The Power of Reading

In the Recent Catholic Times, the priest director of a culture and theology research center headlines his column:  Reading is listening to invisible voices and discovering hidden truths.

Members of the ‘Shalom Society, a group of future-generation researchers at the Catholic Northeast Asia Peace Institute in one of the  Dioceses,  reading Pope Francis’ 2018 exhortation "The Joy of the Gospel". Reading is listening to invisible sounds and discovering hidden truths.

The columnist mentions that he is always reading. The act of reading is the biggest ritual in his life. Read society, read church, read people, read books and articles. Read newspapers, magazines, Facebook, and blogs. He doesn't remember when he stopped watching TV news?  Pope Francis said not to do desk-based theology, but his reading rarely leaves his desk and computer monitor.

Reading is about interest and questioning how the world is moving. What is driving today's society into an undesirable state? How is the church operating in this era? What and how do we act in the name of faith? Where do people live and pay attention? How does human existence in time understand and respond to aging and death? Reading is about paying attention. Sometimes he is interested in things that reveal thoughts and perceptions, sometimes attracted to things that contain feelings and emotions, and sometimes events that include volitional and accidental acts. 

Reading is the act of reading the times. Reading the Times includes reading the news. Today we live in a flood of news. In the post-truth era, most media do not aim for the common good. All news is processed and consumed within a commercial context and through partisan perspectives. Even serious and important incidents are treated with curiosity and marketability. Reading the news in this day and age calls for discernment. It is not easy to read with proper interest, delicate discernment, and honest reflection on the world amidst a flood of all kinds of information.

Reading the news is about interest and love for the world. He stopped reading portal news ( the way we access the news) for several years. Go directly to good media sites and read them. It is the minimum expression of willingness to identify and select news on one's own. There is too much news that is commercially or ideologically polluted and distorted. As a timid everyday person, he comforts himself that reading the right news through discernment and choice is an expression of honest love for the world. 

Reading a person's inner self and emotions through reading poetry. What kind of perceptions and beliefs does an individual live with during his or her journey of life? From what perspective do you view the world, nature, people, objects, and events? With what emotions and attitude do you respond to things that come as 'fate' and coincidence? To the writer, nothing shows it better than poetry. Without poetry, how dull and empty his life would have been. Being able to live with faith and walk the path of life while reading poetry is a  grace and blessing in his life.

What we must ultimately accomplish in this short journey of life is love and 'revolution'. Love in this era is reading, discernment, understanding, and empathy. Reading is listening to invisible sounds and discovering hidden truths. It is something that reaches him to the end even amid gaps and discrepancies. The revolution of this era is a renewal of beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles. A change in the way we live through faith is the revolution of our time. Are today’s churches and believers living a life of reading and change?

Difficulties of the Elderly

The second Sunday of Advent was Human Rights Sunday and the Catholic Times published an article on the aging of Korean society and the problems that arise. This whole week is a time for the Catholics to reflect on the social aspects of our spiritual life.

According to the government, Korea will enter a super-aging society around 2025. A super-aging society is a situation where the population aged 65 or older accounts for more than 20% of the total population. This figure is 18.7% as of September this year.  In the Korean Church, all parishes have already entered the super-aging society index in 2021. Looking at last year's church statistics, the proportion of believers over 65 years old accounts for 26.4%.

 

Due to the rapid increase in the elderly population, various related problems such as poverty and people living alone are seen. Elderly abuse is also on the rise. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘2022 Elderly Abuse Status Report’, the number of elderly abuse cases has increased every year over the past five years. The number of repeat abuses is also increasing. The place where it happens most is at home.  

Recently, a 78-year-old man was handed over from the police to the Seoul Metropolitan Government Southern Senior Protection Agency. Mr. A, who had let his son live with him in a rented room, squandered the father's life savings and was kicked out by his son who didn’t want to support his father. His son changed the front door password so his father could not enter the house. Mr. A, who had not been able to eat, was severely undernourished and was found wandering the streets without shoes by a neighbor.

Mr. A lived in a shelter for three months with the help of an agency. He kept silent about his son's neglect and abuse during the administrative process of becoming a national basic welfare recipient. 

These and similar cases show that even though the children abandoned their parents, parents could not let go of their grief for their child. The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) established June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day in 2006 to raise awareness of the seriousness of elder abuse. 

