"Dear Sisters...Greetings to you from Korea"
In 1965, the course of the Korean mission changed dramatically with the entrance of Myong Hee Sohn and Sung Hae Kim into the community. They were the first Korean women to join the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. In the years ahead, more and more Korean women would join the congregation, and Sr. Sung Hae herself would become a leading figure in the international community's governance.
But all of this was still years in the future and, in 1965, the two young women arrived in Greensburg to continue their formation process.
After taking formation courses alongside American postulants, Srs. Myong Hee Sohn and Sung Hae Kim left the United States to return to Korea in 1970.
Sr. Myong Hee withdrew from the community, but Sr. Sung Hae decided to continue and profess her final vows. On February 28, 1972, seven years after entering the community, Sr. Sung Hae professed final vows in the parish church of Gangjin.
The video on the left captures this important moment in the Korean Province's history: Sr. Sung Hae had become the first fully professed Korean Sister of Charity of Seton Hill. Mother Richard Ann Watson, from Greensburg, and Sr. Sara Louise Reilly, the Mission Procurator at that time (in other words, the main representative of the community in Korea), can be seen in the video as well, accepting Sr. Sung Hae's vows in the name of the community.
A novitiate was established in Korea, with Sr. Marlene Mondalek as novice director and Sr. Sung Hae as the assistant director.
Sr. Sung Hae would leave Korea once again to study in the comparative study of religions Ph.D program at Harvard University. After graduating, she became a theology professor at Sogang Jesuit University, in Seoul, for 27 years.
Amid the many changes and the rapid growth of the Korean community, two familiar figures from the early days of the Korean mission remained throughout these years of transformation. Sr. Mary Agnes Carey and Sr. Mary Noreen Lacey continued to work and live in Korea, watching the community that they had helped to establish grow. In the photograph on the left, Srs. Mary Agnes (left) and Mary Noreen (right) can be seen sitting in the Novitiate Chapel in Kwang-San-Kun, in 1985.
The year the above chapel photograph was taken, 1985, was a milestone in the Korean community's history. 1985 was the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the first American Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in 1960.
As can be seen from the decorated school in the photograph on the right, the community celebrated and recognized this anniversary milestone. What had started as school with only four Sisters of Charity had grown into a religious community with both Korean and American sisters working alongside each other. As more women joined the Sisters of Charity in Korea, the community began to take on more and more ministries in various locations. Over the next several years, new buildings replaced old sites and aging structures. These new facilities acted as physical symbols of the beginnings of a new chapter in the community's history.
In 1984, construction began on a new building in Gwangju for the Eunhae School, which had originally been started as the Seton Early Education Center for Physically Disabled Children in 1982. The following year, the finished building was formally dedicated on September 2, 1985. By 1990, the school received government permission to function as a high school, in addition to the already established primary and middle school sections. The Eunhae School continues to be an educational institution dedicated to serving children with disabilities.
Another building in Gwangju was dedicated only one year later. More and more Korean women continued to enter the community in the 1980s, making a novitiate at Sochang too small for the Sisters of Charity. In 1984, seven women entered the community. In 1985, the number increased to twelve entering the community. Therefore, that same year, plans were formally proposed to the Major Superior and the General Council to construct a new novitiate and regional house.
The new Novitiate/Regional House, located in Gwangju, was dedicated on December 8, 1986. In the photograph on the left, Archbishop Victorinus Youn is blessing the new building.
The finished Novitiate/Regional House can be seen on the right. Today, it continues to serve as the community's Provincial House in Korea.
Changes were also occurring in the place that had been the Sisters of Charity's first ministry so many years ago in 1960: Gangjin. In 1993, the old convent buildings were demolished.
A new St. Joseph convent was built for the sisters, replacing the aging structures. The photograph on the right shows the entrance of the new convent. It still functions as the sisters' Gangjin convent today.
During this period of continued growth and new beginnings, this international sisterhood discovered opportunities to experience each other's cultures, through different programs and ministries. For example, over the years, the sisters from the United States were able to volunteer to teach English in Korea. The length of time each sister spent in Korea varied, ranging from short trips to longer stays. This allowed many American sisters to immerse themselves in Korean society and, even if they have not returned to Korea in years, the sisters still speak about the impact that this experience had on them. (To read the American sisters' personal reflections on teaching in Korea, please see the final section of this exhibit, "I am a citizen of the world.")
The Korean sisters have also had opportunities to come to the United States and experience American culture. While not their only work, one unique ministry the Korean sisters have in the United States is Chicago's Korean Martyrs Parish. There, the sisters work with Korean Americans, serving them in various ways through parish ministry.
In addition to their own order's ministries, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill were also connected to the larger movements and notable figures in the Catholic Church. The photograph on the right shows Cardinal Stephen Kim and Mother Teresa of Calcutta sitting beside each other at the Sochang Novitiate in Gwangju, around 1980.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a leading figure in the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, known for her work in India. The Korean Cardinal Kim was known for his outspoken and courageous criticism of authoritarian rulers and human rights violations that took place in South Korea during the last half of the twentieth century.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Korean sisters' ministries continued to expand beyond the original mission's educational focus. For example, the sisters operated a Catholic Family Counseling Center and a Shelter for Battered Women. In 1999, the sisters opened Seton Sunflower House, which became a middle and long-term protection site for sex trafficking victims. In 2001, the sisters opened Seton Bakery, where people with disabilites can find employment.
The sisters were also involved in the important global issues of their day. For instance, the Korean sisters participated in protests and campaigns that sought to protect the environment and to stop projects that damaged the fragile natural world. One specific instance occurred in the early 2000s, when the Korean sisters joined with environmentalists in efforts to stop a project that endangered the Saemangeum mudflat.
From the first Korean women's entrance into the community in 1965 to the dawn of the twenty-first century, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill had developed a strong community presence in Korea. The many changes and expansions brought about by the Korean sisters would transform the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill's international relationship, as well as the community's very governance.
One congregation history describes the evolution in this way: as the "framework of the Korean community formed, the relationship to the motherhouse in Greensburg changed from one of dependence to a relationship of mature autonomy and friendship. As a result, the leadership role in the ministries was taken over by the Korean sisters and the American sisters played a role of support."* This development and growth in Korea would lead to a transformation of government structure in the 1990s and early 2000s.
* Sr. Sung Hae Kim, SC and Sr. Kyong Min Lee, SC, Living the Charism of Charity: The History of the First Fifty Years of the Korean Province, Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill 1960-2010, translated by Sr. Min Ah Ahn, SC (Seoul, Korea: Spiritual Life Press, 2020), 77.
"Dear Sisters...Greetings to you from Korea"
