SEOUL (UCAN): The number of Catholics in South Korea increased by close to 50 per cent over the past 20 years, but interest in Sunday Masses and Church marriages has decreased, according to a new report released by the Catholic Pastoral Institute of Korea.
Statistics showed that the number of Catholics increased from 3.9 million in 1999 to 5.8 million in 2018, recording growth of 49 per cent.
Despite the positive trend, the report showed a decline in the number of people attending Mass. Close to 30 per cent of Catholics attended Mass in 1998, but the number came down to 18 per cent in 2018, the report said.
In light of this, “it is time we reflected on our current missionary work and reconsidered the direction of domestic evangelism,” the report said.
Another worrying trend was the decline in the number of Church marriages. In 1998, there were 24,227 nuptial Masses, but the number fell to 14,167 in 2018, a decline of 41 per cent.
An added concern was the aging Catholic population in recent years, the report said. Young Catholics under the age of nine saw a decline of 32 per cent while teenagers fell by 33 per cent from 2003 to 2018.
Nevertheless, the older generation has increased in number. Those in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s are expanding by a rate of 77, 93, 117 and 252 per cent respectively, it said.
Catholics comprise 11 per cent of population of 51 million, counted together with Protestants the percentage goes up to 30 per cent, making Christianity the most followed religion in South Korea.
Only some 15 per cent of Koreans are Buddhist, while 50 per cent of people follow no organised religion, according to published records.
The pastoral institute’s report said the country has around 1,747 parishes, 5,388 priests, 11,737 religious institutes, 1,273 seminarians, 92 lay missionaries and 1,054 catechists.
In absolute numbers, Catholics increased from 3,946,844 in 1999 to 5,866,510 in 2018, recording an average annual growth of two per cent.
However, a higher growth rate of 2.2 percent was recorded in 2014 when Pope Francis visited the country and beatified 124 martyrs, the report showed.
Higher growth rates were recorded in 2000 (three percent) and 2001 (3.2 percent), but the rate dipped sharply in later years to record an all-time low (0.9 percent) in 2018.
The highest increase of Catholics in 20 years (89.1 per cent) was recorded in the Diocese of Suwon, south of capital Seoul. The dioceses of Daejeon (79.6 per cent) and Uijeongbu (78.9 per cent) were second and third.
