A professor in the art department of a university tells the readers in the Catholic Peace Weekly's Current Event column the difficulties of Korean artists. He taught a course with the title: Art and Bread to nurture the spirit of artists dreaming of a career in the art world. The aim was to help establish their own artistic view by looking at artists who overcame trials and adversities to create the Korean art world.
Students attended the classes with seriousness because they thought that such trials and adversities would also be their lot. Students asked: "Why should an artist always live and die in poverty and sickness?" He wasn't able to give a clear answer. This is probably the fate of the artist. Students have to endure the high entrance competition to walk the artist's path. Competition rate is over 30 to 1 on average. A music vocal major is close to 400 to 1. The employment rate of students who graduated with such competition is low.
According to a recent report on career information in Korea, the highest salaried job rankings were in national legislators, plastic surgeons, senior corporate executives, dermatologists, university presidents, and deans. The annual salary is more than 85,000 thousand dollars. The lowest rankings were poets, lyricists, after-school teachers, stand-ins, novelists and fast-food clerks. It is about 10,000 dollars well below the minimum wage of about 14,000 dollars
Artists are making less money than fast food clerks. This is also evident in the results of the "Survey on the Status of Artists" released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. 72% of the total number of artists are earning an annual income of fewer than one thousand dollars a month. Nearly 30% of the artists have no income from artistic activities.
In 2011, the Arts Welfare Act was created. The law aims to protect the professional status and rights of artists by law and to promote artists' creative activities and contribute to the development of the arts through the support of artists. The law contains a fascinating story of the death of a poor artist.
The artist was found dead in a rented house a few days before the year 2011. He was suffering from thyroid and pancreatitis problems, wasn't eating and not properly treated and died. A note on his neighbor's door said: "Thank you so much for your help. I am embarrassed to say this but I haven't eaten for a few days so if you have some rice and kimchi please knock on my door." These words give one a picture of this artist's situation. The story of his death evoked in the professor great sadness and regret.
He remembers the picture of Van Gogh's pair of shoes.They seem to symbolize Van Gogh's difficult passage through life. The owner of the shoe is invisible. Poor and sincere life is full of shoes.
'All artists have the right to perform artistic activities in an environment that guarantees human dignity and physical and mental stability.' Article 3 of the Act on the Welfare of the Artist. Does Korea protect the rights and human dignity of artists?
Bishops of Asia decided to become the 'church for the poor' in their first meeting' in Manila in 1970 and established the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC). In the recent Catholic News Weekly, the director of the Institute of Theological Studies explains the meaning behind the establishment of the FABC and the three-part dialogue with Asia in proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
The spirit of 'renewal' and 'dialogue' of the Second Vatican Council influenced the Asian bishops. After the death of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI led the Council and published the encyclical Human Development (1967) based on the teaching of the Council. The pope presented development as another name for peace. Not only the absence of war and hunger but the study of peace as a true development of our humanity, giving Asia the necessary energizer.
When the Asian bishops first met in Manila in 1970 there was a lot of gossip preceding the meeting about the foray of the pope and Cardinal Kim's 'karate' but this began to quickly disappear at the plenary session because of the important discussions on Asian reality.
Only five years had passed since the end of the Council and most of the participating bishops had suffered from colonial rule, and the common meaning of independence and liberation was at the heart of their thinking. The spirit of 'conversation' with the world from the Council provided the occasion for bishops to recall the place of life in Asia and became the focus of the meeting.
Although the conference did not use the term "triple dialogue", the final statement stated that the seeds had already been sown by emphasizing the dialogue with the poor people of Asia, the diverse religious traditions and the cultures of Asia. This topic for discussion was formulated by C. Arevalo SJ who was called the father of Philippine theology.
If the fact that the Asian bishops were gathered in one place is the birth of the FABC, then it's an important step in its history. Four months before the Bishops' Manila Conference in 1970, the Chairmen of the 11 Bishops of Asia met in Hong Kong and discussed the issue of organizing similar institutions as the current FABC.
The pro-nuncio Cardinal Edward Cassidy in Taiwan said to the bishops: "Important persons in the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church are seriously opposed to the establishment of such an institution, so stop immediately." This response was completely unexpected. The participants, including Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan, were surprised, but the Vatican's reaction by Cardinal Cassidy was not strange. The Catholic Association of Latin American Bishops (CELAM), which was founded in 1955, was still not recognized in some parts of the Vatican. Some members of the Vatican were displeased with CELAM, because of "Liberation Theology," and did not welcome the creation of such an institution in Asia as "another CELAM".
