[INTERVIEW] Priest and Sogang University president translates book on LGBT people to bridge gap

Fr. Sim Jong-hyeok, a Jesuit priest and president of Sogang University, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the university in western Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Ji-won

Fr. Sim Jong-hyeok, a Jesuit priest and president of Sogang University, recently translated a book into Korean to help bridge the gap between religious people and sexual minorities. The book, titled "Building a Bridge," introduces actual tips like helpful Bible lines for both religious people and sexual minorities to communicate more effectively with each other. The original English-language book was written by Fr. James Martin in 2017 under the title "Building a Bridge: How the Catholic church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity." It is known as the first book in Korean by the Catholic ministry on sexual minorities.

The Korean edition came out in April, at a time when the Protestant church has been engaged in fierce resistance against LGBT people's rights and acceptance in society. While the Catholic Church has been comparably quiet in on the subject, many bishops, priests and nuns have found themselves at a loss for words when they had to offer counseling to LGBT churchgoers and their families.

The Vatican has been conservative about the concept of same-sex unions. The Catholic Church made it clear in its Catechism that it cannot offer a blessing to same-sex unions, while stressing God "cannot bless sin." The rulebook even wrote that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" claiming they go against the natural law and homosexuals are asked to practice celibacy.

He made it clear that he is not supporting same-sex marriage or homosexual acts, but decided to translate the book after meeting a lot of sexual minorities suffering from the ignorance and discrimination of society.

Fr. Sim Jong-hyeok, a Jesuit priest and president of Sogang University, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the university in western Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Fr. Sim Jong-hyeok, a Jesuit priest and president of Sogang University, holds a copy of his Korean translation of the book "Building a Bridge," during an interview with The Korea Times at the university in western Seoul, Friday. The book, which he translated from "Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity" by Fr. James Martin, is known as the first book in Korean by the Catholic ministry on sexual minorities. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

"I've met a lot of homosexual people and their families in the course of giving lectures and counseling to churchgoers. They feel pain having difficulties without coming out in society. I also feel sorry due to the pain they had. One day, I found out about Fr. James Martin's book in a magazine and read it right away. I found it was very easy to read. So I carried its ebook around in my phone and introduced it to others so that they could get some help in ministry. But one of my fellow nuns, who was impressed by the book, persuaded the head of its publishing company, who was cautious about doing so, to publish the book if I translate. First I declined the offer saying I was busy, but I decided to do so as they kept asking," Fr. Sim said during an interview with The Korea Times in his office at Sogang University's Seoul campus, Friday.

The book largely focuses on introducing episodes and helpful prayers when confronting denial from the community. In the introduction of the book, it offers to provide helpful tips so that community members can welcome sexual minorities with a warm heart and build a bridge between the church and the socially vulnerable.

It took some months for Fr. Sim to translate. He said he focused on translating with the proper terms about homosexuality. During the process, he found some translation errors and suggested some new terms in the Catechism.

"The Korean church translated the original Catechism's line 'respect, compassion and sensitivity,' which is an important guideline in building a relationship with sexual minority groups, into 'respect, pity and kindness.' I made a correction to that part in the book. I assume the Korean Catechism apparently didn't take into consideration the existence of the minority group when it first translated the rule."

It appears that the mistranslation of the term is somewhat related to a lack of the Catholic Church's understanding of homosexuality in the past. "I assume many would be uncomfortable with the 'disordered' tendency and that's why the original translation had some (random) words like 'pity' and 'kindness' instead of 'compassion' and' respect.'"

He highlighted that, while many would think that homosexuality is sinful in the Catholic Church, its Catechism doesn't necessarily consider the individual's existence as sinful, but views homosexual acts ― as well as any sexual acts outside of marriage ― as a sin.

"Many misunderstand that the Catholic Church considers that homosexuality itself a sin. But it is not. The Catechism makes it clear that same-sex attraction and sexual acts are different. It finds homosexuals and (unmarried heterosexuals) sinful when they perform sex acts."

Fr. Sim Jong-hyeok, a Jesuit priest and president of Sogang University, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at the university in western Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

He also pointed out that the rulebook has remained unchanged for years without reflecting changes in people's thoughts on sex and homosexuality.

