Catholic Church Statistics (2019)

The Catholic Times featured an article on the recent Catholic statistics published for the year 2019. The number of believers was 5,914,669. The number of church members increased slightly from the previous year but the growth rate relative to the total population was the same as last year. The ratio of believers to the total population is 11.1% but the growth rate slowed.

Fortunately, the number of members who are attending Mass and participation in the Sacramental Life, an indication of the faith of believers, has increased slightly.

On April 27, the Episcopal Conference released Korean Catholic Church Statistics 2019, a total survey of 16 dioceses of the country. According to the statistics, the growth rate of believers and the rate of evangelization is stagnant. In particular, the increased rate of believers compared to the previous year gradually declined to under 1% per year, except for 2.2% in 2014, when Pope Francis visited Korea, the lowest level at 0.8% was recorded in 2019.

The weekly Mass attendance rate was 18.3%, which was the same as in 2018. The rate of participation in the Easter Confessions and Communion was also 31.4%, up 0.1% from the previous year. Compared with the 2018 statistics, Confirmations decreased by 2.7%, but it is encouraging that the number of believers who received the Sacrament of the Sick (4.4%), First Communion (4.2%), and Easter Confession (0.4%), increased. In the 2018 statistics, all the sacraments except for the sick decreased from the previous year.

There are a total of 5,480 priests working in Korea, including two cardinals, 42 bishops, 5,333 Korean priests, and 147 foreign priests. This is an increase of 92 from the previous year. The number of parishes was 1,756, an increase of 9 from the previous year. There are 709 mission stations a decrease of 20 from the previous year.
 
The ratio of male and female believers was 42.8% for men and 57.2% for women which was similar to the 2018 statistics.

The number of priests has increased, but the number of seminary students continues to decline. The number of seminary students (priest aspirants) was 1,209, down 64 from the previous year. In 2019, the number of new students was 145 (123 diocesans and 22 for the religious orders and missionary societies). A decrease of 19 from the previous year.

The average number of believers per parish priest was 1,303, down 14 from the previous year.

The total number of marriages was 13,878 (5,160 sacramental marriages, 8,718 dispensation marriages), a decrease of 289 compared to the previous year. The ratio of the sacramental marriage to dispensation marriage is 37.2% to 62.8%.  The number of marriages in the church is decreasing every year.

The total number of Korean missioners sent to overseas missions was 79, down two from the previous year.  By continent, 1,112 missionaries are dispatched to Asia, (21) Africa, (19) South America (17 countries), and Europe (15 countries).

Environmentally Friendly Elections

Elections are an important exercise of a citizen's rights that determine the future of a country. However, is the current election method efficient in terms of information delivery, voter acceptance, and environmentally friendly? In the Peace Weekly, Peace Column a member of the Bishops' Committee on the environment gives the readers her opinion on elections and the environment.

According to the Central Election Commission data, during the 2018 local elections, there were 104,000 posters, 640 million copies of election bulletins, and 13,192 banners. In the 20th general election, we had some increase in these figures.

One media reported looking at the 2020 election demand for paper such as ballots and promotional printouts and looking ahead to the 21st general election: 8,500 tons would be generated. Already 20 years ago, the issue was raised and alternatives were proposed, but nothing has changed.

It is common to print banners before elections, on polyester materials, which are difficult to recycle because of the ink. Even if some of them are recycled, they cannot be put to good use. Eventually, most of them are incinerated emitting dioxin, a hazardous substance. The vast amount of paper used for pre-promotional materials, ballots, posters, etc., requires the cutting down of trees that help the Earth to breathe.
 
The world has changed, but the way the elections are conducted are still not environmentally friendly or effective. The method of distributing paper publications in the mail also needs to change. Paper publications are familiar to our generation, but those who follow are not used to it and they now have started voting. Most people have a smartphone, so they are familiar with the Internet environment. It is necessary to replace the existing paper mail with a text message link for those who want it and enable the voter to search for candidates and their positions on the website of the Central Election Commission as a basic rule.

Even now, many candidates have not submitted their pledges to the website of the Central Election Commission. Since Korea is an internet powerhouse, it would make it easy to search for the necessary candidates and their positions and review them when we want to, like searching for news articles on the Internet. This would save resources, protect the environment, and increase the efficiency of public relations and give voters more time to reflect.

