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Hope in an Age of Despair, by Albert Nolan OP. Orbis Books,
2009.
Nolan introduces himself as a South African of European descent, a
Christian, and a Dominican priest who felt compelled to denounce in no uncertain terms the system of apartheid. He begins his book with a short history of the African nation and his involvement in the Kairos Document which sought freedom for the enslaved. This document brought on torture, imprisonment, and killings. With the election of Nelson Mandela, there was some glimmer of hope, but this was shortly followed by crime, corruption, nepotism, greed, conflicts for power, and an age of despair.
This book is compiled from his many writings and conferences on the evils of the day. The book comes from a man who refused the highest office in the Dominican Order so that he might continue to fight for the poor and oppressed in South
Africa.
This book not only gives the basis of a theology and spirituality that sides with the poor and
oppressed and the cause of justice. His work transcends the South African situation but it speaks to all Christians living in a world marked by inequality, violence, and exploitation. His theme goes beyond resistance. He offers challenges for the readers to embrace the spirituality of Christ. He shows how the saving power of God may empower the readers to achieve personal liberation and contribute to the creation of a life lived with
grace.
Nolan shows how the power of the Gospel can be adapted to the present historical situation. He
presents Jesus as the man who will not allow humankind to despair.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Harman OP for this review.)
Paperback. Kindle.
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Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions: September 20. d 1846 - 67.
The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled
1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital.
Andrew’s father Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839, and was beatified in 1925. Paul Chong Hasang, a lay apostle and married man, also died in 1839 at age
45.
Among the other martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her
sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. Peter Ryou, a boy of 13, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old nobleman, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to
death.
Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was
difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for taking taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom
came
Calendar of Saints
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