Domestic abuse refers to abuse not only by family members living in the same household, such as spouses and adult children but also by other relatives, such as caregivers who do not live in the same household.  

The reasons behind the increase in abuse include changes in household structure, the burden of care, and the stress of raising children. In particular, the number of single-family households for the elderly is rapidly increasing, life expectancy is getting longer, and ‘elderly care’, where the elderly care for the elderly, is also increasing.  It increased from 36.2% in 2018 to 42.2% in 2022.

Even if they are spouses, there are physical and mental limitations in caring for the elderly, which leads to abuse. Until now, abuse by ‘sons’ was the most common, but from 2021, abuse by ‘spouses’ is taking up the largest proportion. According to the ‘Comprehensive Report on Human Rights of the Elderly’ published by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2018, 51.5% of the elderly and 87.6% of the young and middle-aged answered ‘yes’ to the item— ‘Conversation between the elderly and young adults does not go well’. 

 In this situation, to prevent abuse of the elderly, ‘establishing a culture of empathy and respect between generations’ and ‘improving negative perceptions of the elderly’ are considered basic solutions. Experts say: “To create a culture of generational empathy and respect, efforts must be made to reflect this in the education process for children and youth.” 

Specifically, because abuse has the characteristic of being concealed and repeated continuously at home, if circumstances of abuse are discovered, it must be immediately reported and the cycle of continued abuse must be broken through professional intervention. 

In churches that have already surpassed the super-aging society index, active measures are requested to increase the proportion of the elderly in decision-making bodies such as pastoral councils, taking into account the proportion of the elderly. Although the situation varies from parish to parish, the reality is that there are not many organizations in which seniors can participate.  

The article concludes with the words of a religious sister working with the elderly: "The spirituality of old age is to live so that aging is not a disability but a completion of life. The power that maintains the current church is the faith of the elderly, so pastoral methods that embrace the elderly need to be considered. 

In addition, she added: "It is also important to enable the elderly to fulfill the role of transmitters of the faith through their experience and seniority, such as providing opportunities to tell stories of faith to the young." 

The Plight of the Disabled

In the Diagnosis of the Time column of the Catholic Times, we hear about the difficulties some of the disabled have to endure in modern-day society from a priest director of a Center for Human Rights. 

At one of the subway stations, people in wheelchairs line up and enter the train. Passengers are grumbling with disapproving expressions, and some are yelling. "Do we have to have this much trouble to travel?" This is the scene of the March 2001 protest shown in a documentary: ‘Report on the struggle for mobility rights for the disabled – Let’s take the bus!’ (2002). In 2001, a disabled person died while riding a lift at a subway Station. From then on we witnessed many protests.

 

In December 2021, 20 years later, a subway protest was held on the way to work to demand an increase in the budget for the rights of the disabled. They wanted guarantees of the minimum rights for disabled people to live like human beings such as the right to movement, the right to education, the right to labor, and the right to live together in the community. 

This was the first time in history that there was a protest on the way to work. It was a protest that started with the 'preparation to give of one's all', but nothing changed. The protests continued, and abusive language pierced the hearts of people with disabilities. Politicians and high-ranking public officials labeled them as ‘uncivilized people’ and ‘socially powerful’ and incited citizens. 

In the world, where are the powerful who chain themselves to protest and have to crawl on the subway floor with their entire bodies? Where is the civilization where people have no choice but to leave their residences only a few times a month because they cannot take the bus? This situation of insults, cold treatment, and not treating people as human beings continues.

Fundamental rights are not obtained by begging and pleading but are given as a matter of course, and according to church teachings, they are ‘sacred.’ The subway protest was an event that took a problem that no one saw as a problem and threw it out into the world. No matter what words are used in front of minorities and the weak, they are human beings.   If we determine that a person is a  human being who possesses desirable characteristics that must be realized, then a person who falls short of these is not a person. 

Dignity comes not from realizing human characteristics, but from human existence, which is a ‘wonder’ in itself. And here faith takes us one step further. The Incarnation is the event in which God became man. Incarnation is an explosive love that goes outside of oneself and completely changes the narrow-minded love of humans. In this event that makes us see our lives completely differently and expands our love, God and man belong to each other. Communion with God is the basis of dignity. 

