Bringing Light to what is in the Dark

Today again we hear about a  small girl who was killed violently. Hearing this news the writer felt a blow to her breast. Who could possibly do such a deed?  She was on her way to see a scholar who has made a study of crime. The journalist has an account of her interview in the Bible And Life magazine.
 
It was vacation time and few students were  on campus. The journalist had made an appointment to meet the professor and was greeted kindly. The professor has been working with criminals for over 20 years studying their proclivities and thinking.  She is the first one in Korea to have taken up the study of the psychology of criminals. It was only in the past 2 or 3 years that she felt a need to make her studies known to the public.
 
From her studies the use of electronic tagging, criminal justice policies have been influenced. She is busy with advising those in the field of criminal justice and answering questions for the media.
 
She gave the example of stalking and the reasons for its prevention for often it results in harm to the women pursued. She uses this to show the steps that need to be taken to prevent acts that often precede the crimes.

Why aren't we able to help the defenseless children facing sexual abuse and violence. She is filled with shame and recalls the case of a criminal who violated an eight-year-old child that was playing in the morning before attending school because both parents had to work.
 
The child was assaulted brutally and even her internal organs were damaged. She was fortunate to be alive. This incident became known to the public and many things began to change: electronic tagging, making known the criminal publicly, abrogated was the need to file a complaint before legal procedures could begin. A  big step in protecting the rights of victims
 
The professor emphasized that the environment in the family is important. If we can learn why crime does not arise we will have the answer clearly for why it does. The reason I am not doing something criminal is that I am able to control myself because as a child I was taught how to do this by parents. When a child commits a crime in the United States they investigate the family and punish the family when warranted. Children are often sent to institutions that will give them the moral training they lack. The professor feels this is missing in our society.

She has made studies of thousands of prisoners and the number of sexual crimes are few and sentences from 2 to 3 years. In Korea, the average numbers of sexual crimes in a year is about 30 thousand and with children about 3,000. It is not lower than other countries. The problem is that society doesn't realize that sexual crimes are as terrible as murders. The victims have to live with the pain which society doesn't see.
 
She wanted to have interviews with those in prison for sexual crimes to understand better her studies but being a woman and a private individual was refused. She felt that she wasn't able to do everything possible and got a replacement in teaching and went to Texas in the United States where the prisons were many, to continue her studies. She prepared herself to return to Korea and begin interviewing prisoners. Results from the interviews have helped many in their work.
 
She left the ivory tower and books to hear those in prison not as a lawyer but like a mother or an aunt. She has never received a threatening telephone call and has received letters from those who have been released from prison explaining what they were doing. Her work is to help the many defenseless people in society with the knowledge that she has acquired in her work. She is speaking to those who have ears ready to hear and the interviewer prays she will continue in her work for many more years.

Cardinal Kim's Consciousness of History.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the death of  Cardinal Stephen Kim Soo-hwan. A priest sociology professor of a Catholic University writes about the Cardinal and his consciousness of history in the Catholic Times. 
 
In the modern and contemporary history of Korea, Cardinal Kim was a living conscience and a cornerstone in the history of democratization. During his tenure, the Catholic Church of Korea became a respected religion despite the few members. 

When we think of the shameful history of the Catholic Church, in the way they treated Ahn Jung-geun as a criminal, and during the Pacific War holding hands with the Japanese Governor General and helping in their war efforts, the changes in our church seem close to a miracle.

This year is also the 100th anniversary of the March 1st Independence (from the Japanese) Movement. Of the 33 members, no one was Catholic and the writer feels sick and confused remembering that fact. 

Although understood that the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, the leaders of the Church at that time, did suffer from the aftermaths of the French Revolution, contributed much to the East Asian missions. However, we can't overlook that Bishop Mutel, the bishop at that time, his only focus was the saving of souls. He wrote in his diary that the seminarians who engaged in demonstrations during the March 1st protest were ruffians.
 
When the church does not participate in the suffering of the nation it will not be the light and salt of the world and will lose the respect of the citizens. The Catholic Church of Japan, which suffered persecution and produced countless martyrs, tolerated and was silent on worshiping the emperor. The public status of the church was greatly weakened. How then should the church participate in the suffering of the poor and oppressed people in the midst of history?

Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan did not ignore the suffering people in the midst of military dictatorship, but suffered with them and carried with them the cross. In his "authenticity" he had many sleepless nights on ways to express the unfairness in the live broadcasts against the government. His amazing leadership was accomplished in human agony, constant reflection and prayer.

The Second Vatican Council said in the first  chapter  of the Pastoral Constitution: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs  and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." Cardinal Kim was an "adult" of God in our day who fully realized the spirit of the  Council and embodied it in life.
 
Remembering Cardinal Kim has a meaning beyond the commemorative events in displaying his photographs and relics but a   hope we can imitate his life and spirit among us today. "I have never thought of myself as a progressive or on the left during all the troubles.  I only wanted to be with the poor, the suffering people, and the weak to protect their dignity "(Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan).

Keeping our Earthly House in Order

In Korea as in many other parts of the world, efforts are made to conscientize world citizens on global warming and climate change. In a diocesan bulletin  a parish priest, the head of an enviromental committee in the diocese writes about the issue for the readers on what we can do right now.
   
This year we saw little snow and real cold weather. Many think it's the results of global warming. However, the fact is that in America and Europe, they experienced heavy snowfall and cold weather like nothing in the past. Those who argue that global warming and the dangers of climate change are spurious continue to forment controversy.

However, everyone is aware that the current situation is very different from the situation we knew in the past. Climate scientists argue that what we experienced in the past  and the different situations of the present in the global ecosystem are proof of climate instability caused by global warming. In Belgium, high school students have gained the attention of the world by absenting themselves from school and demanding a  proper response to global warming and consequently climate change.

One student who participated in the protest said in an interview with the press: "The adults left us a broken earth. It's our job to change it. Adults can not do it, but we can. We have the spirit to change the climate and change everything." 

What can we do? Unexpectedly small changes can change the world. Walk for health and use public transportation, do not use elevators when not difficult, turn off lights in unused spaces, use energy-efficient products. Keeping the right temperature in summer and winter, wearing warm underclothes in the winter, refusing disposables and have the habit of using a personal cup (tumbler) will help cope with global warming by reducing carbon emissions.

Also, do not purchase over-packaged products, use a shopping bag to buy the least-packaged or completely unpackaged food, cook with fresh ingredients instead of  packaged fast food. We can solve the microplastic problems, save energy, respond to climate change, and start dealing with the hunger problems that arise around the world. 

Fast food consumption must be reduced if we are to protect the local areas that produce the food, and reduce the cutting down of trees. Multinational corporations  and their household goods and foodstuffs consume enormous amounts of energy, and are burdensome to the environment in their distribution. Using food products produced in the area where we live will protect the ecosystem and prevent the occurrence of environmental refugees. Farm markets in these areas are a good response to global warming and help environmental refugees.

The pros and cons of global warming are far from obvious, considered more a political issue than ecological by many. Fear of what it will do to the economy. However, the efforts to work towards a minimal or a simpler life style may not only be healthy for the environment but good for the psyche now and in the future.

Detachment, Emptyness and Discarding

A member of the press staff of the Catholic Peace Weekly writes in the Word and Silence column about the dream he had of a library full of books. The day never came and even after moving over ten times, the bookcase stands on one side of the living room.
 
When someone turns on the TV, the gleaming light and sound dominate the space. The bookshelf is in the wrong place. He spent the New Year holidays throwing away his books. Books were scattered throughout the house. The solution was to thin them out.

Books are not just a treasure house of knowledge and a fountain of wisdom. Ready to throw out a book memories come back. The coffee stain on the page, the words underlined, remarks in the margins, the memory of the book on the beach, summer, do you want to erase all these memories?
 
He thought the selection of the books would take only a few hours but continued until the next day. In front of the books, reasons for their survival made the trial stretch out indeterminately. When appeals for survival came from certain books they were put on a list to be read. He was forced to set up a strict standard for the slaughter. A book unlikely to be read is boldly discarded. He ignored the memories, passions, and virtues of youth. Only books he would read would remain.

So he ended the Chinese New Year with this slaughter. He filled three bookshelves and got some free space. Looking at the books that survived, the trial was never fair. Another hidden criterion exerted its force. It was a camouflage to hide his lack of  knowledge. This was vanity, he wanted to show off the books he had read. Maybe merely an excuse for oneself. What was left on the bookshelf were not books, but lies and greed? It was the size of his desire and obsession that he still had not forsaken.