In particular, the huge cost of elections comes from the tax of the people. Going to an eco-friendly election will also help with financial health. However, since it is important to provide fair information in the election, fundamental changes to the election promotion system are premised.

In this recent election because of Coronavirus, along with the ballot, we had the thermometer, hand sanitizer, disposable plastic gloves, and masks. The disposable plastic gloves distributed in the general election would pile up to the hight of one of the tallest buildings many times over. It was calculated the amount of greenhouse gas emissions because of the plastic gloves used in the election, would be the same as the greenhouse gas emissions generated during the life of 15 big cars. How much greenhouse gas is generated, with all the other needs of an election?

Eco Life also applies to elections. She hopes that Korea, the first country in the world to have an election during the Corona 19 era will create a new model of green elections for future generations.

The New Normal We will Live With

In the Scriptures, we know how Jesus broke taboos, which the Pharisees and lawyers considered God-given mandates. They were continually in search of reasons to condemn him in the court of law.

A retired journalist and now a college lecturer gives the readers some of his personal thoughts on Jesus' way of acting in the Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Times.

Jesus appeared to ignore the existing values, customs, and disciplines as they were seen. Wasn't this shaking the existing system? The authorities had all they needed to condemn him for blasphemy and as punishment— the way of the cross and death but the new normal became the light to human society for 2,000 years.

The world is transformed by the great events that have happened in its history. After these events, there is no way to completely return to a pre-event situation: the Crusades, the plague of the 14th century, the First and Second World Wars, and so on. They all brought great change to society. In this vast and immutable universe, we are always changing, nothing stays the same in every way.
 
"Even though heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away" (Luke 21,33).

Therefore, it would be reasonable to accept change in this world except for his truth. People often misunderstand and cling to what they think is the truth even if it is not: customs, habits, rules, protocols, and procedures. And when the change comes many long for what was.
 
Some who are sometimes perceived as devoted believers have difficulty tolerating changes. They think the whole system collapses when only accidental changes are made. Like the Pharisees of Jesus' day who regarded the changes that Jesus was making concerning the Sabbath as a systematic change when rather, he was showing us what the Sabbath really meant.

Amid Corona19, our church also experienced things that we had never experienced before. Now the corona situation will gradually settle down, and many things in the church will normalize. However, as in all fields, you will not be able to return to the way it was. He thinks many ways of life accepted as temporary emergency measures will remain in our daily lives.

The world is facing a new paradigm. It is natural for the church to sort out the reforming tasks that were left behind. When it comes to works to be done, many were raised at the Synod of the Great Jubilee in 2000, but they have never seen the light of day.

Why? No one is ready to give an answer to his question. Perhaps it is because of unfounded worries that the existing system of the church will not be able to accept the changes. He considers this a useless worry.

First of all, he would like to take a look at the Korean church. Pope Francis has pointed out the evils of clericalism often in his talks. It is the spirit of some that consider the clergy to be superior and different from the people— an evil of the church. Clericalism violates head on the teaching that we are 'the people of God' a community of the whole People of God,  a concept which is often heard in the pope's continual blasting of clericalism. 


Secondly, he considers that within the church we still have to deal with the inferiority of women compared to men. This is an element of the culture that has entered the church. Women need to share pastoral responsibilities with priests, helping to guide people, families, and groups and offering new contributions to theological reflection.  We need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church.

We must also reconsider the growing secularism and church bureaucracy. In conclusion, we need to come together to discuss in-depth these issues that affect the whole church.
 

What Must the Church Do Post Corona 19?

Fortunately, the recent "coronavirus infection-19" in Korea has been slowing down. [Masses resumed on April 23] However, it's still too early to make any predictions for the future. We know what is happening in the West. So begins a feature article in Catholic Times by a pastor with a doctorate who taught in the seminary and now is a pastor in Inchon. He looks over the past history of Europe with Asian eyes.

The article is titled "Civilization and Disease and the Path of Humanity and the Church" and uses the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the role the Church must play to overcome post-Corona 19 problems.

