Korea's future is bright'

By Andrew Boyle
VIGR. THOMAS QUINLAN, the Maynooth missionary from Iv-I-Korea, now relaxing in Ireland after his recent release from Communist internment, is couvinced that a bright future lies before the Church in Korea io spite of the dreadful devastation of war and the corroding influence of Marxism.
-The prospects for the Church were very bright in 1950, on the eve of the fighting," he told me in a lengthy interview. "Korean priests had been active all through the Japanese occupation, and many converts were made.
"I am sure that the prospects remain good even today. For though the country has suffered heavy material losses, it is in the Korean people themselves that I have unbounded confidence.
"The world knows how they were scattered and dispersed in the mass upheavals, when their villages became part of the front line. But I have always felt sure that the converts and the newly converted wouldn't go down under it.
"It's not for nothing the Koreans have been called 'the Irish of the Orient.' They don't give up easily. They can adjust themselves far batter than we may imagine to calamity. They improvise and make the best of things.
"They are a lovable race. quick of intelligence, interested in religion. and—I think-,-ripe for conversion."
ONE REGRET
Mgr. Quinlan admitted that he had only one regret in leaving North Korea after nearly three years in captivity:
"I would have liked to travel south across the 38th Parallel instead of north across Manchuria and Russia,
wanted to see for myself what exactly had happened and how my people had faced their ordeal." And he assured me what he would have found would not have disappointed him.
"I often wondered during internment what had become of the Korean priests. For all 1 know. those who survived and escaped may be carrying on as best they can, wherever they are, in civilian clothes. That certainly wouldn't surprise me.
"Please God. I shall return to Korea one day. T want above anything else to go back. The Korean people are well worth it, and we can win many of them to the Faith."
PRISON FARE
' The face of this exceptionally courageous priest bears little sign Of the privations he endured. The sun and weather have bronzed it; prison fare has stretched the skin more tautly across it. Rut the merry eyes, lined. with a hundred crows' feet, spoke of the indotnitable cheerfulness and serenity of spirit which have since been warmly praised by the British civilians who were set free with him.
The war in Korea came to Mgr. Quinlan on a hot July day in 1950 when a shell hit the roof of his church in Chunchon. "I was sheltering inside with the Chinese contractor who was helping me to build it." he told me. "The place was filled with failing plaster and dust, but we were not hurt."
QUES7IONS
The 38th Parallel cuts right across the Apostolic Prefecture of Chunchon. Most of Mgr. Quinlan's missions lay south of the line. With the arrival of the invading North Koreans. he was soon clapped into the local jail.
"The guard who was detailed to keep a sharp eye on my cell was hostile at first hut presently became friendly. He began to ask me questions about the Faith, about the soul. about God. He even volunteered to
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