Yet Another Suicide in Korea

The country is shocked at the news of the suicide of Choi Jin Sil. Newspapers and TV blame the online defamation she had been victim of. Yet another suicide to remind us that in Korea suicide ranked 4th in the list of major causes of death in 2007.
We are left speechless and these facts seem to invite us to either resignation or instinctive rebellion.
Experts try to explain what is going on in Korean society. Statistics about suicide say that economic difficulties, work pressure, relationship and sentimental problems are the main causes. Some simplify the suicide mentioning that in most cases there is just a mental health condition.
Yet even the most accurate and deep analysis about the origin of suicide is not able to keep us calm.
We feel that all this is inhuman. We feel it because taking one self’s life is not natural.
Nothing is more inhuman than a man or a woman taking his or her own life because it's denying the fact that we are made by Another. Hence the question "why does a man or a woman kills himself or herself?" cannot be answered by any scientific research alone. This answer is just not enough for us. We feel that suicide is as tragic as useless because it does not solve the problem: the question about the meaning of life stays actually it intensifies.
We human beings have within us this question about our origin, our destiny, the meaning of our lives. As all questions, also this one has an answer and it can be found in a companionship that calls us back to the meaning of life and make us experience the hope that does not disappoint, the very same hope that Pope Benedict XVI's has written about in his last encyclical.
As the disciples, who followed Jesus, we want to follow this companionship that gives a sense to our lives.
With confidence we ask Mary, the mother of Hope, to protect those who have denied the possibility of hope, their families and friends.


Communion and Liberation – Korea cl.korea@live.com
October, 3 – 2008