We, Carmelite Missionaries in Korea are involved in the fight for justice in the major causes: sometimes with the government, at other times against the programs of the government; we are always in union with the Church and with the Religious. We fight peacefully and consistently in united forces, in prayer and sacrifice, that they may hear our joint voices.

Dignity of women during the War (comfort women)

Since the year 2000, we, in the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights of Women during the World War II, are working with the government of Korea so that the Japanese government may recognize the abuses committed, to tell as they were in reality in their history books, and the compensation given to the adolescents and young Koreans (now elderly people) who were used sexually (comfort women) by the soldiers. The atrocities they endured is beyond description. By creating the said Commission, some 25 surviving victims united among themselves and courageously exposed their painful experience before the public and the press. It had also been a subject of very impressive theatre plays.

National Canal

This emerged in the year 2009 and we are fighting against the government. The President with the members of his party proposed to make a canal that crosses the entire nation from north to south, linking the four major rivers of Korea: Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yongsan. The ecological and economic consequences are disastrous for the nation and for the future generations. The Pro-Environmental Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul published a booklet well prepared by experts. In it, after citing the biblical bases and the social doctrine of the Church, the history of this Project is well explained technically and in detail- the lack of clarity and misrepresentations of the government’s explanations, the great damage done to nature, the wildlife, vegetation, fisheries, water, and the lives of farmers. 

The Committee proposed to stop the Project in a deliberate and forceful way, which is already in progress. The Franciscan Conventuals, other religious and diocesan clergy took turns to Fast and each day celebrated the Eucharist in two places: one near the Han River and the other at the level of the Cathedral of Seoul. We, sisters and novices of the Carmelite Missionaries, participated in the march and protests organized to support this cause.  

The truth is that man’s greed impacts against “Mother Earth”; we must all take care of her with respect. Protestants and Buddhists organize their own liturgies and marches through the central streets of the city of Seoul to voice their dissent.