"The Catechism can be very anachronistic as people have different thoughts on love nowadays. It has been teaching that the primary reason for sex acts is procreation. But now people think differently that sex acts between a husband and wife are an expression of love. Also, there are many people who have homosexual feelings around us. I heard two out of 10 are LGBT. The church also admits that there is not negligible number of people showing homosexual tendencies, but it still states it is a 'disorder,' making those people sad and God make a mistake."

"In many cases, people with homosexuality tendencies are physically and medically born that way. It is not a disease and thus not something that needs to be cured. If people with homosexual tendencies is a mistake, it is actually blaming God for creating a wrong existence."

Based on his understanding, he didn't specify the details, but claimed that Catechism needs to be revised in a way to reduce discrimination, embrace diversity in the Catholic community and reflect on the current understanding of humanity.

"The Catechism can be fixed as we deepen our understanding of humanity. Allowing only men to become priests is an issue now in the community, for example. The Catholic system is built on the medieval Catechism which is based on the philosophical and theological grounds that women are made to be inferior to men, which is funny for people living in the 21st century. It may take some time to allow women to become priests, but there is definitely room for this change in the rulebook. Likewise, in the future, there should be another expression on homosexuality instead of saying 'intrinsic disorder.' It is a matter of time."

In addition to the modification to the Catechism, he applied input from sexual minority groups. For example, the book's cover originally included the seven colors of the rainbow, but this was changed to six, the symbol of the LGBT community.

After the book's release, he said he was largely welcomed by many of his colleagues while receiving many emails from sexual minorities and their families thanking him. "One said that they didn't fully understand the official stance of the church and didn't know what to do. But the book became a good guideline for what to do when meeting homosexual people during a ministry."

But the translation didn't come overnight. Considering himself an open-minded person, he said his education in the United States also helped him to realize that Korean society and the church are very closed in terms of diversity and inclusivity in minority issues. He had studied theology at Weston School of Theology and Pontifical Gregorian University.

"Of course, basically I think I am less prejudiced on any occasions than others. But studying in the U.S. which had a more open-minded atmosphere than Korea, helped me to build knowledge about homosexuality. I was surprised by the fact that people in the U.S., four out of 10, were left-handed. I never saw that in Korean society. I concluded that in Korean culture, there is a certain aspect that we think any kind of minority is abnormal. As society forces the left-handed person to use the 'right' hand in society, I assumed a similar thing was applied to homosexuality."

Lawmakers speak during a press conference held to urge the National Assembly to legislate an anti-discrimination law at the National Assembly in Seoul, May 31. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

Anti-discrimination law

In April, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul refused to agree with some phrases in a bill for an anti-discrimination law and opposed same-sex marriage, claiming "expanding the concept of family, such as allowing cohabitation without marriage and common-law marriage, are largely different from the universal values in society and religious and ethical beliefs of the Catholic Church."

The statement came amid the ongoing debate over an anti-discrimination bill proposed last June by Rep. Jang Hye-young of the progressive Justice Party. The bill stipulates punitive measures for acts of discrimination based on 26 categories, including sexual orientation and sexual identity. Religious groups are divided over the bill and church groups are largely opposing the bill citing the possibility of legalization of same-sex marriage.

He stressed that he is just a scholar and not an activist, but he has been taking actions in making the church more inclusive. That is likely one of the reasons he signed a petition calling for an overall anti-discrimination law submitted to the National Assembly last month which says any forms of discrimination including based on sexual orientation should not be allowed in society. Fr. Sim signed the petition as he thought Korean society needs the bill as a declaration opposing any forms of discrimination. If the petition is able to attract more than 100,000 signatures within 30 days, the related committee will look into revising the bill.

"I understand Yeom's position. He is worried about the affirmation of gay marriage. But I signed the petition because I just don't like any kinds of discrimination including against sexual orientation and gender…I hope the bill could function like an agreement banning such discriminative acts in society."

He said the Catholic Church should also take the initiative to be more inclusive as it has been ostracizing sexual minorities for centuries.

"The Catholic Church has been enjoying a privileged position in society and stubborn about including homosexuals … If a gay churchgoer came to me for consultation and was told that homosexuality is a disease, then the person will close their mind. The person and I would not develop any relationship, meaning that I cannot carry out any forms of ministerial activities as a priest. It is the matter of doing my job. So far, the church has been taking a patronizing attitude toward the minority, asking them to change their attitudes first. But it doesn't work. The church should take the initiative to recover the relationship, which it destroyed, between the church and the minority community 'with respect, compassion and sensitivity' as Jesus did for those vulnerable in the past."