Columban Fr Robert (Bob) Brennan was recently awarded an Honorary Korean Citizenship by the Korean Government in recognition of his services to the people of Korea. The following article is an English translation of his speech in response to receiving the award.
Columban Fr Bob Brennan after receiving his Honorary Korean Citizenship.From left to right: Park Yong Jin, Member of Parliament, who recommended Fr Bob for the honour, and whom he Baptized in jail 30 years ago, the NZ Ambassador to Korea, Philip Turner, the Minister for Justice, Chu Mi Ae, Jang Seo Yon, the grand-daughter of Fr Bob's friend, Joseph Jang, representative of the Mayor of Seoul, Park Won Soon, who also recommended Fr Bob and Bishop You Kyong Chon, representing Cardinal Yom Su Jong who also recommended Fr Bob. Photo: Fr Bob Brennan SSC
Let me first express my deepest thanks to the Korean Government for the honour being bestowed on me today. Fifty-four years ago, on September 15, 1966 a 24-year-old named Robert John Brennan arrived in this land from New Zealand. The oldest of a family of five children, with a bright future before him, when he announced he was going as a missionary to the forlorn country of Korea, his mother’s response was, “You know they eat rats in Korea?”.
Arriving at Kimpo airport, at that time the entrance gate to Korea, I was met and taken to the Columban headquarters which happened to be at the terminus of the tramline.
For two years I took the tram daily to language school. The fare was two won each way, and the trip took 30 minutes. To do the same trip by subway today will cost you 1,250 won and take 45 minutes. They call it progress.
On completion of language studies in 1968 I was sent to the brand-new Diocese of Wonju, the southern half of the old northern Diocese of Chunchon. The new Bishop of the new Diocese was Daniel Tji who was ordained Bishop on the same day I was ordained Priest. I was duly sent to the isolated mountain parish of Jong Son, where I stayed for the next turbulent 11 years. During that time our Bishop was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 15 years in prison by the military dictatorship, on the charge of being pro-communist. The Bishop was, in fact, North Korean by birth, but anti-military dictatorship by conviction.
Jong Son was, at that time, one of the poorest counties in the country. Many of the people were in debt, at high rates of interest, because of one financial emergency or another. I had heard of the Credit Union Movement, which had recently been introduced to Korea by a Maryknoll nun. Together the parishioners (500 of them) and I did some research, and one day in 1973, 30 people contributed 10 cents each, and with a paid-up capital of $3.00 the Jong Son Credit Union was born. Today it is worth more than $70 million, and Jong Son is a very comfortable little town.
In between times, thanks to the generosity of many donors, we were able to replace the old American 8th Army quonset hut, which had been our church building, with a much more suitable and comfortable church, which survives as the Parish Church to this day. Finally, in 1979, the time had come to leave. The Parish was, by then, financially self-supporting, and so able to support a Korean Diocesan Priest who replaced me.
It is said that, in the old days, when the king appointed the county chiefs, a man appointed to Jong Son wept going in, and wept again on leaving. I borrowed a jeep to move my belongings out, but I was not far up the road before I had to stop. I could not see ahead because of my tears. I left a large part of my heart in Jong Son, and even today, 40 years later, I still get a great welcome whenever I go back.
My next appointment was to Mok Dong – a parish on the margins of the City of Seoul, whose population had grown from 3 million when I arrived in 1966 to 12 million in 1980. The Parish population consisted mostly of squatters who had been evicted from other areas being redeveloped, or who had come up from the countryside in the hopes of making their fortune in the big city.
The community’s misfortune was to find itself too close to Kimpo airport. Korea had been awarded the 88 Olympics and one of the first things visitors would see on arrival would be this disgusting slum. It had to go! All the money this country had was going into Olympic facilities – there was none left over for dispossessed slum dwellers. Our Parish Church became the centre of the fight for housing rights. In the end we lost that battle, but the war has gone on, with my continued involvement.
After a six-year term as first Rector of our Initial Formation Programme for Korean Columban seminarians, I have, since 1992, continued my work in the area of Housing Rights.
Appointed to Sam Yang Dong in Northern Seoul by Cardinal Stephen Kim I have, in the last 28 years, been evicted six times, and am waiting for the bulldozer to arrive at my current dwelling, number seven.
After two terms as Pastor of the Sam Yang Dong Mission Parish, for the last 15 years I have been CEO of the Sam Yang Citizens’ Network Inc. To date we have set up a Rehabilitation Centre, Housing Welfare Centre, Women Domestic Workers’ Co-Op, Small Business Social Welfare Programme,
Micro-credit Bank and lately, are actively participating in the new Community Renewal Programme, which has replaced the old “evict, knock and rebuild” model of “redevelopment”. So perhaps that seventh bulldozer will not arrive after all.
Over all I have been attempting to portray a Church whose basic mission is to oppose falsehood and corruption, hatred and division, privilege and elitism, discrimination and disinterest, greed and pride, replacing them with truth and justice, love and peace, unity and equality, sharing and humility, thereby planting and building God’s Kingdom on earth.
This year, by Korean reckoning, I celebrate my 80th birthday. Of those 80 years I have had the privilege to spend 54 here in Korea. And now, finally, I am no longer a foreigner, but can proudly call myself “Korean”.
Thank you.
Fr Bob Brennan has been a missionary in Korea since 1966.
Listen to "No longer a foreigner"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - January/February 2021