The Plague (Black Death) ended the Middle Ages and gave birth to modernity. The enormous contagion caused the loss of much of the European population, which in turn accelerated the fall of the manorial economy and serfdom. Besides, the religious authority that had ruled the Middle Ages collapsed when high-ranking priests fled the Black Death. Until the Black Death, Europe was controlled by the Catholic Church and the feudal aristocracy. They not only dominated the territory and possessed wealth but even controlled all information and knowledge. The weakness and confusion of the ruling and clerical classes gave way to a longing for a new era. This chaos in the church was the trigger for the Renaissance to bloom.
 
The reformation was an internal movement for church reform. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a priest of the Augustinian Order, announced the 95 articles of refutation: "Only with the Bible only with grace, only with faith." It was a movement that tried to reform the churches and institutions that were collapsing at that time. As the feudal society gradually collapsed after the Crusades, the development of commerce changed the structure of society as the agricultural economy moved to a commercial economy. With the advent of nationalism, churches in Spain and France came under the rule of the state, and the decrease of the authority of the papacy accelerated church reform. Powerful monarchs appeared in France, England, and Spain, forcing nobles to serve the entire nation. The monarchs of these countries felt the need to restrain the power of numerous feudal lords and senior clergy, who owned vast amounts of land.
 
Descartes (1596-1650), father of modern philosophy, said: "I think therefore I am" (Cogito ergo sum). 'God' who was at the center of philosophy (Deus) disappeared and "I" (Ego) appeared and the beginning of modern thought and the French Revolution (1789 ~ 1799). At the time of the French Revolution, about 2% of the total 25 million people in the country, comprised the first estate, and second estate: Catholic clergy and the nobles owned half of the entire country, and most of the important positions, exempt from taxes, and lived in luxury. On the other hand, most citizens, 98% of them, had to pay heavy taxes. Obviously, the target of the French Revolution was aimed at the feudal dynasty and the Catholic Church.

Citizens shouted "freedom," "equality," and "philanthropy" and attacked the Catholic Church, symbolizing the Ancien Régime (old system) and desiring to destroy the icon of the old system.  The revolutionary leaders, the Jacobin, closed the monasteries, confiscated church property and arrested, imprisoned, exiled and executed some 40,000 Catholic priests. After that, the Catholic Church was lost. Since 1794, France has reached out to the church, and the church has partially normalized.

In France, the power of religion declined irreversibly, the authority of the church was weakened, and the secularization of the state became self-evident. The separation of state and religion in 1905 completed the secularization. During World War II, the Church experienced utter helplessness and incompetence. The church was not united against the Nazis. People who were dissatisfied with the church that had turned away from the changes in the world left the church, and as a result, the Catholic Church in Europe was greatly weakened.

The 2nd Vatican Council opened on October 11, 1962, and closed on December 8, 1965. The main value was to change the Catholic Church in a way that would respond to modern times.
 
The church changed its attitude towards the world, born again, recognizing the mistakes and deficiencies of the past and desiring to see the world as a partner on the road to salvation. By improving the system in which all powers are concentrated on one person, to "solidarity" a community response to the work that was entrusted to the church. Salvation was possible outside the church and the council acknowledged that various religions and ideas in the world contained truth, were ideas that were developed.
 
Humanity is now facing a global crisis. Probably the biggest crisis of our generation. Corona 19 won't go away easily. Now we just have to plan the world to live with the coronavirus. The new world has already come and faced the question, "What life will we live now?" At the end of the Corona 19 pandemic, the world will not be the same as before, and Corona 19 will completely change the world's political, economic, cultural, and religious order.
 
The Catholic Church has more than half the hospital beds in the country and the best medical units with state-of-the-art medical facilities and equipment and the world's best medical staff. And the Catholic Social Welfare Society manages numerous welfare facilities and organizations nationwide. Numerous priests and religious are struggling at the medical and social welfare sites. The church needs to ask for more active solidarity from the world in this crisis. The writer would like to see the Church take a more active roll in helping those that are hurting from the situation in society because of the virus. With the empty churches without liturgy, they could be used for various works to prepare for the future.

The crisis is a risk, but it is also an opportunity. The Catholic (universal) church must play a significant role in the global response to global disease, global warming, and climate crisis, emergencies now faced by global citizenship, and work towards global solidarity. We need to promote, educate, and act to deal with the violence that is nurtured by neoliberalism's control of the world's finances. The Swedish teenage girl is moving around the world with her message. What is the Catholic Church saying as a "universal," Church with its vast and powerful organization and funds worldwide? He is sad that the church is not as active as it should be in preparing the world for the future.

