So long, Father Antonio.

Paul and I with Father Antonio on his last day :(

Last weekend we bid farewell to the associate priest at our parish, Father (Shimbunim) Antonio. It was just a week earlier that he announced he'd been reassigned to another parish in a suburb of Seoul. We were really bummed (and I think he was a little sad about it too) to hear that he'd be leaving Sokcho. Our senior priest (Father Anselmo--they go by their confirmation names here) is really nice and a very good pastor, but he doesn't speak much English at all and so we haven't interacted with him as much. Father Antonio is young, funny, extremely friendly, and full of life. Everyone at our parish adores him, from the little children to the older crowd. He's always full of jokes and smiles, but is also serious and sincere in his profession. He presided at the evening (contemporary) mass and was a big hit with the young people, some of whom we got to know through being friends with Fr. Antonio. We were even meeting together every week (for a while) for lunch and an informal English lesson, which was fun (how cool to have lunch with a priest every week?!).
In Korea, priests (after they're ordained) spend a year at seven different parishes (one parish per year for a total of seven years), in order to experience different groups of people and learn how to deal with them. So, we'll probably get a new recruit in sometime this fall.
But he'll have some large vestments to fill...that's for sure...

Good luck at your new parish, Fr. Antonio. You will be sorely missed at Gyodong Sundang.