Lake County Ohio Weal

  ADDRESS TO JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. Thursday, 24 September 2015   MISSION Pope Francis is clearly addressing each and every person in our nation, just as Bishop Malesic in his pastoral letter addressed each person in this diocese. Both focus upon the spiritual reality that each person has a mission in life, a set of unique personal and social responsibilities to exercise. Each person's gifts and talents are related to other persons and social institutions but not derived from them.  God created unique persons. Subsidiarity, a core principle of Catholic social teaching, recognizes that institutions and larger organizations exist to subsidize, i.e. support, smaller organizations (e.g. households, families, work groups) and persons exercising their responsibilities.  Most of human life is shaped by each person's interpersonal network consisting of concentric circles containing about 150 persons: about five cl...

The extension in affluent societies of average person's life span to seventy-five or more healthy years at the same time when government, business, or pensions enable people to retire in their sixties has resulted in conceptualizing the stages of life into three almost equal stages. 1. A first stage of physical and intellectual development of about thirty years. Although most physical development occurs in the first fifteen years of life, intellectual development often continues with bachelors, masters, and doctorates, and even postdoctoral residencies. (In my own case, high school was followed by two years of Jesuit novitiate. It was a good preparation for being a contemplative serving others.  College at Saint John's University followed. They were at the forefront of liturgical and church reform during the Vatican Council. An interdisciplinary doctorate in social psychology was followed by postdoctoral research in psychophysiology formed the biological/social and personal fra...

  Click on 2024 Center for Community Solutions Study – Statistical Profile of Older Adults in Lake County   Regular text is from the above report ; my comments are in italics AGE DEMOGRAPHICS Lake County encompasses 23 cities, villages, and townships. The area is home to 66,841 adults over 60, accounting for 28.8 percent of the county's total population. The growth is particularly pronounced among the population ages 85 and above. Increasing numbers of the oldest residents is expected to increase demand for supportive services including home-delivered meals, housekeeping, home modification, in-home care, and social connectedness. The entire community will need to adapt to these changes.  While the entire community will have to adapt to these changes, the volunteer efforts of Lake County elderly in the 60-74 age group, 20% of the population, many of whom are in the process of retiring, can provide much of the support needed by elderly as that reach age 85+ In the bott...