Looking back, not just books, things are scattered all over the house. Objects he wont use and regrets throwing away; clothes that he won't wear again, bowls not seen in years, a gift unwrapped never used, and the giver just a flickering memory. 

Many things should have been given away. Things that did not go to the person who needed it lost value and became one of his odds and ends. Not a sign of thrift and diligence but a token of stupidity and egotism.
 
Space becomes bigger the emptier it is. The more you throw away, the more space you have. Objects encroach upon space and gradually infiltrate the mind. The soul overcome with a desire for gain does not contemplate heaven because of its eartly weight.
 
Obsession is a property of fragile souls. Greed reveals the emptiness of the mind. A person who has not accumulated treasures in his heart is obsessed with wealth. The less a person has to show the greater the ostentation. He wants to begin to get rid of what he has.
 
He is not far from retirement both from work and society. He will no longer be on active duty or given a role to fill and should be learning the wisdom of emptying and abandoning. He'll be throwing things out one by one, no more collecting. He wants at the end of life to pray in an empty room with only a Bible on his desk.

Acedia:The Noonday Devil

Are we really lazy? In the movie Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds, the second most popular movie in Korean film history, the hero was able to escape the hell that punished those who were lazy, giving us a glimpse of Dante's Divine Comedy on the same subject with a Buddhist understanding of the after-life. In Purgatory the lazy, race about proclaiming the benefits of being zealous.
 
However is this a problem in our society? A Catholic university rector, in the Kyeongyang magazine, asks the readers. It seems that we are far from the vice of sloth. People work too late at night, one job is not enough. Married couples both have to work and with great intensity. People waiting at a red light often use the few moments with their handphones—good picture of modern life. Rather then more diligence we need to call for a moratorium on busyness. That would be a religious approach to the issues facing us in modern society.
 
Sloth is listed among the seven capital sins but it's not primarily dealing with the laziness of our bodies and minds but failure to be concerned on this earth with God's kingdom and our relationships with others. Sloth is being busy about many things with little concern for God and neighbors. This is the sloth we as Christians are meant to examine.
 
Within the church's tradition theologians, literary people, and critics use the word 'Acedia' to mean laziness, sloth, lack of interest, depression, and tediousness all contained in the word 'Acedia' of the seven capital sins.
 
Evagrius Ponticus and his disciple St. John Cassian listed eight principal vices: gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, sadness, acedia, boastfulness, and pride.  They distinguished between sadness and acedia (sloth)— connected but different. It was Pope Gregory I who included sadness in Acedia and added envy and added boastfulness to pride.  St.Thomas Aquinas many centuries later excluded sadness and we have the list of seven that we know now. However, we must remember sadness is a part of laziness.

In English, the word sloth also refers to the animal tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement. However, more than the physical lack of movement it is a lack of interest, laziness of the spirit, spiritual lethargy. Use of the word by the hermits and religious of the early church has more to do with the internal attitude rather than our external activity—slowness of the body. Rather it was the sickness of the soul—lack of volition and vitality.
 
" The demon of acedia, which is also called the noonday demon (Ps 90,6) is the most burdensome of all the demons... It makes the sun appear to slow down or stop, so the day seems to be fifty hours long...Then it assails him with hatred of his place, his way of life and the work of his hands; that love has departed from the brethren and there is no one to console him (Praktikos # 12).
 
Unlike the other capital sins where it is the doing that is sinful here it is the non-doing. First, we have a distaste an antipathy in acting for the good. Secondly, it's a disinterest in God's working within us, the needs of others, our obligations that fail to alert and move us to answer the call of love.
 
Evagrius Ponticus was a 4th-century monk and ascetic. He concludes the chapter on the afternoon devil with a great consolation: "No other demon follows on immediately after this one but after its struggle, the soul receives, in turn, a peaceful condition and unspeakable joy."

Is There a Right Side?

Fr. Kim is considered a good priest by his parishioners. He doesn't get upset and treats all the parishioners kindly. He doesn't take sides in disputes in society and wants to avoid showing any preferences with problems of society. Even when there are positions to be promoted if there are objections he avoids them. He doesn't like conflict among believers, he wants quiet and peace. 

