THE HOPES AND THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE KOREAN CHURCH TOWARDS THE GREAT JUBILEE
Joseph Kyeong
Bishop of Taejòn

1. The Internal Hopes and Expectations of the Church
The Korean Church expects and desires, first of all, to rediscover its true identity and to be reborn as the Church of the light and of the salt which illuminates the world through the great event of the Jubilee of the Year 2,000. We expect that each member of the Church is reborn as a true Christian to announce that Jesus is truly the Savior for those who have yet to confess that Jesus is the Christ and that each person becomes the protagonist of the new evangelization in order to transmit the joy of faith in Christ.

For this, we hope that each member of the Church strongly reflects on their own life and their spiritual position during the period of preparation for the Great Jubilee. In this way, we desire that within the Church the clerics, the religious and the laity renew the knowledge of the ministry received and raise the conscience of vocations in order to build the Kingdom of God on the positions of each one of us. We also hope that each diocese and the Korean Church present the prospective of living in the third millennium through the process of preparation for the Jubilee and through the Synod which each diocese is currently starting. We hope that everyone will proceed from materialism to life, «towards the heavens», and that faith will be re-invigorated.

2. The Hopes and the Expectations for Society
The Korean Church hopes the great event, the Great Jubilee of the Year 2,00 will not remain within the confines of the Church. The Church must open itself to the world because it must be for the world. We desire that the Catholic Church offers salvation, joy, and hope to non-Christians who will witness the celebration of the incarnation of the Savior of the Year 2,000. We also hope that the Korean Church, which is only 8% Catholic, is transformed in the spirit of the Jubilee. For this reason, we are trying to renew the society through some movements, financed by special Agencies of publicity, which help us to recuperate the identity of everyone, to encourage everyone to renew the world and adjust the economic situation. We hope that this Jubilee will become an occasion to reflect on the importance and on the beauty of the human being and that it will illuminate the spirit of culture and of the life of Koreans who, for many decades have given more importance to economic development and to the search for material goods instead of the values of the spirit. We also hope that these social movements will help build a society of justice where no one is alienated and were we all have the same freedom, the same rights and were we learn to appreciate and preserve nature, a gift by the Creator.
The greatest hope for Koreans is the reunification of North Korea with South Korea. If North and South can reunite through the heart of reconciliation, the meaning of the Jubilee will be the year of joy and of liberation for our nation.