{"id":1389,"date":"2008-12-03T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T08:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/the-remarkable-journey-of-father-kim.html"},"modified":"2008-12-03T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T08:27:00","slug":"the-remarkable-journey-of-father-kim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/the-remarkable-journey-of-father-kim.html","title":{"rendered":"The remarkable journey of Father Kim"},"content":{"rendered":"

You would be hard-pressed to find a vocation story more surprising than this: a married man who converted, became an active member of his church, then a deacon and, after his wife’s death, was ordained a priest at the tender age of 72. <\/p>\n

From the San Antonio Express-News<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Father Philip Chung-jin Kim’s first encounter with Catholicism came during a near-death experience almost 60 years ago when he was a teenager in war-torn South Korea.<\/p>\n

Kim was to be executed for refusing to join the People’s Volunteer Army of North Korea after being taken captive at gunpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was facing the wall and closed his eyes, and at the last minute he hears another officer yell stop,\u201d said his 41-year-old son, Louis. \u201cOne of the boys that was about to be executed with him apparently had a rosary and he had been praying.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>The encounter left a lasting impression on Kim, who became a Catholic priest late in life \u2014 at age 72. He was serving as parochial vicar at Selma’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church when he was killed in a traffic accident Sunday morning south of Pleasanton in Atascosa County. He was 76.<\/p>\n

Visitation will be at 4 p.m. Thursday at the church, with a rosary recited at 7 p.m. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday, also at the church, with burial at Sunset Memorial Park on Austin Highway.<\/p>\n

Even before he entered the priesthood, Kim’s devotion to helping others was evident, and he made his impact felt in the local Korean community, his family and friends said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very kind,\u201d said Won Pae Pak of the Korean-American Friendship Association.<\/p>\n

Pak served with Kim on the board of the Korean American Association of San Antonio in the late 1970s. Kim was once president of the association.<\/p>\n

He was a successful business owner then, operating two Asian markets in the city, as well as owning the Rio Vista Apartments in Schertz.<\/p>\n

Pak said Kim was generous, helping many Koreans adjust to a new life in San Antonio and helping them find jobs, much the same way he was helped when he arrived in the United States in 1954.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was no deacon or priest then, just a Christian,\u201d Pak said.<\/p>\n

His daughter, Susan Y. Shaffer, said she remembers her father opening up the living room of their home to hold Mass for what was then a small Korean community in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with Mass at the house and then later, as time went on, and it got a little bit bigger,\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n

In 1982, Kim helped found the city’s only Korean Catholic Church \u2014 the Korean Martyrs Church in Leon Springs, where he later served as a deacon.<\/p>\n

Kim was there until 2001, when his wife, Mary Agnes, died of breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Louis Kim said his mother’s death was difficult for the entire family, especially his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you lose the love of your life, it’s like nothing else,\u201d said Bill Meskill, whose late brother, Rick, helped bring Philip Kim to the United States.<\/p>\n

Louis Kim said his parents had discussed his father joining the priesthood before his mother died and that she had given him her blessing.<\/p>\n

He acknowledges he knew little about his father’s good deeds while growing up, saying he has different memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, he was this sort of cranky, temperamental father,\u201d Louis Kim said. \u201cI saw all of his flaws. I never felt like a preacher’s son.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he said, his father would be the first to admit that, too.<\/p>\n

Louis Kim said it wasn’t until his high school years that one evening his father broke down and cried after saying grace at dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom then on, he was changed,\u201d Louis Kim said. \u201cWe never had a conversation where he could articulate it, but it was like night and day. He went from being a very temperamental, judgmental, cranky father who was very, very hard on me to someone who was very compassionate and loving.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s much more at the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You would be hard-pressed to find a vocation story more surprising than this: a married man who converted, became an active member of his church, then a deacon and, after his wife’s death, was ordained a priest at the tender age of 72. 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