Top Stories 23/03/06 Korean Catholics ponder better pastoral care for addicts

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Korean Catholics ponder better pastoral care for addicts

The number of drug offenders increased by 13.9 percent in 2022 from the previous year, official data shows

T.O.P, the 29-year-old rapper of K-pop boy band Big Bang, admitted in court to smoking marijuana on four occasions in his home in Seoul in October 2017. South Korea has seen a rise in drug abuse and alcoholism in recent years. (Photo: AFP)

By UCA News reporter

Published: March 06, 2023 11:24 AM GMT

Catholic experts and anti-drug campaigners in South Korea have called on church officials to introduce special pastoral care for the recovery of addicts and strengthen self-help groups as the nation sees a rise in offenses related to drug abuse and alcoholism.

As per prosecution statistics, the East Asian nation had 18,395 drug offenders in 2022, a 13.9 percent increase from the previous year. In 2018, the number was 12,613. The highest number of offenders or 34.2 percent were teenagers and people in their twenties. 

Meanwhile, Ministry of Health and Welfare data shows the country had 1,526,841 alcoholics in 2020, compared to 1,505,390 in 2018. In addition, the number of gambling addicts was 2.2 million in 2020, according to the National Statistical Office.

Experts say the rising addiction is a result of “disconnection between people” and the pursuit of “immediate rewards.”

“The brain’s reward circuit is normally an energy source that takes time to pursue healthy pleasures and makes you feel happy. As problems arise, they fall into addiction,” said Theodosius Ha Jong-eun, director of the Korean Addiction Research Foundation at church-run St. Mary’s Hospital in the national capital Seoul.

He said they have conducted surveys that found increasing isolation of people and a demand for quick pleasure due to social changes fueling drug and alcohol abuses.

 “The social atmosphere that emphasizes immediate results and efficiency encourages the development of many addicts,” he said.

According to the foundation, addiction like alcoholism can relapse within three months, but often the addicts do not get support from those around them. Besides, last year, only 2.4 percent of drug offenders received treatment through therapeutic protection, a specialized treatment for substance abuse instead of incarceration in a jail.   

“In addition, support and human relationships are important for drug addiction treatment and recovery, but it is difficult for addicts to recover because their relationships are severed as they fall into addiction,” Ha said.

Catholic dioceses and parishes in South Korea have been running self-help groups in various areas for addicts and alcoholics since it was first introduced by the Irish Columban Father Arthur G. McMahon decades ago.

The self-help groups hold meetings and counseling sessions for addicts in churches or other places to help them recover. The activities of these groups stopped during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic but resumed on a limited scale now.

Addiction expert Father Thomas Aquinas Hong Seong-min said sometimes people are reluctant to hold self-help meetings, so the church needs to start an alternative.

“There are some people who are reluctant to hold self-help meetings in churches, but self-help groups are not for people who cause problems with addiction, but for those recovering from addiction,” said Hong, a professor of Humanities at the Catholic University of Pusan.

“Even if we cannot find people suffering from addiction, we can help addicts and their families by providing them with a meeting place,” the priest pointed out.

He noted that pastoral committees in dioceses can pair up with hospitals that specialize in treatment for addicts to offer effective special pastoral care to them.

Those who have studied addiction professionally emphasize that the doors of churches should be wide open and go beyond self-help meetings.

Father James Lee Joong-gyo from Suwon Diocese has obtained a doctoral degree in social welfare on the subject of addiction. He says the priests should go to addicts if they cannot come to them.

“When I interviewed some patients at an alcohol-specialized hospital in the Suwon Diocese, there was a response that a visit by a priest was very helpful,” Father Lee recalled.

“Since it is difficult for people to find a church first, the church needs attention to reach out to addicts first,” he said.

This report is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea