Love for Books is a Great Blessing

Books are no longer gifts young people find attractive. Spending one's leisure time reading books, when there are so many other activities available today, has pushed this once popular pastime into the background, and not only for children. Chesterton once said "There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read." The tired man, to "kill time," will more easily do so in today's world without picking up a book to read because of the many other options provided by mass media. 

This  past month, Korean high school graduates took their college entrance exams. A  columnist for the Catholic Times, previously a teacher for many years, recalls her own anguish when faced with that ordeal and offered up some fervent prayers for those parents and students about to take the test.

How wonderful it would be, she feels, if we would find more time for reading. For her, sitting down with a good book is a great pleasure; she has tried to encourage others to do the same with little success.

She believes that  children who have made reading a habit from a very early age will be more successful in the college entrance exams. They will have been exposed to a wide spectrum of knowledge, and will know how to maneuver within this world. Having become familiar with the power of thought, and honed skills of comprehension, they will have acquired not only the  ability to write well but the confidence to compete with others.

The advantages of reading are many; it can be as close and comforting to us as a friend when one does not have the health to travel or indulge in the activities we once enjoyed at a younger age. How do we get children to see the benefits? A good way would be seeing their parents reading books more often, and by parents reading to their preschool children when they are not yet capable of reading on their own. Setting up a welcoming atmosphere for book reading in the home cannot be overemphasized.

Another benefit of reading: readers are not afraid of being alone, in fact, they don't ever have to be alone as long as they can pick up a  book and read. They have so many books they want to read that when one is read, they are anxious to start the next one. The columnist mentions that when she hears from her friends,  they feel lonely and life is dreary it's time to send them a book to read. However, most often she hears that they have read a few pages, and then their eyes begin to give them trouble, and they get a headache. If only they had realized at a younger age the joys of reading, they would never lack the presence of a great friend in their older years.

She ends her column by telling us she spends date-time with God by reading his Scriptures. Reading spiritual books and works of literary value is a source of great joy to her. She regrets that she has not been able to share this joy with many of her acquaintances.

"Declaration of Human Rights" And Second Sunday of Advent

Today is the 29th observation of Human Rights Sunday in Korea. A reminder of our human dignity and of the ways we have personally and as a society violated these God-given rights.

The message from the Bishop's Justice and Peace Committee reminds us of the  ways many in our society  have been hurt, and their dignity not respected: the plight of many irregular workers, foreign workers, the discrimination towards those  who have immigrated here, and the many refugees. The editorials in the two Catholic papers have brought this to our attention. The way we have opted for development instead of looking to the needs of our citizens and the environment would include present construction of the Four River Project. The  Bishops feel there is no justification for the project and that the effort and money allocated should have been directed to eliminating the discrimination and exploitation of the weak ones in our society--that would be a project worthy of the concern and support of the country and the Churches.

The ways we can be cruel to one another are often beyond the normal person's comprehension, such as the recent artillery attack from the North on Yeongpyeong island. Most of the islanders, having fled to the city of Incheon, are still suffering from trauma from the shelling, some with heart palpitations, headaches and stomach problems.  

The Peace Weekly has an article on a priest who provides support to the victims of crimes in his area, crimes that often result in broken families  and mental disorders that can last a lifetime. The priest recalled several incidents that needed the support of his center: a farmer who was shot by a hunter and lost his sight in one eye, which brought on depression and the avoidance of others; a teacher on her way home from school  was beaten by teenagers, leaving her whole body paralyzed. She now lives with anger and pain and regrets her time teaching.  In many of these cases they never find the culprits. These support centers provide a much needed service. Unfortunately, compared to other countries, there are too few of them in Korea.

Friday, Dec. 10, is Human Rights Day. The Catholics in Korea are reminded of  this each year on the second Sunday of Advent. Sixty-two years ago, on December 10, 1948,  the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was a big step and surprising in many ways. However, after all these years since the Declaration, it's far from clear whether the recommendations of that wonderful document have had much of an effect on our behavior.                               

How to Make Advent Environmentally Friendly

Some parishes in Korea, during the period of Advent, are attempting to raise the level of environmental awareness. The Peace Weekly gives us some examples of parishes that are doing this by following the Bishops' guidelines on how to take care of the environment by keeping our actions in harmony with God's creation.

Subjects of some of the talks: Saving our farms, eating wisely, setting up guidelines for dealing with the environmental crisis--always remembering that working to restore the natural order in creation is our mission.

There has always been those who have felt a need to confess their offenses against the environment but this is becoming more pronounced with the recent interest in ecological  problems. Not only are we concerned today with our relation with God, with others, and with ourselves but with creation, as well.

In the Bishops' guidelines we are told: "We  no longer can separate love for God and others from the  love we should have for creation... because of my greed and carelessness when I randomly  destroy part of God's creation,  I should come to the realization that I am sinning. This is something we have not been familiar with in the past but  is now one of  our social  sins."

It is easy to understand our personal offenses but not so easy to understand that even when buying a ten-dollar cup of coffee something is happening in our  society that is not good. Here we are in the order of social sin.

Our mass production and consumption on a large scale has brought us global warming, scarcity of food, and the disappearance of many animal species. To begin to reverse this trend we must take steps to live in a simpler and less comfortable way.

The article ends with a number of suggestions on how to do this: use less water, eat a better diet, save energy, avoid throw-away goods, walk or take public transportation whenever possible, cut down on eating out, prefer environmentally friendly farm goods, use cleaning materials made with natural ingredients and whenpossible,recycle everything.

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The Place of Women in Church Life

Women far outnumber the men attending Mass here in Korea. For every two men at Mass, there are three women. And of those involved in parish work and other church activities, women are participating at an even greater statistical rate than men. In short, women are the ones that do most of the work and yet few are members of pastoral councils, except for one diocese, Kwang Ju, where they number more than the men. 

The editorial in the Peace Weekly brings these facts to our attention and laments that we do not have more dioceses like Kwang Ju. Women, following the traditional image of Korean women, whether appreciated or not, are represented more than men in all kinds of service work and in most of the unpleasant jobs in our society.

The recent meeting of the Women's Subcommittee on Women Affairs focused their discussion on "What can women give to  society and the Church?" They  considered their situation within the Church  and came to some understanding of their place in apostolic work and how to be a catalyst in the  work they do.

At present, there are, not surprisingly, many women with the same abilities as men, but they do not have the same opportunities that men have to use their abilities for the  Church; it was one of the main complaints of those attending the meeting. One participant complained that women are not in a position to express their opinions and get into the decision-making progress within the parish communities.

One priest suggested that the way to begin changing this policy was by getting women organizations to work for solidarity, to educate women for taking leadership roles, and to raise funds for this work.

One woman said that women are only involved in service work. Consequently, when an opportunity presents itself, which may benefit others with their special talents, they are reticent to speak out. The atmosphere has to be prepared for this to happen. This can be done by formation and leadership programs, among others: women as staff members on the payroll in parishes.  One difficulty in accomplishing the goal of getting women involved in Church affairs is that, not infrequently, the women want their husbands to be more involved and will step aside so that he will become the more active one in Church work. The women are often more concerned about their husband's spiritual state than what they  would be able to do for the community.

The bishop who is responsible for the Women's Subcommittee said that not all that should be done can be put into the hands of the bishops. Getting together to talk is an important first step and will stimulate the active presence of women in the decision-making process in parish life.

Japanese and Korean Bishops Face a Serious Problem

The recent Catholic Times gave front page coverage to the 16th Japanese and Korean Bishops' Conference, which met to discuss the serious problem of suicides in both countries.

Korea has one of the highest rates of suicides in the world, with a daily rate of 42 and increasing yearly; Japan, since 1998, has had over 30,000 yearly suicides. It is no longer a problem that either country can ignore.

During the conference meetings, the observation was made that because of Korea's development in the last 40 to 50 years many problems have arisen that took the West over 300 years to come to terms with. And as a result, the rapid change of the Korean culture brought  to light many of the difficulties now being experienced by so many.

With such an abrupt change in cultural values, feeling confused was a common response of many, leading to stress, a weakening of the support systems, the breakdown of family life, the loss of a person's sense of self, and gradual erosion of the value of life itself. Especially disturbing has been the many incidents of women committing suicide and having serious mental problems. 

A Korean speaker at the conference felt the large number of suicides in the two countries was a sure sign  we are dealing with a pathological societal issue that until recently had been mostly considered solely a personality disorder and thus had not been addressed adequately by  society. He wanted the citizens of both countries to become familiar with what is going on in society that is prompting so many to take their own lives. By being better informed,  he believes we will be empowered to do something about it. He also felt that the Church and all religious organizations, because of the nature of their mission in society, has to be in the forefront of this movement to decrease the number of suicides.

A Japanese bishop made clear in his presentation that killing oneself in many cases is not a free act. We are beginning to realize that many are driven to kill themselves and are powerless, if help is not available, to prevent it. The Church is beginning to see that suicide is both a personal and a societal sickness, and that we have to be careful not to consider it just a sin.

We must make an attempt to understand what motivates the potential suicide, by reflecting on why they are lonely and feel  alienated. When they come for counseling, we will not be of much help to them if we just lay down moral principles that say they should not think those thoughts. The primary effort must be made to uncover what has driven them to bring these thoughts to mind. And then be prepared to offer them a viable way of dealing with these thoughts. A way that is both practical and doable, given the difficult circumstances they find themselves in.

