South Korea Illustrates Fast-Growing Church Outside Europe

[mdgspencer]

Ideas of the decline of the Catholic Church mistakes one part of the world, particularly Europe, for the entire world. But in the last century the Church has experienced the most extraordinary phase of missionary expansion in its history, as the article linked below explains. This article focuses in particular on South Korea, where the Catholic Church is growing at “a dizzying pace.”
see www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=2&id=59822

 

[Brendan]

On my last business trip to Seoul, I spend a lot of time with a South Korean counterpart of mine from our Korean office.

He had just converted to Catholicism the previous Easter.

At the Masses I went to, I was struck by how many women wear mantillas (white ones). I remember most particularly a young girl, perhaps 17, in the pew in front of me. She was wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and a white mantilla to Mass.

That as a combo I had never seen before

 

[wasserfall]

On my last business trip to Seoul, I spend a lot of time with a South Korean counterpart of mine from our Korean office.

He had just converted to Catholicism the previous Easter.

At the Masses I went to, I was struck by how many women wear mantillas (white ones). I remember most particularly a young girl, perhaps 17, in the pew in front of me. She was wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and a white mantilla to Mass.

That as a combo I had never seen before

Unfortunately the mantilla is on the way out in Korea. My sister in law was married at the Catholic University of Korea and not only did no one wear one, we were told they haven’t had them available there (at the university) for years.

Also, I should add that most Korean Catholics that I have met are very poorly catechized, and Catholic moral teachings are widely disregarded. The Catholic Church in Korea benefits from an anti-war, pro-democracy reputation, established during the waning years of the military dictatorship.

One nice thing about the Catholic Church in Korea is that most any parish mass is adequately reverently celebrated. Even the crazy liberal priests there (and there are plenty) don’t mess around with the mass too much.