South
Korea is the world's largest user of smartphones and no surprise in
having the most internet addicts. The cell network is so good that even
elementary school children carry smartphones and use them which poses
many problems for parents and teachers.
The government seeing the need has established internet dream camps for the addicted, to help them overcome their addiction. This is not only a gaming addiction but addiction to the whole digital world.
The
Peace Weekly gives us some understanding of the problems in an article.
This is not the first article, and Korea is not alone with internet
user problems. She is trying to do something to solve the problem with
rehabilitation camps and programs for the young.
91% of the population has a smartphone: the highest in the world. With these numbers, they have seen the fallout from the use and it is mostly with the young. 10% of the total number of students in high school are in danger of becoming addicted.
There are many different harmful results from this addiction: information overload, captivation in messaging,
estrangement from their living reality, extreme use of SNS sites,
continuing downloading of Apps, overuse of games, and addiction to
using adult content sites with pornography.
Health
problems: lack of sleep, social inability to relate with others,
turtleneck and dry eye problems. Children under 6 are given the
smartphone to quiet them which is not good for mental health.
Recently
in a discussion group, religious leaders considered the problems of
smartphone addiction. The bishops' committee on the media has recommended that all the programs for the young explain the dangers of internet addiction.
With
the increase of problems in society, programs need to be established:
certain fix times with no use of digital equipment, education on the
different facets of mass media, and camps for the addicted.
One article concludes with the signs of addiction. Without the smartphone, you see restlessness and agitation. When using the smartphone they want to put it down but continue using it. They can't plan on how to use the smartphone. They are always fingering the smartphone and hearing this from family and friends. There are many sites on addiction but (www.iapc.or.kr) is also in English.
Everybody, no matter the nation, culture, race, religion, all ultimately are seeking happiness and peace. Even if presently it is not attained, persons do not give up their hope and courage. With these words, a religious sister gives us her opinion in the Catholic Times on some problems society faces.
Is the search that Christianity has for happiness and peace only to do with the individual? No, God has created all, she says, and his spirit is not only in our hearts but in all of creation. Consequently, all of creation should be filled with joy and peace. The worries of the world should be the worries of the Church, and she quotes pope St. John XXIII. Pope Francis is of the same opinion, and she wants to search for the hope that we have.
At present many see the condition for happiness in money, family, and health. They are the foundational desires for life, love and material goods. Young people have coined a new word to express their sadness in what they see: 'Hell Joseon'( the period of the Joseon dynasty where the feudal system determined who got ahead). They see how many things they have to give up and their use of sarcasm shows this with the new words they coin. An individual before this mammoth power of money feels like a candle flame before the big wind that is blowing.
Recently when hearing the speeches of the party leaders, at the 20th National Assembly, the sister felt a sense of peace in that all was going in the right direction but the scandals of corruption of our public servants that continued to hit the press, took away her peace.
One public servant, while drunk, compared citizens to dogs and pigs, satisfied by eating, which was picked up by the press. The sister uses the words of Martin Buber to express the relationship that should exist with the citizens. It should be an 'I-Thou', but instead, it is 'I-It', meaning they don't feel connected with the citizens but seen as a third person reality. She feels the whole of society has a touch of 'Hell Joseon' syndrome to deal with and it also appears within the Church.
What is going on in society is affecting the church community and our spirituality is being deformed. This was true in the time of Jesus and in the present. Privilege and acting autocratically, satisfied with the status quo, is making us more Roman than the Church of Rome. We are afraid to leave our middle-class understanding of church. We have to understand the equality of old and young, men and women, rich and poor and be able to communicate with all. We need to feel for the suffering of others and work with our hearts and minds with nonviolent means looking for solutions.
This is the way of holiness shown to us by Jesus and the way of showing mercy. The way of the Gospel and the citizens way of working for the good of the whole earth. Walking along this road we will experience the mystery of 'death and resurrection' and in the process be a light to those who are looking for peace and joy.
In a column of the Catholic Times, the writer wonders whether economics isn't the greatest strength of our society. All the other values: moral, human, and of life, lose their meaning in its presence: law and logic have no place.
Values from life and the environment take a second place to the comfortable and abundant life offered to society by the nuclear power stations and other scientific advances. Solidarity with community, concern for the poor, all surrender to efficiency and competition. Economics is of the greatest value and its logic surpasses all else.
For many, the difficulties surrounding eating and just living trumps all the other values. Easy to understand, but at the same time materialism, and our need to adapt to the present reality is bitter to the taste.
It's a fact that when humans work for their own ends and competitively they accomplish great results. However, this is looking at the situation narrowly and superficially. For humanity working for the good of others, cooperating has also seen great economic results.
Economics the word itself comes from the work of housekeeping. 'Oikos', the ancient Greek word, means house, (family) and it can be equated to the work of family to support and achieve all that is necessary to live.
