By Choi Hae Young RSCJ, Korea-Chinese Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Heart
In my memory, it was in 1986 when I first met Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ. He was then a professor of dogmatic theology at Sophia University in Japan, and already very well-known to the Korean Church through Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan and Bishop Kang Woo-il, as a close friend of theirs. He gave lectures on “the Community of the Gospel according to Luke” to the Church of Korea, which had a great desire for democratisation of the country. Through the Association of the Major Superiors of Korean Women Religious, he gave lectures on the religious life to the Korean Sisters, and in 1987, he led a “discernment seminar for the deepening of spiritual identity of Congregation of Women Religious” for the three major representative Women Congregations founded by the Diocese in Korea, helping Korean Women Religious to find out their own charism and set their future direction. The Society of the Sacred Heart, which I belong to, already had a close relationship with him through some sisters, so he often came to the morning Mass. Especially in 1988, he helped us to discern the merging process with the Songsim Women’s College, a Catholic medical school and theological college.
I personally knew him when I was a graduate student of the Department of Religious Studies at Sogang University, where I was taking his course. Taking advantage of the sabbatical year, he stayed with the Korean Jesuits for some time. He taught the Revelation Theology class at the Graduate School of Religious Studies at Sogang University in 1986, and also taught one subject at the undergraduate course. Graduate students enjoyed his seminar taught in English, and he was so comfortably leading the seminar that students actively participated in the discussions, and visited him individually to share their concerns and ask for some advice. He was very much trusted and respected by the students more than any other professor, and he listened very carefully during the meeting and asked a lot of questions, so if we had an hour of conversation, we would feel that we had met for hours.
In 1987, he became head of the Japanese Jesuit Theological Seminary, and in April of that year, I happened to visit Japan with my fellow sister for the first time in my life. At that time, I was writing a Master’s thesis on “The Lord’s Prayer” from the point of view of Biblical Theology, and I made a list of references that were not available in Korea and asked him to help me find them in Japan. When we said to our Japanese sisters we were going to meet Fr Nicolás, they wondered and were concerned that we might inconvenience the busy priest. The Japanese sisters respected him very much. In the 1980s, the library of Sogang University was quite good in Korean society, but among the magazines published before the 1960s, only a few foreign magazines were available. Fr Nicolás guided us to the seminary library and looked for some articles and even copied them for me. I was quite envious to see the library of the Jesuit Theological Seminary, where there were more collection of books and magazines than in the library of Sogang University! I could come back with the materials I had wanted to get like a victorious general returning from a war!
Since then, I would meet him in my convent or at Sogang University from time to time when he visited Korea. When I visited him after my final profession in July 1989, he said, “You’re such a young religious! “When you are still young, you’d better not take on administrative work, but study hard.” I was in my mid-thirties at that time, but I thought I was quite old myself. Fortunately, I had been teaching religious classes at Songsim Women’s College, and soon entered the PhD programme at Sogang University. When I finished my doctoral dissertation in 1996, I sent a copy of the abstract in English of my dissertation to him. His letter of 14 August 1996, which I keep, is a reply letter to my letter.
When he was Superior General of the Jesuits, I went to Rome in order to attend a workshop for the new provincials in 2009. I visited him with a Japanese sister who lived at the mother house of the Society of the Sacred Heart. He had not changed much in appearance and still welcomed us with an agile and energetic manner. Nevertheless, he quoted John, “When you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go” (NRSV John 21,18). He shared the difficulties of living a public figure as the Superior General of the Jesuits in the middle of a universal church in Rome. I remember that he also said that many things should be changed in terms of governance and way of evangelisation due to changes in communication methods such as the Internet.
Considering how busy he was as a Superior General of the Jesuits, I did not get in touch with him personally since then, but I prayed for him as I followed his public journey which was sometimes introduced to the media and I could see that he had done his duties wisely and healthfully. In 2014, he visited Sogang University as Superior General and had a meeting with the alumni and faculty members. It was a thankful time to feel his deep affection for Sogang University.
When I heard he resigned from being Superior General of the Jesuits in 2016, I thought he had fulfilled his pledge to retire at the age of 80. I wanted to visit him again when I heard that he had returned to Japan in 2018 and was spending his last time, but unfortunately, I couldn’t do that. He might have been very happy to meet his old student, but I didn’t have the courage to meet him, even if I had a chance to visit Japan. I pray for his eternal rest in peace and thank God for having a relationship with him as his disciple even for a short period of time. I would like to give my utmost respect to him for his life as a missionary and an educator of the Eastern countries. Indeed, he devoted himself to God with consistent loyalty.
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