Granfpa Chefs

 

The sight "Would you please taste this? I don't know if the seasoning is right." This is a conversation between grandfather chefs preparing food. 'Grandpa Chef' is a program to support and improve the life skills of male seniors living alone. A religious sister gives the reader of the Catholic Weekly a look into the workings of the program.

Grandpa Chef! A name that is not unfamiliar. Once a month, it is time to transform into a grandpa chef and learn what food to serve to yourself. Most people who spend their days waiting for someone in a dark, humid, single room in the basement are the ones we affectionately call 'grandfathers'. A scene not easily seen in the past. What kind of men learn how to cook? "If you have it, just eat it. If you don’t have it, don’t eat it, right?" This was a program that they rejected with a wave of their hand. 

A man cooking wearing a white chef's hat and an apron is not an uncommon sight. The menu is not of fancy dishes, they are satisfied making the dishes themself. Laughter bloomed along with their happy appearance. "I can live for another month with what I learned today and the menu from last time, so I don’t have to worry anymore."

The chefs recorded a year of memories and published the cookbook 'Grandpa Chef’s Secret Recipes'. Although simple, they held a publication commemorative party and served homemade sandwiches to all who attended. They all had big smiles on their faces.

Currently, the aging of our society is progressing at a rate unprecedented in the world. Unlike in the past, in this era where the number of elderly is increasing, the desire to lead a humane life is increasing. Still, it is also true that families and society feel the burden of the elderly as dependent beings.

When they grow old and live alone, “men are more lonely and depressed” (Seoul National University Nursing Department research team) — This is the title of a report based on in-depth interviews with 1,023 seniors aged 65 or older living alone in Gyeonggi-do between August and October 2018 about their overall quality of life by gender. According to the report, male seniors living alone were more depressed than female seniors living alone. It probably has something to due with men living in a man's culture for a long time and ending up alone. Accordingly, building a social environment to promote independent life and social integration in old age is necessary.

Even healthy people worry about the sudden rush of leisure time as they lose their social and occupational roles. Men due to sociodemographic characteristics, they are much more vulnerable than women who form relationships more easily. 

In many cases, relationships with family and neighbors are severed, and there is a fear of mental illness such as dementia or depression or dying alone, so efforts are needed to establish a social and religious safety net for elderly people living alone, especially male elderly people living alone, who are prone to isolation.

Grandpa Chef seniors go beyond preparing their own food and engage in sharing activities by participating in various local events. They are invited to university festivals every year to operate a food booth and use the profits to expand their activity through sharing, exchange, and meeting within the region. We hope that the elderly will increase their sense of presence, will not stop building emotional relationships in their daily lives, and will be able to contribute to society, even if only in small ways, with the skills they have acquired late in life.

Our society is rushing like a rocket into an aging society, and even those who are not yet in that stage need to imagine themselves in the future and plan how to live. It's already late. At this point, shouldn’t we take a closer look at what welfare is available for the elderly in our society?

Korean Unique Catholic Culture

We are going through the season of Lent. To joyfully welcome the Feast of the Lord's Resurrection, a period of repentance and penance exists in which believers receive a 'Sacrament Ticket' from their parish. Korean believers consider this a long church tradition—the 'Pangong Sacrament' during Lent as well as Advent, which precedes the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord. The Catholic Times features an article on the Pangong in their recent issue, unique to the Korean Catholic Church.

'Pangong Sacrament' is a culture formed over a long period in the Korean Church and serves as an opportunity for believers to prepare well for the upcoming feast day.

Even believers who normally feel burdened by the Sacrament of Confession can observe their duties as believers through the Lenten Sacrament.

Any Korean church believer who lives a religious life in a parish will hear the term 'Pangongseongsa'.This is because, before the Advent and Lent seasons, we are told to “receive a Pangong Sacrament ticket” through announcements in the parish bulletin or during Mass.

