing Chinese characters in Hong Kong.
Another special touch to the conference was the really inclusive and professional use of IT and audio-visuals. These three video cameras in the rear of the room focused on presenters’ sign language and projected it larger than life on a huge screen at the front of the room.

On the Road Again…

The final off-campus trip we took during the week-long conference was to the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. This is an old steam locomotive that used to ply between the two Koreas but was attacked and destroyed at the beginning of the Korean War.
The DMZ is 8 kilometers wide. This cable car takes visitors from the southern edge of the DMZ (by the destroyed locomotive) to the center point of the DMZ where the actual negotiations have taken place.
The actual negotiations building is this living-room sized room. It is stark with just a wooden table and three chairs on each side so the two teams face each other. I was a bit put off by the fact the DMZ is now a major tourist draw with dozens of tour buses, a Dunkin Donuts, and all the other tourist amenities.

On the Road Again…..

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The three days of meetings were rather busy and long and that is why Fr. Min Seo arranged activities outside of the conference room. On our third day we had a mini Olympics. All 220 people were divided into four teams for various simple but fun events.
In this game, the teams rolled huge inflated balls up and back between two rows of their members, trying to be the fastest to make a circuit.
For supper after the olympics, we tried our hand at making a Korean kimbab. A large square of seaweed is covered with cooked rice and then strips of cheese, ham, and vegetables are placed on top of the rice. The whole is then rolled into a solid cylinder and eaten cold. Quite good!

On the Road Again….

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We arrived at the youth center where we had the conference a short time before dinner. Later that evening, about 10:00 PM, Fr Min Seo came to me and asked if I could take the mass at 7:00 AM the next morning. Fr Michael Chua from Malaysia was scheduled for that but he had fallen after his arrival and was in a Seoul hospital with three broken ribs. There wasn’t much time to prepare but I managed to get myself ready and presided at our group liturgy in the morning.
Because I had been in Asia since 1983, many of the people knew me. Here the group from India–where I started, asked for a photo with them. And a few Koreans joined in.
That evening the 20 national groups introduced themselves. Here was the presentation from the Cambodia group.
Following Cambodia, Macau was introduced. I went there every Sunday for an evening mass for many years.