On the tenth anniversary of Uijeongbu becoming a diocese, one-third of diocesan members who regularly attend Sunday Mass were
surveyed. That would provide a good indication of what devout Catholics
in Korea would believe and say. The geographical make-up of the
diocese would also be a reliable mirror of what Korean Catholicism looks
like.
To
the question, What would you do if a law went against the Church's
teachings? Only 25.3 percent said they would follow the teachings. A
clear indication, says the Catholic Times, that the teachings have not
been internalized by most Christians.
To
the question, Are all religions a means of salvation, and have the
truth? Out of a possible score of four, indicating a positive response,
there was an average score of 3.26: a high indication of the
pluralistic thinking of Catholics. To what degree this was a sign of a
relativistic view of their religious belief was not addressed.
The
number of Catholics from the diocese attending Mass was about 30
percent; those attending the small Christian communities was less than 9
percent. And the numbers who are motivated to participate or see the
need for them is much less. This does not augur a bright future for the
small communities.
43.5
percent said that the most important values in life are health, family
and money; only 15.6 percent said religion. 33.3 percent said the
passivity of Catholics was the biggest problem facing the Church today.
Working for the maturity of the Catholics was the first task of the
diocese as seen by the majority of the respondents. Catholics showed a
high level of satisfaction with their religion but when it came to four
controversial issues: capital punishment, euthanasia, abortion, and
artificial contraception, 3.57 out of a possible five approved the
practice of all four positions. And when a priest in a sermon speaks
about societal and political issues, 4.68 out of a potential 10 were
opposed.
The
priest responsible for conducting the survey and for preparing the
questionnaire emphasized that living as a Christian in our society is
difficult. Since the results from the survey made in the diocese is
thought to reflect the situation of the country, it will be an ongoing
task of the Church to work to change the values of our Christians to harmonize
more with the teachings of the Church.
The
Peace Weekly editorial on the survey referred to the widening gap
between life and religion among Catholics. A guilty conscience, they
said, was the biggest difficulty Catholics have with what they have
been taught. Though the survey showed the high value Catholics place on
the importance of their religious beliefs, it also showed that many have
guilty feelings when they cannot live according to these beliefs.
In the exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi (proclaiming
the Gospel #19), the pope mentioned that "it is not only a question of
preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas to ever greater
numbers of people, but also of affecting and, as it were, upsetting,
through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria of judgement, of
determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of
inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of
God and the plan of salvation."
The
editorial concludes that the work of the Church is not only to teach
our catechumens, bring back those who have left, but
also to evangelize the Catholics who are in the pews.