Every Christian has a calling to cultivate justice in this world, but people with disabilities in particular live out that calling by showing ‘privileged evidence of being human.’ "Disabled people are the ones who teach us what the love that saves us is, and they are the ones who tell us about a new world that will no longer be dominated by power, violence, and brutality, but will be made up of solidarity, inclusion, and love." (St. John Paul II Pope) 

This is not to give ethical lessons to non-disabled people or advise them to become better people. He is asking whether it is the human way to insult and be hostile to someone, to feel uncomfortable just by looking at them, and to sympathize with someone out of pride. It is a sin to regard injustice and discrimination as normal and unavoidable. In times like this, can our prayers save us?

Women's Voice Within the Church

The Catholic Times had an article by the director of a theological research center on Korean Catholic women's understanding of the Church in today's world.

'Catholics who study Jesus and women', is a group of women who meet once a month, to study theological issues as seen by women. They conducted a simple online survey last month. The results of a  survey conducted by researchers at Newcastle University in Australia to listen to the opinions of Catholic women around the world in preparation for the Synod of Bishops were published in this year's report. These same survey questions were translated into Korean and used by the columnist for an online unscientific survey here in Korea.

In the international survey, a total of 17,200 people from 104 countries responded but few of them came from Asia or Africa, and most of them reflected the opinions of Western women so she was curious about what Korean female believers would think. 

Thanks to increased participation by sharing the survey link, a total of 149 people responded. Compared to the international survey, where there were a total of 400 respondents from Asian countries, including 192 from India and 99 from Taiwan, they considered their survey had a significant number of cases from Asia. She would like to share all the details mentioned by these women, who mostly responded that ‘my identity as a Catholic is important to me’ (94%), but given the lack of space, she will only introduce the content that stood out among the many issues.

Since the international survey was a survey related to the synod itinerary, most questions were about the need for reform of the Catholic Church. The international survey, in which mainly Western women participated, found that 'Church leaders need to address abuse of power and other forms of abuse, including spiritual harm' (89%) and that 'clericalism is harming the Catholic Church' (85%). The level of agreement on these subjects was the highest. 

However, female believers in Korea agreed that ‘climate change is an urgent issue that must be addressed by the entire church’ (95.3%) and that ‘language used in liturgy and church documents should not be gender-discriminatory’ (95.3%). On these issues, the degree of agreement was the highest. Naturally, the situation and priority interests of Korean female believers are different from those of Western women, but among the survey items that deal with problems within most churches, female believers are most interested in responding to climate change, which is presented as a social task for the church. It was surprising to see this. Also noteworthy is the fact that among the challenges within the church cited by female believers in Korea, sensitivity to language that is not sexist is important. 

There was a problem with the language expressed in the priest's homily, including the title 'Brothers' (which in Korean does include women but they would prefer brothers and sisters) during Mass, but more fundamentally, there was a need for women to have their presence recognized in the church. Of course, it is important to resolve the mountain of tasks within the church, but through the voices of Korean female believers, she feels once again that the ultimate goal of such internal renewal and purification is to enable our church to better proclaim the gospel to the world. Spreading the gospel to the world goes beyond just an invitation to come to church; it involves efforts to restore God's created order in the era of climate crisis; and a desire to listen and share with the poor and suffering; it encompasses everything that citizens are interested in and participate in. 

Just as the Church teaches that “inscribing the law of God in the civil life of this world is the work of laypeople with a properly formed conscience” (Article 43 of the Pastoral Constitution), we, believers, must take the lead as ‘Catholic citizens’ engraving the law of God in Korean society. Since they have an active role to play in the whole life of the Church, laypersons are not only bound to penetrate the world with a Christian spirit but are also called to be witnesses to Christ in all things in human society.

Need for a Philosophy of Life and Spirituality

A philosophy professor writes in the Diagnosis of the Times column of the Catholic Peace Weekly about our need for a philosophy of life and spirituality.

Science, technology, and capitalism, which characterize modern society, are systems formed on empirically verifiable objects. This philosophical point of view, commonly called naturalism, argues that only perceptible objects, or matter, exist. In such a  philosophy and science, which explains material reality, we see all objective knowledge. By applying this through technological engineering, we enjoy the convenience of life never seen before.