We Are All Brothers and Sisters

A professor of biology writing for the Kyeongyang Catholic Magazine begins his article on ecology by referring to the well-known speech of the American Indian, Chief Seattle. Among the most quoted words of the speech were the following: "This we know, the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family." The central theme of the speech was that we are all brothers and sisters. And with the phrase from the Analects of  Confucius: "It is not poverty that is the problem; inequality is the problem," the professor prepares us for his own thoughts on the environment.

In 1991, when the professor was an exchange scholar at Cornell University, the United States was one year away from celebrating its 500th anniversary. Together with other students, the professor listened one evening to a talk on the discovery of America, and each one  present was to give a response. His response was that America was not discovered  but was invaded; it was already inhabited, he explained, by those who came by means of the Bearing Sea some 50,000 years ago. Considered to be of the red race, they had a remarkable culture and this is recognized, he says, and yet in the same history books, we are told that  the Americas were discovered.

He stresses that he does not want to refute or minimize what mighty America has done but latent in the American thinking is the belief that "big is beautiful and white is superior," and this prideful attitude he can't help but pity. He has little love for a "Peace Americana," and what added fuel to this way of thinking, he says, was the speech of Chief Seattle. His speech--and the controversy surrounding it--can be easily accessed on the Internet.

We are all descended from the same ancestors, attested to by both biology and evolution, the professor says. That we all have the same orign is a fact of biology. We know also that the way we have been living has caused harm to ourselves  and  other living creatures. Knowing this, however, has not effectively  moved us, he says, to make serious efforts to alleviate the problems.

 

He compares our situation to a boat that is sinking with  6 billion passagers onboard, and poses an interesting scenario. We Koreans, he says, who are using so much energy are also on this boat. Onboard also are those from the underdeveloped countries who have no choice  but to use little energy. Let's assume, he says, that there is food and water for a hundred days. If there are those with plenty of money to buy what they want and those that can't will this boat arrive at port without difficulty?

The professor often brings to the attention of his class and others within the school environment the words in the Analects where Confucius says "It is not poverty that is the problem; inequality is the problem."  He ends the article with an aphorism from Mencius (slightly changed to words more familiar to us), "Before you criticize another, walk a mile in the other's moccasins."

After reading the speech by Chief Seattle, which was translated by the professor for the article, I can see how a Korean would be upset. It moved me greatly. They certainly express the feelings of many American Indians, even today, and provide all of us with useful guidelines on how we should look upon creation.

Welcoming North Korean Refugees in the South

Refugees from the North now living in South Korea have increased, and the recent attack on one of our islands, coming after the sinking of the Cheonan, will soon tell us what affect it will have on refugees. Distrust of the North Koreans is understandable and this recent incident could make matters worse. There are now over 20,000 North Koreans living here. A columnist  for the Catholic Times gives us background information highlighting some of the potential problems.

Over 80 percent of the refugees are women. Until the year 2,000, women refugees numbered under 50 percent, and the ages were from 20 to 40. Difficulty of life in North Korea prompted many of them to leave for China and from there the trip to S.K was less of a problem. The men have to spend about 10 years in army service, which makes it more difficult for them.

The number of women who have found employment is much lower than it is for the men. The government knows about the problem and has changed the law recently to be of more help to the refugees. However, from the tone of the column, the plight of the refugees is greater than in the past because of the larger numbers. A survey of 222 refugees revealed that over 56 percent were not making $500 dollars a month, the government's figure for sustainable life.

Because of the difficulty of making it alone, many get into prostitution or line up at the marriage bureaus to find someone to make their life easier--a sure sign of how difficult it is to make the transition to life here.

The columnist compares the refugee problem in Korea to the problem in Germany after unification. Many of those that stayed in East Germany suffers even now from the after-effects of the hunger they experienced, while those who went to West Germany, risking life in the slums, became part of that society. The present Chancelor of Germany, Angela Merkel, is one of this group.

A recent visitor from Germany, a member of the government, mentioned that it will be very important to know how well the North Korean refugees are doing here in the South, for it will determine the ability of the South and North to come together someday in the future.

The columnist feels that there is more the government and different organizations in the South can do to help. He also feels that the Catholic Church should be doing more to help the refugees in making the difficult transition to life in the South.

Individual Catholics have taken refugees into their homes to ease them into the South Korean culture. It gives them some time to learn about life here from fellow Koreans and about the work possibilities. This is a good way for our Catholics to get involved in a great work of charity and to prepare for the day of unification.