2003 Statistics: Catholic population growing, but also ageing
Many new baptized among soldiers
Seoul (AsiaNews/CBCK) - The 2003 Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea, published June 7, 2004 by the Catholic Conference of Korea, clearly showed the aging of Catholic population in Korea, calling for multifaceted pastoral programs for the elderly and at the same time for the youth.
According to the Statistics, the number of faithful aged 50-59 and 60-69 increased 22.9% and 36.7%, respectively, while the number of those aged under 40 decreased as a whole. In particular, those aged 6 and under and aged 7-19 showed rapid drop of 18.4% and 9.1% and age groups of 20-29 and of 30-39 also decreased by 7.7% and 7.2%.
The total number of the Catholics in Korea was 4,430,791 or 9.1% of the total population (48,823,837) as of December 31, 2003. Compared to the previous year, it increased 83,186 or 1.9%. However, the increasing rate of the number of Catholics dropped from 2.8% in 2002 to 1.9%. The rate has constantly decreased since 1994 and finally lowered to under 2.0%.
The rate of the newly baptized also decreased; the number of those baptized in 2003 was 135,379, 1.7% decreased from 137,723 in 2002. However, for the Military Ordinariate, 18,912 persons were baptized, showing 11.9% of increase. In fact, among the 21,183 newly baptized men in their 20s, 17,815 persons belong to the Military Ordinariate.
The rate of Sunday Mass attendants was not changed much as 26.9% and the rate of lethargic faithful was still high as 35.7%.
The number of faithful was highest in the Archdiocese of Seoul as 1,428,993, followed by Suwon (599,044), Taegu (402,958), Pusan (379,030) and Inchoen (375,313).
The Statistics also indicated that the number of parishes was 1,359, increased by 56 places and that of secondary stations was 989, decreased by 53 places from the year of 2002. Besides, in the Catholic Church in Korea there is one cardinal, four archbishops, 26 bishops (including two foreigners), 19 monsignors, and 3,584 priests (3,396 Koreans and 188 foreigners). The number of men and women religious was 1,352 and 9,343, respectively.
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