"Economy, as the very word indicates, should be the art of achieving a fitting management of our common home, which is the world as a whole. Each meaningful economic decision made in one part of the world has repercussions everywhere else; consequently, no government can act without regard for shared responsibility. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find local solutions for enormous global problems which overwhelm local politics with difficulties to resolve. If we really want to achieve a healthy world economy, what is needed at this juncture of history is a more efficient way of interacting which, with due regard for the sovereignty of each nation, ensures the economic well-being of all countries, not just of a few." (Joy of the Gospel #206).
St. Irenaeus used the phrase 'economy of salvation' to describe the workings of God. Even the word ecology wants to include all of our natural environment.
Our society sees competition and efficiency as all important. They appear to bring us all the wealth and development made. This advancement has not benefited all of humanity. Difficult to call this an abundance when so many are shut out from attaining or participating.
More important are cooperation, community, solidarity, compassion. Values of life and concern for the environment will bring even greater abundance. This is the way of reconciliation, and living in peace with all of creation. We have examples of this in cooperatives, community possession, and community responsibility.
Two of the best known Christians in the present society are Pope Francis and Mother Theresa of India. They have received respect even outside the church. However, both of them had a different understanding of donations that came from what is called black or dirty money, (money made from illegal or nefarious means).
In an article in a bulletin for priests, the writer mentions that both of them received praise and blame for the way they looked upon dirty money.
Mother Theresa used the money for the poor and sick which makes understanding her actions easier. However, there are those that did not look benignly on the money she took from dictators and from those who seemed to lack any moral sense in the way they made their money.
Pope Francis was reported to have returned a million dollars given to his charity Scholas which was an initiative he began while Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The government of Argentina gave the money to the charity and the pope was not happy when he heard the charity asked the government for help because of its situation. The government has raised the prices of the public utilities of the country and he rejected the public money because they should focus on the needs of the people.
Pope Francis told benefactors to forget about donating money to the church if their earnings came from mistreating others. "Please, take your check back and burn it," he said in one of the general audiences. "The people of God -- that is, the church -- doesn't need dirty money. They need hearts that are open to God's mercy."
Scholas Occurrentes, connects technology with arts and sports in order to promote social integration and the culture of encounter for peace. It is present in 190 countries through its web made up of over 430.000 schools and educational networks in five continents. Pope Francis did not appreciate the help for he wanted the charity to be financed by personal monies and not public money.
The charity has no right to ask the government for help in developing their programs and was a good lesson to those who heard his talk. The government was quick to give a response to the request for their own reasons and the pope returned it for the reasons given.
Dirty money is not cleaned by use in the church. To prevent any misunderstanding money received should be vetted to see from whom and where the money is coming. The pope's message was heard loud and clear and our writer would like this to be understood by all those who are receiving donations of money.
Martyrs who have died for their faith are many in the history of Korea. In recent years we hear often about the martyrs that died during the years of the communist take over of North Korea.
The Korean bishops have asked the Vatican to open the beatification process for the bishop of Pyongyang Hong Young-ho and his 80 companions after the division of Korea in 1948. Rome has approved the request and the study of the information has begun.
On the list, we have a number of foreign priests of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Columban Fathers, foreign missionary nuns, Korean priests, religious sisters, seminarians and lay people and on the list are two Maryknollers: Bishop Patrick Byrne and Maryknoll Korean Sister, Chang Chong-on Agneta the sister of John M. Chang (Chang Myon) who was ambassador, vice president, and prime minister of the Republic of Korea from 1960-1961.
Bishop Patrick James Byrne a member of the Maryknoll Fathers was the first missioner chosen in 1923 to begin the work in Korea and is listed as one who has died for the faith in North Korea. He was named Prefect Apostolic of Pyongyang but in 1929 had to return to the States after being elected Vicar General during the first society chapter. He returned in 1935 to a new mission in Kyoto, Japan, where he helped to calm the people during the American occupation. In 1947 he was appointed the first Apostolic visitor for Korea and in 1949 the first Apostolic Delegate to Korea.
In 1949 he was consecrated bishop in Myong Dong Cathedral, Seoul, and the following year the Korea War began. Knowing the imminent fall of Seoul to the invading army the Americans were advised to flee to Japan but he didn't want to leave his responsibility to Korea. He complained about the persecution of the Church in the North and the imprisonment of Bishop Hong and the priests and Christians.
He was arrested in July and before a people's court with many other foreigners was imprisoned and was sentenced to die. He was transferred to Pyongyang and imprisoned again on July19th. On Oct. 8th he was moved to Manpo and shortly after began the four-month death march.