Think about the numerous technological and engineering achievements we encounter every day. The columnist is amazed by its sophistication and convenience. This philosophy is also the foundation for making capitalism possible politically and economically. The economic success of capitalism has brought tremendous abundance to our lives. These successes eventually made social and political systems work following capitalist logic and even included people's perceptions of the world and values within that logic.

This system and its success have enabled society to be democratic and liberal, giving us material abundance and comfort. However, as the philosophical perspective underlying the system was limited to naturalistic arguments, society for the most part has lost its understanding and interest in areas beyond natural facts. The more successful capitalism and technology are implemented, the deeper the indifference and lack of understanding of the existential and spiritual realm.  As a result, life has also come to be understood only as a natural reality. The many areas that can't be reduced to natural reality are just passed over and the phenomenon considered understood has become widespread.

Humans have too much nostalgia for a better world to endure the emptiness and alienation that this era brings. In short, human beings are transcendent beings who seek meaning and long for the world beyond what we see.  And that's where the crisis of modern society lies. Because of this naturalist philosophy and materialistic culture, the notion of the common good, community, empathizing with others, and living with them, is ignored in society. The phenomenon that best illustrates what is happening is the thirst for spirituality that exists in modern society— secular psychological knowledge, psychological counseling, the New Age interest and pseudo-religions.

 

To overcome this this way of thinking, a philosophy of life seeks to establish the meaning of spirituality ontologically from a philosophical perspective. Only on this philosophical foundation can all religious concepts of spirituality be properly understood. Isn't it a fact that has been clearly confirmed since the traditions of the early church that dogmatic teachings without a philosophical foundation can not clarify their theoretical foundation? Philosophy that aims to establish a philosophical basis for spirituality appears as a life philosophy.

Almost all ancient European languages linked the soul to the breath of life. Since this breath of life is vitality, only when we reflect and explain it philosophically can we go beyond modern culture centered on natural reason. On top of that, Christian spirituality will be presented legitimately within modern culture. When the church fails to satisfy the spiritual thirst of humanity, pseudo-spirituality and pseudo-religious phenomena are bound to increase. What is needed now is a philosophical systemization of spirituality and efforts to pursue a valid spirituality based on it.

Putting Order Into Our Lives

The Catholic Times in the Eyes of the Believer column has a pastor's article on putting things in order at this time of year.

The parish has been running the ‘Organization and Storage Expert’ program since last October. It is one of the night programs newly established by the local district  Office, Lifelong Learning Center, the parish only provides a location. It is said that as soon as online applications began, student recruitment was closed.  These days, it is becoming a popular course because you can earn money by obtaining a professional certification.

The fact that more and more people are entrusting their organizing and storage to professionals is proof that they own too many items that they cannot handle on their own. In addition, organization and storage are becoming more and more important as people prefer a simpler and more tranquil atmosphere by putting order into their lives and space. 

We can say that we are living in an era where the ‘desire to consume’ and to organize, to make living space simple and efficient are in conflict with each other. Organizing is said to be ‘separating necessary items from unnecessary items and boldly disposing of unnecessary items.’ 

So, if you are a person who knows the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ and follows your needs, you will be a person who is good at organizing things on your own without receiving help from others. A need becomes difficult when not present. It does not have to be a need to resolve it, and no longer a need when resolved. 

However, desire makes you anxious, makes you think that you might need it later, and gives rise to other desires. Since desires are generally larger and more specific than needs, you need to consider the necessity and nonnecessity of the items you are organizing. Knowing that the standard for organizing is ‘necessity’ remains primary. 

Therefore, the first topic for the organizing expert program-- ‘Understanding organizing and storing,’ emphasizes ‘throwing away’. The object of ‘throwing away’ is, of course, the person's individual desire. When you give up and throw away your desires, only what you need remains, and life and space become more relaxed. Isn’t this what it's all about?  Therefore, we must realize that organizing things is not limited to simply moving or disposing of things to another place, but organizing life itself. 

