On March 25th, our presence in South Korea turns 25 years. The sanitary restrictions do not allow to celebrate this anniversary in-person, but we cannot let this date pass, without inviting the sisters and friends who will read this news, to join the Congregation in tanking God for all that we have lived in this place, geographically very far from where most of our communities are.
This new foundation in Korea arose as a response to the desire to strengthen our presence in Asia, where we were already in the Philippines and, at the same time, to get closer to China, the country where our Sisters developed their mission for 20 years (1929 – 1949), being expelled by the political situation of the country adverse to the Church.
Promoters of this foundation in Korea were Sr. Mª Elena Echavarren Sorbet, General Superior at that time, and her Council. On her first trip to Seoul, Sr. Mª Elena, through the aid and orientation of other religious congregations, could know something about this country and the demands of a missionary presence; she also met Bishop William McNaughton, an American Maryknoll missionary, who declared that he was ready to welcome the Sisters in his Diocese of Inchón.
About in the middle of March 1996, the four sisters designated for the foundation in Korea, traveled to Seoul, each of them coming from other missions “ad gentes”: Martha Patricia Ramírez Vergara, Colombian, missionary in Benin, Ángela María Martínez Sierra, Colombian, missionary in the Philippines, Carmen Margarita Avendaño Cubillos, Colombian, missionary in Tanzania and Cecilia Pasquini, Italian, missionary in Tanzania. And on March 25th, with a simple and intimate Eucharist, the community set out its experience in this country of the Far East, rich in cultural and religious traditions where, however, Christians and even more Catholics, were a significant minority.
During the first six months of their staying in Korea, in order to receive Korean classes at an university in Seoul, the sisters lived in different religious communities of this city: Srs. Martha Patricia and Ángela María in a house of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching and Srs. Carmen Margarita and Cecilia with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesianas). Later, they were able to live together in a small apartment that the Sisters of the Korean Martyrs made freely available to them until, in June 1998, they moved to Bucheón, in the Diocese of Inchón, where they began their mission. The first years were characterized by the strong demand for the language study and the process of integration into a totally new social and cultural reality, but the missionary illusion of each one and their openness to God’s grace that makes everything possible, allowed them to carry on everything with enthusiasm and even humor.
25 years have passed and the presence of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters in Korea has grown; at present the sisters provide their service of evangelization and attention to the needs of the place in a kindergarten in Bucheón and in a protection home for girls in Jeonju. The witness of life of the sisters has attracted to our Congregation some young Korean women and currently we have a perpetual professed Korean sister and others in the process of formation.
We thank God for our walk in the Korean land and we invoke his blessing that will enable us to continue making present the charism of our capuchin tertiary life with enthusiasm and fidelity.