But something unexpected happened. A few months later Archbishop Sergio Pignedoli, secretary of the congregation of the evangelization of peoples, was present at the bishops' gathering in Manila and expressed his strong support to Cardinal Kim. Inspired by this, Cardinal Kim directly presented the agenda to a meeting attended by Pope Paul VI, which adopted a resolution calling for the founding of the FABC at the end of the plenary session. Two years later, at the end of August 1972, four cardinals, including Cardinal Kim, went to Rome and received approval from the Pope for a "two-year period", eventually becoming a consultative body for Asian bishops.
Asian bishops held the first FABC General Assembly in Taiwan in 1974 on the subject of "Evangelization in Modern Day Asia." Among the many pending issues, the reason for choosing 'evangelization' as the theme of the General Assembly was simple. In September of that year, there was a "bishop synod on 'evangelization' scheduled in Rome, so it was a kind of preparatory meeting to reflect the voice of Asian bishops. Because of this effort, the next year's Pope's exhortation 'Evangelii Nuntiandi', became the Mission Charter, providing basic principles and guidelines for the evangelization of the modern church.
At the Asian level, this document resonated in many areas with the FABC's missionaries, providing a bridge to link universal and Asian churches. In any case, it was a monumental meeting in that it addressed the theme of evangelization and suggested the basic direction of the FABC theology.
The triple conversation is embodied in its concrete context, in the view of the eschatological theology of 'God's Kingdom'. For example, in the situation of poverty experienced in most of South Asia, the triple conversation is realized with the spirit of the gospel: the church should help not only with the excess but even with what is necessary. In most of Indochina and Southeast Asian countries where the Communist dictatorship, the military dictatorship, and the people suffering under authoritarian regimes live, the struggle against dictatorship is the way to realize the triple conversation—the path of evangelization.
In Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and similar countries we have 'dying alone' of the elderly, those with disabilities, sexual minorities, temporary employment of the young, and the many other problems from our economic development. This is the reason for the holistic human development that is envisioned in Asia—the dialogue with the various cultures, religions and the poor.
Every year at this time we have the Catholic Korean Statistics published and this year the 2018 picture is a continuance of the past: lowest growth rate in the last ten years, aging continues to accelerate. Both Catholic papers published the statistics and considered it in the editorials.
The total number of Catholic compared to the total population is now 11.1%, a slight increase of 0.1% from last year. This year the total increase was less than one percent which is the smallest growth rate in the last ten years. Only the dioceses of Cheju and Jeonju showed an increase from the previous year. Another sad statistic was a decrease of 43.8% from the previous year in the number of those entering the church in their 20s.
The proportion of believers by age group was the highest in the 55-59 year olds with (9.8%), followed by the 60-64 year old (8.8%), the 45-49 year old (8.7%), the 50-54 year old (8.7% ) The number of believers between the ages of 10 and 19, 6.2% of the total, and the proportion of elderly people aged 65 or older is 1,137,668, or 19.4% of all believers.
The proportion of those under 19, 30, and 40 years of age has steadily decreased since 2012. While the ratio of 50-year-olds continues to decrease continuously since 2014, the number of those in their 60s or older continues to increase every year. The proportion of elderly people aged 65 or older is 17.4% in 2016 and 18.4% in 2017, an increase of 1.0% annually, indicating that aging is continuing.
The number of parishes nationwide has increased by 13 from the previous year to 1747. The number of those baptized in the last two years has been under 100,000. This number has for the past two years continued to decrease. But in the last ten years, we see a slight increase in infant baptisms which shows that some of the young are following their tradition, however, those with no religion and those from other religious groups the numbers of those entering the church continues to decrease.
The number of marriages both the sacramental and dispensation marriages have decreased by 10.6 %. All the sacraments have decreased compared with the previous years except for the sacrament of the sick. The numbers attending Sunday Mass continue to decrease, only 18.3 % of the Catholics are attending Sunday Mass. All the different age groups in Sunday school attendance have decreased. The biggest decrease was in the high school age group with a decrease of 14.3 % from the previous year.
We did see an increase in those who have participated in religious programs, attended Cursillos and Marriage Encounter programs.
The number of clergy both religious and secular (excluding deacons) increased by 70 from the previous year. We have 5233 Korean priests and 155 foreign priests—93 newly ordained priests in 2018. From the year 1989, this is the first year that the number has gone under 100.
There are 11,737 religious in 167 congregations in Korea. The number of men religious has decreased by one and the women religious have increased by 2. Men novices number 90 and women numbered 287. Male religious have remained relatively constant since 2016 while the women continue to decrease.
The number of Koreans in mission in other countries number 1,083. They are in 81 countries: 22 in Asia, 19 in Africa, 18 in South America, 15 in Europe, 5 in Oceania and 2 in North America.