Revival of Trot Music Among the Young

Music is an important ingredient of the Korean culture; a college professor in a column of the Peace Weekly gives the readers some information on what is called 'Trot': usually a two-beat repetitive rhythm, with vocal inflections, Korean pop music.

Trot's popularity was exclusively strong among the middle-aged. Music contests featuring trot singers were always popular compared to similar musical programs but now the young have taken a liking to the music and are becoming fans.

Reasons for the change are the new elements added, new interpretations and arrangement of songs, the participation of young and handsome singers and a popular contestant format. This trend with new interpretations of the old gave birth to a new word: 'Newtro', a reinterpretation of old and familiar styles in fashion, interiors, food, etc. It is a version of the Korean hip culture distinctly Korean in origin and interpretation. The 'Trot' movement may be called the peak of the Newtro trend, Newtro is made up of 'New' and 'Retro'.

This is because everyone remembers the good old times and wants to return to the good feelings of childhood, where mom and dad were in control and life was simple and uncompetitive, most people remember those days, experienced with vague positive emotions. In particular, when you become an adult and placed in a psychological, economically difficult or stressful environment, it is a great comfort to return to the memories and feelings of those good old days.

Young people who were not familiar with 'Trot' would be experiencing something new. It's no longer old fashion music but now with young, great singers on a new stage, they have made it their music. Ironically, the publicity that revived 'Trot' is digital. The technologies that opened the digital age have solved the temporal and spatial limitations that are obstacles to disseminating and enjoying the old. Young people could access the experiences of their parents' generation through computers or smartphones, and over 7 million people from various generations could participate in popular digital platforms at the same time.

Utilizing the good old days, 'Newtro Trend' is a keyword that opens the wallet in the consumers' market. To take advantage of 'Newtro Trend', whether it's food, music or fashion, you have to remind yourself of positive emotions like love, friendship, faith, comfort, joy, stability, intimacy, protection, courage, frustration, and longing. Therefore, it is important for any group to find clues that remind them of their childhood and happy old days. It could be the sound of a bird or rain that awakened them from a nap as a child, the smell of soybean soup that mother boiled, or it could be the music of a game room or roller skating rink. Music, in particular, is a pointer to the good old days. A study that was made showed that in the case of middle-aged women who are big in shopping, the sales increase by 20% if they insert music they were familiar with in their 20s.

How does one add a new taste to the good old experiences and memories to fit our modern taste? Consumers miss the good old days, but not the discomfort and boredom behind the memories. We do not want to give up the convenience, promptness, and treatment we receive as customers. The 'Trot' craze is a result of success by allowing old and young memories to be enjoyed conveniently and elegantly in a new format. What is the next 'old' that will comfort us after the gloomy spring? What will it be after the "Corona Blue Trot"? What will be the new old to return life to our spirits?

Coronavirus Pandemic And Harmony

During the Coronavirus pandemic, many are the opinions on the tactics and strategies to prevent harm caused by the virus. We are still in the learning stage on the pandemic and a doctor writing in the Catholic Digest gives us his personal ideas on the subject.

The Creator borrowed the body of his parents and the living noble person called 'me' was given life. The Creator put the genetic factors for life in the bodies' directory giving direction to a healthy life. Even if we don't know what the directory contains we are programmed to lead a harmonious life.

He believes that the virus does not easily attack those who are living a harmoniously healthy life. We have within ourselves the antibodies that will do battle. Life is always seeking health and fights disease but always at its strongest when we live in harmony with nature. In our thinking, healing comes with the destruction of harmony. However, the infectious nature of the virus comes from the breakdown of the harmony that we should have in nature.

Bats have lived as friends to humankind for a long time eating harmful insects. There are about 130 different viruses that live in a bat body. However, because of the 40-degree body temperature they are not infected and are not the immediate host of the spread to humans. Consequently, bats with the virus can live harmoniously with us.

With the population increase and development continuing within nature the bats have retreated deeper into the wooded areas and domesticated animals and wild animals have come into our habitat; the virus mutating and coming into our lives.