'Pangongseongsa' is written as ‘判功聖事’ in Chinese characters, it refers to the sacrament of confession practiced by Korean Catholics twice a year, before Easter and Christmas. The term literally means "judging one's merits and demerits" and it implies that the faithful examine their conscience, repent of their sins, and receive absolution.

Believers receive a confessional ticket, go to confession, and then submit the ticket to the parish, and the church records this in the believer's church register. The records of 'Pangongseongsa' recorded in the church register serve as a yardstick for believers to check their own religious life. At the same time, they are used as important data at the church level to determine the condition of the community's spiritual life.

“Every believer, after reaching the age of discernment, must sincerely confess his or her serious sins at least once a year,” which can be interpreted as requiring them to go to the Sacrament of Confession at least once a year. However, in the Korean Church, since the period of persecution, believers who had difficulty meeting priests have formed a tradition of meeting priests twice a year and receiving the Sacrament of Confession.

As priests were not able to meet believers freely during the persecution, they closely examined the believers' religious lives through interviews and home visits before giving them the Holy Sacrament. It was natural for believers to reflect deeply on their faith before going to confession.

To lessen the burden that the Pangong Sacrament places on believers, the Korean Church decided at the 2015 Autumn General Assembly of the Bishops' Conference to recognize believers who go to confession after the Pangong Sacrament period as having received the Pangong Sacrament. This provides flexibility so that you do not feel burdened even if you do not go to confession during the official approval period.

Although believers generally receive the Pangong Sacrament at their own parish, the location of the Pangong Sacrament is wider than the home parish. Since the Pangong Sacrament is for the church to help believers live their faith and identify indicators of their faith life, even if it is not necessarily the parish they belong to, they can go to any parish to receive the sacrament. All they need is to get confirmation with a signature from the relevant parish and submit it to your parish, it will be properly entered in your church register.

The Pangong Sacrament serves as a way for believers to reflect on their own faith and for priests to understand and care for the believers' spiritual lives.

If you don't go to confession for more than 3 years, you are classified as a tepid member. In years before the Second Vatican Council, the community members during the Christmas Pangong period would take an exam on a certain part of the Catechism of the Church and come before the priest as individuals or family for the exam. It would be a way of meeting all the Catholics answering questions and helping the individual in his or her spiritual life. One can see how this part of the 'Pangong culture' did not continue in our modern society.

Korea and Cuba Establish Relations

 

In the Catholic Peace Weekly, a columnist gives the readers an account of the recent establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

With the establishment of relations between Korea and Cuba, the Vatican's mediation diplomacy is once again attracting attention. As it is a diplomatic matter, there is no specific information about what role the Vatican played. 

A former Minister of Foreign Affairs said in an interview that there was a lot of help and lateral support from friendly countries. He mentioned Mexico, the United Nations, and the Vatican as allies who helped. He especially introduced that the Vatican showed special interest in Cuba because it is a Catholic country.

In Cuba, an island nation in Central and South America, 85% of the total population (11.17 million people) are Catholic. Since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, it has not escaped the limitations of socialism. After the revolution, the Castro regime pursued atheistic communism and oppressed the church. However, starting in the late 1980s, Castro acknowledged the existence of the church, and the relationship between the government and the church became considerably smoother than in the past.

However, this fact was revealed in an extremely exceptional situation in the diplomatic history of the Holy See. The former Korean ambassador to the Vatican, said, the Vatican does not issue a single press release even when it accomplishes something that will remain in world history. Therefore, most of the achievements of the Holy See’s diplomacy are only talked about ‘behind the scenes’ stories. This is to thoroughly consider and respect the parties involved in mediation and neighboring countries.

The Vatican pursues universal peace based on justice and love, promotes harmony and cooperation between church and state, and thoroughly emphasizes basic human rights. As a mediator of disputes and conflicts, the Vatican refrains from providing unilateral support and maintains complete neutrality in international organizations. To this end, the Vatican's diplomat candidate priests are dispatched to local churches for a year to gain missionary experience.