"When he read a book, I could not hear his voice and his tongue did not move. We often find him in silence reading in this way. He never spoke the words out loud." A publishing critic in the Peace Weekly column shows the readers what a return to reading aloud in common could do for the community.
St. Augustine depicts the reading of Bishop Ambrose in Milan (340-397) with the above words. Why was he so surprised? Until about the 10th century, it was rare in the West to read without reading aloud. The reading of Saint Ambrose seemed unique.
East as well as in the West this was the way it was done. When a neighbor, a girl heard Jeong In-ji (1396 ~ 1478) reading aloud, she jumped over the wall, and entered his room. Jeong In-ji said he would take care of the steps necessary for marriage and on the next day, moved away, and the girl died of lovesickness. We also have other legends where others have fallen in love with the voices of scholars reading aloud.
Reading the scriptures is common among the major religions of the world. The church reads the Scriptures in the liturgy of the Mass and those who do are called lectors. The majority of texts used in traditional societies presupposed a reading aloud.
In Europe in the 18th century, people frequently read and appreciated books at private salons. In Joseon society, professional readers were active. In the history of reading, this recitation accounts for much of the reading that was done.
Compared to silent reading with the eyes and head, reading aloud is done by the whole body. Many are the benefits. Silent reading is a private act, but reading out loud is usually centered in the community.
Reading was essentially an act of reading together. Books were things shared by many people. The 'Humanities on the Library Path' project supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture, are conducted in many libraries in the country.
As an ideal, the reading community can be considered a self-regulating community that cultivates civic common sense through communication through books, reading aloud, and shares fellowship.
The scope of these reading communities is not limited to small groups. For example, the entire church can be seen as a reading community that reads God's Word together. The restoration of the communicative nature of reading is to recover the possibility that a book becomes a medium, and the reading becomes the starting point in the formation of public opinion.
Recently we saw the beautiful Notre-Dame cathedral burning, we are appalled by the idea that if we continue to live as in the past our planet earth will end up in a similar miserable condition. We are all part of nature, living in a house called the earth. We don't want to make this house one filled with fine dust and rubbish but transform it into a beautiful and refreshing space. How do we prepare for this? So begins the Peace column in the Catholic Peace Weekly by a member of the Bishops' Committee on the Environment.
Attendance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2007 left her
with many questions. Why are Koreans unable to take action, even though they are aware of environmental problems such as climate change and global warming? The conclusion we have considered was a lack of values in our environmental education as children. I know from my head, but my lifestyle does not worry about what will happen to the next generation. We want to live comfortably, buy, use, and throw away without
thought.
Fine dust and the garbage problem is serious, but do we think that it's our problem? We are the 11th largest economy in the world, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report puts Korea in the lowest environmental sector.
At present, we use the money to solve environmental problems, but do the opposite in behavior. We can't delay the development of environmentally friendly values and attitudes and need to allow children to see more of nature and raising environmental sensitivity through education.
Japan and Europe, which have a high level of environmental awareness, are also known for their high investment in environmental education. In the past, after experiencing serious environmental pollution in industrialization, Japan has been paying great attention to environmental education and has operated various programs for local environmental issues through collaboration among citizens, businesses and schools. In particular, families, schools, cooperate in creating eco-friendly awareness.
In Germany, about 5% of the lessons are taught for sustainable development. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the public interest foundation, and companies invest millions of euros each year in environmental education. Finland has established a national plan to implement sustainable environmental education and is balancing environmental education and awareness with cultural environment education and sustainable development education.
Although the National Assembly revised the Environmental Education Promotion Act in May 2018, it provided the basis for the revitalization of school environmental education. The environmental budget, which is supported by the Ministry of Environment's 16 national environmental education pilot schools, is far below what is needed.
Preventive action is more important than solving the environmental problem. So, all the paradigms of policy need to be changed. Environmental problems are very costly to solve, and hard to recover once destroyed. Education from childhood is important to know the value of the earth. Of course, adults also have to participate.
Environmental education that changes the fundamentals is necessary to pass on clean air to our children. The world changes people, and people are changed by education. Are not these efforts in environmental education for a sustainable tomorrow giving great pleasure to God?
In a current drama on Korean TV The Light in Your Eyes is a fantasy romantic comedy about a 70 year old woman dealing with Akzheimer's and a young man who doesn't appreciate time and finds life meaningless. They get involved with each other and the story follows. In a Catholic Peace Weekly column a professor uses the drama to introduce the problem with the old and young in Korean society.
The drama showed the possibility of coexistence of youth without jobs and old age without support. The drama was a fantasy in which a clock the older woman possessed was able to give her time but that is not life. We see co-existence of the youth and the aged and a beautiful companionship in the here and now.