It’s unlikely that bats directly gave the virus to humans is the opinion of many who have studied the subject. Scientists suspect that the bat infected another animal, an 'intermediate host', which transmitted the virus to humans.

All of life has a reason for its existence. Even what we consider useless such as weeds with their strong roots help to prevent landslides after heavy rains and during dry periods filters dust. What would happen if we got rid of all weeds?

In 1872 the United States made Yellow Stone a National Park. In 1926 the wolves living in the park, for fear they would harm the sightseers, were killed. For 70 years they were able to see the changes in the natural habitat of the park and were surprised to see the great harm to nature.

The wolves in one year would have killed 22 deer. After the disappearance of the wolves, the elks began to increase. They grew in great numbers destroying the aspen and willow trees, grasses, and water became scarce. Instead of wolves, the cayotes increased and they began to rule and the number of other animals began to change and little by little the park began to deteriorate.

Without those trees, songbirds began to decline, beavers no longer built their dams and riverbanks started to erode. Without beaver dams and the shade from trees and other plants, water temperatures were too high for cold-water fish.

The natural environment was destroyed. In 1996 the experts seeing the results of their interference in the natural life of the park put back 14 wolves. It was like a miracle. The number of elks decreased, those that remained, to evade the wolves moved to another area. Where the deer vacated the aspen and willow began to appear in great numbers and birds and many different kinds of plants began to grow. The otter, ducks, a variety of fish, rabbits, rats, foxes, and weasels brought badgers and eagles.

What nature desires is harmony and a healthy environment. We have to be conscious of not destroying this harmony in nature. We are a part of nature and the Creator programmed our genes to live harmoniously and in a healthy relationship with nature.

Everything Will be Well

"Everything will go well. Everything will be fine. All manner of things shall be well." (Julian of Norwich) A religious sister in her article in the Catholic Times gives us an idea of the times of this contemplative nun.

Julian of Norwich is a 14th-century mystic and anchoress who lived during the time of the Black Death which brought great confusion to society, at a time when the church was struggling with power squabbles. 

In Julian's autobiography, there is a phrase that says: "everything will be all right" repeated three times. This is her core message, which says, "God is love, and God's love will eventually win." 

These words of Julian, who survived the pain of death and did not lose hope and trust in God, reverberate in the hearts of believers who have to deal with this long period of quarantine and exhaustion from the Coronavirus Infection.

She wants to meditate on these words of infinite affirmation in a time when we on the feast of Easter were not able to meet to celebrate. What are we to take from this unprecedented situation? She wants us to have us remember: "God is love, and God's love will eventually win."

Pope Francis began Holy Week by sending video letters to families worldwide. The Pope's warm advice reminds us to remember many who have worked hard in these difficult times, especially those who are alone, and those isolated with Corona 19, he urges us to find ways with the 'Creativity of Love' to send messages in the spirit of love to those around us.

The hermits of Julian's day were also isolated in small rooms, but spiritual liberty connected them to others, as healers and counselors. 

Recently, unable to meet directly with believers in each parish, priests and religious encouraged believers by phone calls and messages. Besides, various videos of consolation and encouragement introduced by the social media were seen as a new form of communication that showed 'Creativity of Love' beyond the difficulties.

Corona 19 brought many unusual phenomena, both good and bad to our attention. As the world pauses for a while, we see how the outcome of some development for human convenience, not for our good, is being restored to a healthier state. As industrial activities decrease, the atmospheric environment improves, the sky opens transparently, and in the homes, families spend a lot of time together and relationships are recovering. 

The virus doesn't discriminate it infects anyone, but the structure of inequality that has been established in human society has a sad phenomenon that results in a more letal mortality rate for the socially disadvantaged. 

However, because of this, the 'public health system' is better maintained, 'basic income' so that everyone can evenly maintain human dignity is systematically introduced, and a 'social safety net' is established so that socially disadvantaged people are helped. Also, structural and institutional alternatives have been proposed to overcome the 'climate crisis', a major cause of the corona problem.

Human pride has done much harm to creation and 'Corona 19' has shown us why. God will turn crisis into opportunity through our change of heart. 'Post-Corona' should be a time to make a transition to a sustainable society that lives in harmony with all creation. 

"We are in God and God whom we do not see is in us."