A retired priest who was active in social justice, writes in a bulletin for priests on taking sides and introduces the article with the above as the first paragraph. He reminds the readers that we have parishioners who criticize this attitude in their priests. It's not black or white but always grey; he doesn't want to go deeply into problems. Fr. Kim doesn't concern himself with these differences of opinions within the parish but they continue to exist.

If nobody has problems with the priest,  maybe something needs to be corrected. Possible too much effort trying to please everybody without any deep conviction of what we are called to do. The writer has met persons who are not happy with those who see no problems in life and all is hunkey-dory. Maybe there is a  need for us to reflect on this position with a little more deliberation.

There is a large company in Fr. Kim's parish, and because of labor disputes it was noisy. Workers demonstrated and some were taken to the police station. A member of the pastoral council of the parish recommended that the priest mention it to the community since it happened in the parish. The council took the side of the workers.

The parish priest heard his side of the  story and said: "You  must be fair. You have to listen to both sides of the story. There are always right and wrong on both sides. Christian faith is not about raising conflict, but about reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace."

Is this the entire teaching of Jesus? But reconciliation and forgiveness apply in most cases to personal conflicts. Many conflicts and struggles are not private. Some conflicts are wrong on one side and right on the other. One side is unfair and oppressive, and the other suffering from injustice and oppression.

In such cases, it is a mistake not to choose one side over the other. In this case, neutral is to accept the current immoral situation. In a situation of suffering, silence will tolerate the condition and stand on the side of the oppressor. We are not to reconcile good and evil, justice and injustice, but to work against evil and unrighteousness as Christians. Granted that this needs to be done civilly, with dialog and openness.

When Pope Francis came to Korea, he gave a good example of what is demanded from us. At that time, there was a serious conflict between the government and the family of over 300 who died in the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014. It was one of the worst peacetime disasters that led to criminal convictions.

  

At that time, the pope said to those on the side of the government who were calling for neutrality: "neutrality is not correct when you have those suffering." The Pope met with the families of the Sewol six times. And he wore a yellow ribbon in support of the family members.

Jesus' peace is not an orderly and quiet peace, but a peace based on truth, justice, and love. The peace that the world presents us is a superficial peace that distorts truth and conceals injustice to achieve cleverly selfish purposes. Jesus emphasized the inevitability of conflict in order to break this false peace and achieve true peace.

Media Literacy

Everyone has a natural right to defend themselves, be it life, liberty or property. This is part of our code of law: preventing an unlawful infringement of one's own or another person's interest shall not be punished if there is a good reason. So begins an article in the Believer's Column by a one time newspaper man in the Catholic Times. 

Consequently, even if one is convicted of a felony one is given a chance to defend oneself. Also, when a child does something wrong the adult should give the child a chance to give their reasons.
 
What about the press? As is well known, 'surveillance and criticism' is an important function of the press. In the meantime, media criticism of public and public issues is almost unlimited. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the Constitution restricts freedom of speech when it dishonors the rights of others,  public morals or social ethics. Accordingly, one has the right to claim reparation and compensation if they feel they have been wronged.

Journalism has some limitations on criticism. When a news story contains criticism or misrepresentation about an individual or an organization, it is necessary to give those criticized the opportunity to clarify and respond to the contents. For this reason, media, which can criticize almost unlimitedly against public officials, are often subject to ethical sanctions because they do not give the parties an opportunity to explain.
 
The Korean Newspaper Ethics Committee issued a caution against an article last year on one of these issues. There are so many reports that criticize unilaterally without giving the ones criticized a chance to explain. This means that we are in most cases left with the reporting of the newspapers and the media; the rights of the parties criticized are ignored. If you have been criticized unilaterally from the media, you can ask the Media Arbitration Commission for corrections of the reports.
 
It's a basic human rights issue when a person or organization is criticized and does not have the opportunity to speak in their defense. Some might say that it is not fake news because the facts have not been manipulated. But the writer thinks that this "non-truth news" which cannot be real news and should be included in the fake news category. This is because the basic principles of journalism, namely accuracy, objectivity, and fairness, are not being met adequately.