Today, the tension between the younger generation and the older generation is deepening. These conflicts are seen often by the use of the words: 'has been', old fogey, bossy, curmudgeon. They also add the word from the Chinese character meaning insect to the word old which again shows the feeling towards the old by some of the younger.
Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhoration Amor Laetitia mentions the alienation of the elderly that has come from disordered industrialization and urbanization of society. The elderly have both in the past and in the present been set aside in unacceptable ways.
#191 'Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent' (Ps 71:9). This is the plea of the elderly, who fear being forgotten and rejected. Just as God asks us to be his means of hearing the cry of the poor, so too he wants us to hear the cry of the elderly.
#192 Very often it is grandparents who ensure that the most important values are passed down to their grandchildren, and 'many people can testify that they owe their initiation into the Christian life to their grandparents'. Their words, their affection or simply their presence help children to realize that history did not begin with them, that they are now part of an age-old pilgrimage and that they need to respect all that came before them. Those who would break all ties with the past will surely find it difficult to build stable relationships and to realize that reality is bigger than they are. Attention to the elderly makes the difference in society. Does a society show concern for the elderly? Does it make room for the elderly? Such a society will move forward if it respects the wisdom of the elderly.
How are the young and old to live together? How can the young accompany the old? In the final scene when the heroine was about to die she humbly recites: "Even if a day is not great and tomorrow will not be much different, life is worth living. Do not ruin the 'now' because of a past filled with regrets and an uneasy future. Live today. You deserve it. Someone was your mother, someone a brother, and someone will follow you.
We have the old filled with regrets from the past and the young facing an unknown future. Would it not be wonderful to have the old remember and respect the young in their rememberances of the past and the young remember the old in looking forward to the future. They can grow to respect each other.
We hear these days of the trip to Emmaus and wallking together with Jesus. With the grace of God the writer would like to see this day come when the old and young are living a new resurrected life in the here and now.
Grace builds on nature or perfects nature but we need to remember that nature also comes from God. A doctor writing in the Catholic Digest tells the readers that our negative emotions do us harm and the happy ones give us health. He continues with the place of the hormones in our lives. The external stimulation seems to be the reason for the emotion but we are responsible for the response to the stimulant. The Creator prepared the hormones as the key to our human response.
Pleasure, postive feelings, appetite, sex and the like releases from the brain cells the hormone dopamine. When we accomplish successfully something difficult we are overcome with joy which is the result of dopamine. This is also the reason a glass of liquor, tobacco, gambling, success, drugs, releases dopamine and the reason one can get addicted to the good feeling that follows.
Norepinephrine hormone is vital to the 'flight or fight' response by which the body prepares to respond or retreat from a threat. Endophins produced, relieve pain and stress, are more powerful than morphine. When in stress the arousal of the norepinephrine hormone fights against the stress and endophines treat the after effects. When there is harmony between the hormones that increase happiness and those overcoming stress: we have a wonderful healthy body condition. Harmony is necessary, too much and too little of the secretions bring about problems in the body and a reason for health difficulties.
Serotonin is called the conductor of the the hormone orchestra. When we have too little, depression, obsession, lack of judgement, indigestion....However there is an acute situation when too much brings about serious difficulties but this does not happen to those living a normal life.
With secretions of serotonin we can live a good life and the doctor gives us some of the ways to achieve this. First he recommends receiving at least 30 minutes of exposure to the sun every day. Secondly, walk at least 30 minutes a day. Those with depression have found that walking for about 7 weeks had a greater effect than medicine. Thirdly is time spent meditating. Walking in the sun and meditating you have three in the one act of walking.
Fourthly, to chew food well. 5% of the serotonin comes from the cells of the brain the other 95% comes from the gut, and goes to the brain to give us joy. Fifth, is to eat food that raises the serotonin levels: nuts, beans, bean curd, sesame, milk, eggs, unpolished rice and whole wheat, the less refined the more of tryptophan (least plentiful of all 22 amino acids and an essential amino acid in humans provided by food), refined food is the enemy of serotonin. Sixth, to have many happy memories to look back on, which will trigger the serotonin. Seventh, be interested in others. When we are sharing with others and acting in a loving way, we release serotonin.
The creator has given us two hormones to give us joy. There operation and effectiveness are at different times. At the New Years when we are greeted with "Happy New Year's Blessing" this gives rise to the secretions of dopamine but the returning of the greeting gives us the serotonin secretions. Yes, altruism's love is the trigger to release of serotonin.
God in creation gave us the key to the release of serotonin. When our daily life is filled with love, mercy, sharing, the cup of serotonin is overflowing and leaves us filled with joy.
