SEOUL (UCAN): Father Eunho Park, director of the Catholic Bioethics Research Institute in South Korea, urged other Church organisations to improve outreach efforts to address the country’s rising suicide rate, which has reached a 13-year high.
Nearly 40 people [39.5] committed suicide each day in 2024, bringing the total number of recorded deaths for the year to 14,439, the Korea Foundation for Respect for Life and Hope and Statistics Korea said in a preliminary report.
This was the highest number recorded since 2011 when 15,906 people took their own lives.
Park called for the Catholic Church’s pastoral direction to focus more on the outreach ministry to care for those suffering from loneliness and suicidal tendencies.
“I hope that priests and religious will visit marginalised neighbours and that volunteers will also be involved,” he said, adding that while South Korea is becoming more affluent, many people are “complaining of spiritual problems.”
He cited the “existential vacuum” theory of renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Doctor Victor Frankl [1905-1997], as a cause of such problems among the people.
An “existential vacuum” describes a state where a person feels a profound lack of meaning in their life, leading to feelings of emptiness, boredom, and apathy. This situation is often caused due to a loss of traditional values or a sense of purpose in a rapidly changing world.
I hope that priests and religious will visit marginalised neighbours and that volunteers will also be involved
Father Eunho Park
According to the report, last year’s suicide rate marked a record high of 28.3 individuals per 100,000 people among the country’s registered population marking an 11-year high.
There is also a gender and age-wise breakdown on the likeliness to commit suicide. By gender, men were more than twice as likely to die by suicide as women.
By age, those in their 50s accounted for 21 per cent of suicide cases, followed by those in their 40s [19 per cent], 60s [16.5 pe rcent], and 30s [13.4 per cent].
The report said that the largest year-over-year increase was among those in their 30s, at 11.6 per cent.
The statistics will be finalised in September this year.
Meanwhile, the Suicide Prevention Centre of the Archdiocese of Seoul’s “One Mind One Body Movement” launched a suicide prevention fundraising campaign called “Reach Out, Spring, Open Your Heart,” during Lent.
The campaign started on March 5 will run until April 30.
The funds raised will be used for various suicide prevention projects, including suicide prevention education, bereavement care programs, counseling, and support activities.
*This is a translated and edited version of the report that was first published by the Catholic Times of Korea on March 11.