Bishop Byrne became ill and finally died of pneumonia. Before he died he told those who were with him: "After the privilege of my priesthood, I regard this privilege of having suffered for Christ with all of you as the greatest of my life." He received the absolution the night before from Father William Booth a Maryknoll priest who was his secretary. Bishop Quinlan, a Columban priest and Prefect Apostolic of Chunchon recited the prayers at the gravesite. He died on November 25, 1950, at the age of 62 and was buried in an unmarked grave.
A great sadness is the age of the martyrs has not ended. In North Korea, we have no way of knowing the suffering of the Christians that remain.
For those who may be interested in more information about the Maryknoll Society and its work in Asia you are invited to go to these sites:
https://maryknollsociety.org/
http://brianbarrons.typePad.com/
Chinahands-typePad
Problems we have in the pastoral work with the young are not something that just recently appeared but has a long history. Many solutions have been tried and much discussion has transpired over the years but matters have gotten worse. Students who are coming out to the Sunday school programs continue to decrease. Middle and high school students only one in ten are attending Sunday school, and of the teenagers, we have only six or seven out of one hundred who are coming to church.
Many dioceses are gathering interested persons together to find solutions to the problems and all agreed the whole program has to be overhauled. We can't continue conducting our programs for the young in this way.
In one of the diocesan open discussions on the topic, one priest mentioned it is no longer a crisis but a question of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If we continue in this way in a few years only half of those now coming out will be in our programs. The class system that was used for the past fifty years is not working and only ten percent of our students in middle and high school are coming out.
One priest mentioned we should forget about teaching doctrine and concentrate on how to hand down the faith. We have to change the whole framework of what we are doing. We need to forget the Sunday school program and envision a pastoral plan for the young.
One diocese agreed that the whole framework used up until now has to change. One participant feared that by working with the problems of the young people and working for a solution we may consider that all the problems are being handled which is not the case.
One priest considered one of the big stumbling blocks was the priests themselves with their control of the program and autocratic ways. The bishop of the diocese said they can be a problem but they are also the ones that give life to the programs and asked for their continued concern.
In one of the diocesan discussions one student leader mentioned the changing of the assistant priests every year is a big problem and detrimental to the spirit of the teaching staff. We need a committee to be responsible and more of a hands on policy by the diocese.
Teachers suggested in one of the open meetings: education for the parents, common use of good programs, texts that consider the situation of our students in our present reality, and priests who are educated in youth work that will visit the parishes and work with the teachers. Catholic Schools should also work harder at developing a Catholic Spirit among the students.
One person who has taught for over thirty years in the catechetical program for the youth thinks that more time should be spent in teaching about marriage and Christian family life. That will solve many of the problems that will we have in the future.
A person with a background in cultural studies with a doctorate in the field stresses that the church community has to be different from the world, and when the young people feel this, they will come. With the values of the world: they will receive what they give and give of what they receive, has to be changed to a foundation based on love where you give without condition and receive of blessings. Once they feel this in community the thirst of the young will be satisfied and they will find joy.
"When you lose the capacity to dream, then you lose the capacity to love." These words are a quote from Pope Francis during a talk he gave on the family. In an article in the Peace Weekly, the columnist laments the loss of dreaming among the young.
When you want something and the possibility is there to achieve what one desires but no dream, we have an unhealthy society. Meeting a young person with dreams is not easy. The columnist has asked many young people about their dreams and the response is: "I don't know." "I don't have one."
Our education system is set up as a preparation for the next step in education: middle school preparation for high school and high school for college. He mentions asking a class what their dream was for the future and the same answer came back but one student answered with a low voice: "teacher". The student sitting behind him patted him on the back and said: "Hey you bloke, have you forgotten that you are not good in studies?"
From the last years of the 1990s, teachers, and civil servants are considered good occupations. Only a little raise in the salaries but a guaranteed lifestyle has made them popular.
We are persons who exist to dream. When we feel a lack of something and have a strong desire to attain it, we have a dream. It makes us want to live and enjoy life. Living in a society with grownups we are helped to have dreams. In our society, unless a student has outstanding marks the possibility of being a teacher is impossible and the competition is great.
Without dreams life becomes hell. Is this not the reason for suicides and the desire not to have children? What is the Church to do in this kind of society? What needs to be done if we are to be a light and the salt of the earth? Even though the solution may be beyond our control, we need to work to change the environment in which we live. What can be done?
In one of the diocese, they have decided to build a lighthouse and center for migrants living in Korea. It will be set aside for the migrants in Korea as a gift. They have come to Korea for economic reasons and the church wants to give them a sense of worth by this splendid building for their use.
The Seoul Diocese also wanting workers to dream, has a goal to examine the working conditions of workers and their needs, and work to realize this in their advocacy for concrete programs in the diocese to bring this about.
It is important to work to overcome the ways of the world but more important is to live our lives correctly. We need to work for a society in which all the members can dream.
