A news letter from the Inchon Catholic University research center explains the results of a study made on Catholic understanding of attitudes on family, marriage, support of family, life, sex, marriage satisfaction, suicide, birth rates, divorce, remarriage, abortion, etc....
Four groups were compared: Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Non-believers. Catholics were second to the Protestants in agreeing that marriage gave more happiness than the single life. To the question if you want children you should get married: Catholics were the lowest of the religious' group. Marriage and children the Catholics saw loosely and was at the bottom.
Catholics were welcoming to divorce, when problems within the family arose; the same as those with no religion. Those who agreed with the statement that for the good of the children, parents should not divorce, Catholics were lowest of the three with religion. Sex before marriage with or without the intention of marriage Catholics were the most open. Catholics did not see much of a difference in one-parent homes and two-parent homes. When it came to supporting a family, Catholics were very loose in their thinking and in accepting divorce.
With suicide, there was a shock in what was discovered. Catholics had the highest number of those who have thought of suicide, of harming themselves or attempting suicide. Those with no religion had the lowest rate. The writer wanted us to remember this. The distance in percentage, compared to the other two religions was high.
Catholics opposed abortion with the highest rate of all the other groups. However, when the fetus had a defect, the Catholics would be third after the unbeliever and Buddhist to accept abortion. When financial difficulty was present the result was the same.
Although Catholics were opposed to sex before marriage, they were opened to it outside of marriage. They were also second in agreeing to accept same-sex couples in raising children.
When it came to finding satisfaction in marriage, they were the third but when it came for the whole of life, they were the lowest of all the groups: the happiness quotient among Catholics was at the bottom. Results from this study leave a great deal for the Korean Church to ponder.
