At last, I am back in Korea, my home country. I returned in March 2019 and threw myself into the surging waves of work awaiting me as the new Columban Lay Missionary (CLM) Coordinator. To be honest, coming back to Kore, brought lots of questions to my mind.

What greater duty does any person of integrity have than to speak the truth about that which is morally wrong, unjust and despicable? To speak one’s mind, to challenge injustice, abuse, exploitation, torture and the unlawful taking of life is a serious obligation.

One of the striking aspects of spending four months in San Antonio, Texas, is the very Hispanic/Mexican feel of the city as well as the way it manages its social challenges, just as homelessness, poverty and more recently, the daily appearance (at its bus stations and airport) of Central American migrants who have been released “on cognizance’’ from nearby border detention centers.  These people are often deposited at transport centers with little more than their children, the clothes they are wearing, and – if they are lucky – a paid Greyhound ticket to the destination of the relatives who have sponsored them, and in whose city they will have to appear for a definitive court ruling on their future.

A couple of years ago, before starting the Christmas Mass, in a chapel in the southern area of the archdiocese of Santiago, Chile, a family arrived with their children.

The catechumenate is the period of preparation for baptism that adults go through. The Catholic Church reinstated the catechumenate or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) after the second Vatican Council.