Father Brennan

A 25-year-old New Zealander arrived in Korea in the spring of 1996. He has since worked in Korea as a helper of the poor and disadvantaged for about 50 years. The man spent a decade in a coal mining town in Gangwon Province and latter settled in redevelopment areas and shantytowns. He practiced the belief that he had to wipe the tears from the sick, sad and hungry people. This is why he is called the “godfather of the poor,” and “poor people’s lamp.” Given the Korean name Ahn Gwang-hoon, this Good Samaritan is Father Robert John Brennan.

The priest received a welfare award from the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday. After being named provost of the main Catholic Church in Gangwon Province, he created the Jeongseon Civil Cooperative with 30 residents in 1972. The organization has funds of 40 billion won (35.3 million U.S. dollars) and opened St. Francis Hospital in Jeongseon, which had no hospital, in 1975. Brennan then moved to a shantytown in Seoul in 1981 and has since worked for low-income households in residential welfare, job creation and microcredit, including construction of interim housing for residents who have to leave their homes due to redevelopment. The priest was evicted from rental homes three times because of redevelopment. “I want to live here for the rest of my life and create a world where everybody lives happily together,” he said.

Sisters Marian and Margaret, two Austrian nuns who took care of leprosy patients on Sorok Island for 40 years, have returned to their country. They said in a letter that they do not want to be a burden on others because of their age and inability to work well. They never wore gloves when applying medicine on patients’ wounds and invited foreign doctors to perform operations. They also ran a childcare facility for the patients’ children and left quietly.

Fifteen years ago Tuesday, Mother Teresa, called "the mother of the poorest of the poor," died in Kolkata, India. Devoting her life to helping the poor and sick, she said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Thus the world retains hope thanks to humanitarians like Father Brennan and the two Austrian nuns, who showed love for the disadvantaged in Korean society.

Editorial Writer Koh Mi-seok (mskoh119@donga.com)