The Vatican currently has diplomatic relations with 183 countries. Regardless of religion or ideology, they carefully and persistently build diplomatic and missionary bridges with any country where there are Christians. The diplomatic activities of the Holy See are different from the diplomacy of individual countries that prioritize their own interests. They do not reject requests for mediation for peace and actively mediate between the other countries even without a request.

It cannot be denied that the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Cuba is a great achievement that expanded the horizons of Korean diplomacy through close cooperation and multifaceted efforts of relevant ministries, as explained by the President's Office. 

However, the proposal to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba was first made in the 2000s. Both progressive and conservative regimes attempted to improve relations with Cuba and made great efforts. Therefore, this establishment of diplomatic relations was not a short-term achievement, but rather an accumulated achievement of Korea's diplomacy over the years. 

The establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Cuba was because both countries needed each other for their national interests.

Contagiousness of Loneliness

 

 Charles Darwin wrote a book called “Emotional Expression in Humans and Animals” along with “Origin of Species” laying the foundation for the theory of evolution. The Jesuit director of a human rights center writes in the Catholic Peace Weekly, Diagnosis of the Times column on the contagiousness of loneliness,

Chimpanzees are said to have almost the same level of social attachment as humans, so they express sadness and joy similarly. People experiencing deep grief sometimes find comfort in easing their loss and grief through intense body gestures, and the same goes for bereaved chimpanzees. They may cry out strange noises, slam their bodies against the iron bars, or stick their heads under straw bales and moan as if their hearts will break. It is a way of facing the fear that comes from the loneliness of being left alone.

 Humans are much more social than chimpanzees. We crave intimacy and cannot survive without it. Before the 20th century, only 1% of the world lived alone. But things have changed. Historically, as competition, polarization, and individualism intensify, the need for privacy increases, and the price is loneliness.

Currently, 3 out of 10 people in Korea are one-person households. Six out of ten people feel isolated, but at the same time, many more say they prefer to be alone rather than with family. You can live alone without feeling lonely, and you can be lonely without living alone, but loneliness and ‘living alone’ are connected. 

At this time, loneliness becomes a state of ‘homelessness.’ Feeling a sense of belonging means feeling at home. Anywhere can be a home, but this does not happen to those who experience existential loneliness or those who are homeless. Loneliness is not ‘cultural’ but ‘social’. Living alone is not a choice, but a result of the society in which we live.

Loneliness is not an empty sentiment or a personal emotion, but a state of deep anxiety and worry, both personally and socially. It is expanded sadness. Often the reason for numerous problems such as anxiety, violence, trauma, crime, suicide, depression, political apathy, and even political polarization. Not everything in the world can be reduced to loneliness, but it is one of the important causes and a new social problem.

In 2018, US health authorities declared that loneliness was an ‘epidemic’, and the UK appointed a minister ‘in charge of loneliness’. ‘Social isolation’ and loneliness are also related. The two share common symptoms and results. They are all associated with bereavement, old age, living alone, low levels of education, low income, and childlessness, particularly evident among the vulnerable and sick. If loneliness continues and becomes a chronic condition, it is no different from poverty. 

In Catholic social teaching, poverty is ‘exclusion’. This is because it is not only economic poverty, but also social, political, psychological, and spiritual. The persistent feeling that one's unique value is denied or the suspicion that one cannot share the value in the lives of others is the poverty of relationships and existence. Existence and relationships are everything to humans. 

The causes of loneliness are very complex and multifaceted. Loneliness is now a policy agenda, but also a universal problem so there is something we can all do, no matter how small. Loneliness is one of the deepest pain we can testify to. We can do the work of friendship, the work of being together in places of such deep pain.

These are the words of Henri Nouwen. “When someone listens faithfully to us and shows genuine interest in our difficulties and suffering, we sense something very deep is happening within us. Slowly fear and anxiety disappear. “The experience of being valuable and precious to someone is a tremendous creative force.”

 

 

 

 

 

A Listening Church

 

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The students she teaches come from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds, but there is something special about students with Christian backgrounds, both Catholic and Protestant. 

