hankyoreh

which has become an increasingly closed system

By Hwang Choon-hwa

　Father Jeon Jong-hoon, 54, is a representative of Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice (CPAJ), an organization that played an intermediary role in attorney Kim Yong-cheol’s 2007 disclosure of a Samsung slush fund. Father Jeon is proceeding into his third straight year of sabbatical, after recently being excluded from the assignment of priests in the Archdiocese of Seoul. A growing number of critics within the Catholic Church are calling the decision not to give Jeon an assignment “unprecedented in the history of the Korean Catholic Church” and are charging it as retaliation against CPAJ, which contributed to exposing the Samsung slush fund.

　On August 5, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul announced its assignments of priests, effective August 17. However, Jeon, who had been ordered to take a sabbatical year in August 2008 after the Samsung slush fund incident and was also not given an assignment in August 2009, was left out of the latest assignments in an unprecedented move.

　Observers in the Catholic community have viewed this as essentially a “disciplinary assignment” after Jeon played a leading role in exposing the Samsung slush fund.

　“Even for an irregular sabbatical assignment, one year was enough, two years was excessive, and three years is astonishing,” said a figure in the religious sector. “Father Jeon’s assignment was the result of disobeying the archbishop of Seoul’s order not to get involved in Samsung’s business.”

　As assignments of Catholic priests are under the purview of the archbishop, the prolongation of Jeon’s sabbatical is the will of Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jinsuk, the archbishop of Seoul.

　“Perhaps the Archdiocese of Seoul also found a third straight sabbatical order troublesome, because prior to the August assignments it suggested to Jeon that he take over the blind mission community,” said a CPAJ official.

　However, after Jeon announced that he wanted to “return to the church in order to set right the irrationality of past assignments,” Cheong declined to accept this and extended Jeon’s sabbatical.

　As a result, critics in the Catholic community have charged, “Criminals are being forgiven, while a priest who exposed injustice is being punished.”

　On the heels of the late 2009 special pardon of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee in connection with the slush fund incident, former senior Samsung officials with confirmed guilty verdicts against them, including former restructuring office head Lee Hak-soo, were all given special Liberation Day pardons on Aug. 15.

　Father Ham Sei-ung, president of the board of directors of the Korea Democracy Foundation, met with a Hankyoreh journalist on Monday.

　“Cheong is trying to persuade us to ignore the immorality of the world, to close our eyes to injustice, and to say nothing to a corrupt administration,” said Father Ham. “It is a shame that we have a cardinal with no historical concerns as archbishop at a crucial moment.”

　Ham also said, “The Catholic Church is probably not watching to see what Samsung thinks, but it is evident that it is living the life of an accomplice, maintaining silence in the face of injustice.”

　“A vicious cycle repeats itself where if we ignore injustice, the other party will welcome it,” Ham added.

　CPAJ, the organization Jeon heads, plans to lodge an open inquiry to Cheong about the recent assignment. Meanwhile, Father Moon Jung-hyun began a one-person prayer vigil at Myeong-dong Cathedral on August 10 as a protest against the assignment.

　Regarding the assignment, Lee Hui-yeon, head of the Archdiocese of Seoul’s culture and public relations team, said that the formal position of the archdiocese was that the measure was “not disciplinary action, because unlike a dismissal or suspension, a sabbatical presents no restrictions on priestly activity. Assignment of priests is under the authority of the archbishop, and it is not a matter to be given the sense of irregularity.”

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