On July 3, two Jesuits, Kim Sung-hyun Raphael and Lee Chang-joon Rosario, were ordained to the priesthood at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul by Most Rev Lee Han-taek SJ, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Uijeongbu.

Fr Lee Chang-joon Rosario SJ and Fr Kim Sung-hyun Raphael SJ prior to their ordination

The two newly ordained Jesuits come from quite interesting backgrounds and differing circumstances. Fr Kim is the oldest Korean Jesuit to have ever been ordained in the province, and Fr Lee is the youngest. The two are contrasting figures in other ways as well.

Before entering the Society of Jesus, Fr Kim was a business man. He ran an entertainment company but came to realise that the world of entertainment did not suit the kind of life he wanted to live; he decided to enter the Jesuits. At that time, however, his company met a financial crisis. He began to rethink his decision to be a Jesuit because of his responsibility to the company. A Jesuit priest advised him to make a retreat to discern his vocation and in it, he recalls, “I cried and cried and realised that I really want to be a Jesuit.”

Quite differently, Fr Lee was a student of Sogang Jesuit University in Seoul. Though he was a faithful Catholic who attended Mass every Sunday at the university’s St Ignatius Chapel, he thought that only weak men who cannot endure the harsh reality of ordinary life or fail to enter the diocesan seminary become priests in a religious order. He found, however, that Jesuits seemed to be very happy in their life and he wanted to follow their way.

Fr Kim Sung-hyun Raphael SJ gives his first blessing

Fr Lee Chang-joon Rosario SJ gives his first blessing

While in their training as Jesuit scholastics, both Fathers Kim and Lee worked with the marginalised. Fr Kim served at the Yiutsari Migration Center in Korea and Fr Lee in a small mission parish in Cambodia. After their Regency, Fr Kim studied theology in Korea and the Philippines and Fr Lee went to Rome to study canon law.

Myeongdong Cathedral became the convergent point where the different life-journeys and vocation experiences of these two Jesuits met at their ordination. Showing warm affection toward his brother Jesuits, Bishop Lee said, “I am very thankful to God today because my younger Jesuit brothers are ordained. This morning, I prayed long for them that they become shepherds immersed in the smell of the sheep.” Bishop Lee’s words surely echoed the sentiments of all the Jesuits and the faithful present at the ordination Mass.