Isn't life itself tangled with needs and desires? Moreover, is it not our self-portrait to even desire what others desire? In other words, my desires may often be the desire that others have, and my possessions and consumption are manipulated and forced. If we do not live according to our needs, we have no choice but to become slaves to our desires. Therefore, organizing one's life means breaking the chain of obsession with endless desires and practicing one's will to pursue a life of 'necessity'. The life of ‘necessity’ is based on the 'spirituality of emptiness'. That is the wilderness life of the Israelites in the Old Testament and the ‘life on the road’ that Jesus walked in the New Testament. 

The year is coming to an end. One of the things to do at this time is to look back and organize your life. As a believer, you need time to calmly reflect on your footsteps and reflect on how you spent each day, what happened, whether you had any regrets or mistakes, and whether there were any difficult, happy, or rewarding experiences. Perhaps it is also a time to be like the bamboo that stops momentarily to form nodes as it grows. From the outside, the time spent reflecting is a waste of time that prevents growth, but that time is the time to organize one's life. When you get rid of desires that lead to obsession and make choices toward a life of necessity, another new path opens. 

Catholic Lay Theologians

In the Catholic Times' Eyes of the Believer column, a retired journalist gives the readers some thoughts on the place of lay theologians and missionaries in the church.

The Archdiocese of Seoul’s Social Correction and Pastoral Committee works with detention centers, prisons, and juvenile prisoners. After receiving ten volunteer training sessions and meeting with the priest in charge, you are given your assignment. The columnist is working as a catechist at the Southern Detention Center. Volunteers mainly help with the Mass liturgy and distribute snacks. Women volunteers have direct contact with the women in the detention centers.  

After volunteering for about a year, the columnist thinks: 'I’ve come to the right place'. Last November 9th, in the classroom of the second-year graduating class of the Catholic Seminary there were briefing sessions for help in six organizations, and for help on the missions.

Efforts are needed to create an era where theology can prepare a person for a career in that field. This was the title of the front page headline of the November 12th edition of the Catholic Newspaper. 

There are not enough places to study theology within the church, and there are no suitable career paths to live as a theologian. He hopes that theology will spread beyond being the exclusive domain of clergy and religious and into something that all believers can do.  

He greatly sympathized with the article that dealt with ‘lay theologians’ as part of a layman’s Sunday project. Overlapping with the current status of missionaries and catechists who graduated from the seminary, thoughts on the present and tomorrow of the church came one after another. 

Currently, the church advocates a synodal church and is seeking the independent participation of clergy, religious, and laity. Priests must first put aside clericalism, which is constantly under attack both inside and outside the church, and help laymen carry out their duties as non-ministerial priests. Therefore, there is ample reason for laypeople to study theology. Moreover, lay theologians and missionaries are valuable assets that must be raised and utilized for the church.

The author is already nearing the end of two years of seminary life. Since he spent most of his time buried in classes and theological books, he developed the habit of summarizing the key contents of the books. Isn't it best to share good things? Every morning, he posts three or four short sentences in a group chat room. The response from his classmates and some acquaintances was good. Reading and studying to extract those few lines became his daily routine 'doing theology as a layperson'.

However, not only are there a very small number of lay theologians, but there is also a severe lack of pulpits and research institutes where they can utilize the studies they majored in at home and abroad. Just looking at the seminary alone, there are only 4 lay theologians out of 26 students taking courses this semester. Even in parish lectures, it is extremely rare for a layperson to take the microphone. Although their reason for existence is clear, there is no position or carrot to stake their future on, and interest and support from the church are minimal. 

There is only one lay missionary and catechist training institution in the Archdiocese of Seoul. Recently, next year's admissions guide was sent to several places. Students even visited the parish priest and delivered the message directly. More than 1,000 envelopes were sent to parishes in Seoul and four dioceses in the metropolitan area and to correspondence course students. If the parishes took an interest in recruitment you would eliminate worries about unopened or closed departments. A change in thinking and will is an urgent priority in dioceses and parishes.

"Great changes are occurring throughout society in the digital environment. In it, laypeople are taking the lead in promoting the church and proclaiming the gospel." I was also drawn to the "Comprehensive Report" of the first session of the 16th General Assembly of the World Synod of Bishops, which concluded on the 29th of last month. A statement about the layperson's mission summons a passage from Scripture. "I have fought well, I have run the course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). Let us first make a pledge that God’s people, the laity, will have a sense of ownership and fulfill their calling.