by Msgr. M. Francis Manion<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a double play on the word \u201cministry\u201d here. Usually, \u201cministry\u201d refers to an activity on the part of the church or its people for some important work that advances the Gospel. We are all aware of the ministry of the ordained. We are also familiar with the liturgical ministry of readers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and catechists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I have in mind here is something else: a\ngovernment ministry or department that serves the good of a nation and its\npeople. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of her last administrative acts before she retired as Prime Minister of the\nUnited Kingdom (U.K.), Theresa May established a Ministry for Loneliness, with\na full-fledged government Minister and department to respond to the growing\nincidence of loneliness in the U.K., especially among elderly people who live\nalone or are housebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first reaction was to see this as typical of a\nsocialist government\u2019s tendency to invade every area of life. But as I read\nfurther, I came to see that the Ministry for Loneliness responds to an aspect of\nlife that had become critical in Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.K. government report that led to the foundation\nof the Ministry for Loneliness had concluded that over 10% of Britons suffered\nfrom severe loneliness. \u201cFor far too many people, loneliness is the sad reality\nof modern life,\u201d Prime Minister May said. \u201cI want to confront this challenge\nfor our society and for all of us to take action to address the loneliness\nendured by the elderly, by carers, by those who have lost loved ones\u2014people who\nhave no one to talk to or share their thoughts and experiences with.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.K. government research had found that over 200,000\nolder people per month had not had a conversation with a relative or friend for\nover a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chief officer of \u201cAge UK,\u201d Britain\u2019s largest\ncharity working with older people, warned that loneliness can kill. \u201cIt\u2019s\nproven to be worse for health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This problem afflicts the elderly, but also the young.\nAn elderly nurse who was a particiant in the study said, \u201cThere are so many\nuniversity students who just lock themselves away for days because they feel rejected\nor that they don\u2019t fit in.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s only a matter of time before loneliness turns\ninto depression. And that\u2019s when it gets dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This phenomenon has not been studied to the same extent in the U.S., as far as I know. However, Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general, wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review in which he argued that loneliness is a feature of the workplace (One can be lonely even when surrounded by people ). \u201cLoneliness can be associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A growing body of evidence provided by a stream of\nbooks and reports indicates that loneliness is not only a problem for the\nelderly, but for all age groups. The internet plays a major role in this\nphenomenon. The more young people are connected with others through the\ninternet, the more likely they are to become unhappy and isolated. They report\na high degree of disconnectedness and depression.\nThe fundamental problem is that there is a lack of real one-to-one human\ncontact, the communications that do take place are superficial, and the\nindividual often feels left out socially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is there anything that churches and concerned\nparishioners and citizens can do to help alleviate this problem? I think there is, and that will be the topic\nof my next column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another government department?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":49339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws"],"yoast_head":"\n