In the past, people went to church with their families, but now many who went to church no longer go. There are cases where people naturally become distant after entering college, but there are also many who are waiting to do so on entering college. For these people, the church is not the place they want to return to.

Young people are often seen as selfish individuals and “a generation that seeks only material goods and enjoyment” based solely on outward appearance, but what she observed was different. Just as much as the older generation, they long for new insights and wisdom beyond the horizon of reality, pursue a community where they share thoughts and experiences, and are interested in the climate crisis and a sustainable future. The way they express themselves, connect with each other and form a community are just different from the older generation.

Young people's spiritual pursuits do not necessarily lead to Christianity. She is more concerned about how the church is seen through the eyes of young people. When discussing with students what role and contribution religion can play in our lives and society, unfortunately, many of them show hostility and indifference. For young people, the church is “a group rife with hypocrisy, exclusion, sexism, hatred, and egoism.” They are no longer even disappointed in the church since they have no expectations. The church not only does not understand the difficulties they face in life, nor willing to listen.

The pain that young people face varies depending on the situation they are in but is usually expressed as depression, anxiety, and isolation. These are issues that the Church has paid pastoral attention to for a long time, and the Church's spiritual tradition also has abundant resources to examine and comfort them. It is not that the church is not interested in young people. Both dioceses and parishes have already made great efforts to retain young people for a long time. Nevertheless, young people still, or increasingly, turn their backs on the church. Where did it go wrong? The problem is not a lack of interest, resources, and effort, but rather the fact that the church is "unwilling to listen?"

Last January, she watched a website discussion hosted by the American Jesuit magazine America. Priests, religious, and female believers who attended the first session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodalitas (October 2023) were invited as panelists to share their experiences. Participants agreed that this general meeting was surprisingly new in terms of methodology and process.  

Since the beginning of Synodalitas, Pope Francis has emphasized that a change in thinking and approach is needed rather than resolving individual issues that have piled up. The Pope's vision was embodied in deep listening, with no interruptions allowed throughout the General Assembly. No one interrupted the participants, including women and young people in their twenties, to fully share their stories. After listening to each other's stories, there was mandatory silence to prevent spontaneous and emotional responses. Participants learned how to listen before speaking, and to express different opinions without breaking the consensus, and discussed how they could work together with different positions. I saw hope in that experience.

Isn't the attitude and skill of listening what the church needs most? In an attitude of learning and accepting rather than teaching and demanding, and in the process of stepping back and making way for the church and creating a space to go together rather than insisting that the church is always right, perhaps young people and the church can meet again.

Changing the Way we See

The artist (Maria), who has Down syndrome, became famous after appearing in the drama ‘Our Blues.’ The 'strange' Lawyer Woo ’ significantly changed society’s perception of people with autism spectrum disorder in the drama in which he stared.  It's not easy to meet people like artist Maria or lawyer Woo, but it would be good if prejudice against the disabled decreased.

At a Night School in Seoul, people with severe disabilities and people with developmental disabilities gather once a week and collaborate to create songs. A member of the  Taizé Community in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives the readers a look at their efforts. 

Under the motto,' We make our own songs', they tell their stories through songs. A songbook containing sheet music and activity photos of 45 songs created here from February 2022 to December 2023 has been released. The album  ‘Our March’ included the following song.

"Every Thursday we go here and there, take a walk around the neighborhood / Let's get out of the facility and go outside. I want to live as I want. / I want to ride the buses and subway.  We've been saying the same thing for too long. / Still we need to sing. When we march, the world changes."

On the Nodeul Song Factory website (nonogong.kr), you can listen to the songs they wrote and sang themselves and download sheet music and sound sources. This was made possible through the ‘Seoul-type rights-centered public jobs customized for people with severe disabilities’ project. The ‘cultural and artistic activities’, ‘rights advocacy activities’, and ‘disability awareness improvement activities’ of students with severe disabilities were recognized as customized labor. The students who participated were able to say to others that they were ‘going to work’ for the first time in their lives and received wages. This public job, a one-year contract position, was obtained by Nodeul Night School as a ‘part of the share’ of disabled people excluded from work after occupying and fighting the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled for three months.

This year, the city of Seoul cut its entire budget for rights-centered customized jobs. As a result, 350 severely disabled people and 50 dedicated workers lost their jobs. The city of Seoul started it as a pilot project in July 2020 and is spreading it nationwide, but this has been eliminated in Seoul. Still, the ‘workers’ at Nodeul Song Factory gather every week to sing. The reason the 76-page songbook costs 38,000 won is to raise publicity and raise funds for the continuation of this song factory.

Maria the painter with Down syndrome, was able to complete her college education thanks to the great efforts of her parents, but she was unable to find a job and because of the prejudiced gaze towards her, she suffered from gaze obsession and schizophrenia. She was healed with her painting and socializing with others. She received a lot of love for ‘Our Blues’.

The writer hopes the new songs will continue to be heard at the somewhat noisy but wonderful’ Song Factory in the glass building behind Horse Chestnut Park in Seoul. You don't have to be a genius. We await the day when the songs created together by our neighbors and citizens, the severely disabled and the developmentally disabled, will be loved like the drama, 'Our Blues'.

World's Lowest Birthrate

Diagnosis of the Times of the Catholic Peace Weekly by a Catholic University professor gives the readers an interesting look at our Korean birth rate.

Our country's low birth rate is unprecedented in world history. In 2022, the total fertility rate (the average number of births a woman is expected to give birth to during her childbearing period) was 0.78, and predictions are made that it may collapse to 0.7 in 2023. The New York Times diagnosed that Korea's ultra-low birth rate was a result of a population decline greater than that of Europe during the  Black Death.

If this diagnosis is correct, our country’s ultra-low birth rate phenomenon is a disaster. Korea's total fertility rate entered the 1-point range (1.74) for the first time in 1984 and collapsed to the 1-point level in 2018 (0.98). In 2003, low birth rates began to emerge as a social agenda in our society. In 2002, the total fertility rate was the lowest in the world, recording 1.17. Since then, our society has dealt with the birth rate issue as a social agenda for over 20 years. As a result, a large budget was invested that was previously unimaginable. However, Korea's budget investment remains at the bottom, ranking 31st out of 38 OECD countries as of 2022. At this point, it can be said that our country's low birth rate measures have failed, despite efforts made over the past 20 years.

Various diagnoses were raised regarding this ‘failure’. One of them is that women's avoidance of childbirth is believed to be at the root of the failure. They argue that we need to create policies and a social atmosphere that encourages women to give birth. Examples include restricting women's participation in the labor market or providing incentives to women who have given birth. The idea that childbirth can be encouraged is at the root of the recent anecdote in which the chairman of a certain company offered 100 million won per child to employees who gave birth. However, this one-time provision alone cannot solve the low birth rate problem. Because the problem of low birth rates is not this simple. 

The low birth rate problem cannot be solved with money alone.

To look back on past ‘failures’ and find solutions, the low birth rate problem must be viewed as the result of people’s rational choices based on cost calculation. In other words, the low birth rate problem is not due to people's wrong actions, but the result of people's rational choices to survive. People believe that to adapt and live in Korean society, they cannot get married, and even if they do get married, it is foolish to have children. 

When we view the ultra-low birth rate problem as a rational choice of people and a natural phenomenon, the low birth is not solved simply with money. Policies of various government ministries must be actively implemented under long-term plans with changes in the overall educational system including the cost of private education for children, cutthroat competition and long working hours, lack of cultural infrastructure, and expensive housing costs. However, it seems impossible to expect this from the current government. This is because the current government's family policy is mainly limited to raising the existing benefit level for childbirth and childcare. The basic birth income and housing support measures proposed by the opposition Democratic Party are somewhat advanced from existing policies. However, it is not known whether these alone will solve the low birth rate problem.