by Joseph Yun Li-sun

The Bishops' Conference and the Korean Missionary Society open first school for mostly lay people who want to experience the foreign mission. For the president of the Committee for the Pastoral Care of Koreans Living Abroad, going on mission "means responding with faith to the word of God".

Seoul (AsiaNews) - Going on mission "means responding with faith to the word of God who wants Christians to go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. I hope that this message will be heeded and play an important role for Koreans, who must rediscover their missionary spirit," said Mgr John Baptist Jung Shin-chul, president of the Committee for the Pastoral Care of Koreans Living Abroad of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea.

Together with the Korean Missionary Society (KMS), the committee created an Overseas Mission School to train priests and lay people at the KMS headquarters.

This is a step forward for the Korean Church, which now can "bring Christ's message not only to Asia, but to the entire world."

The programme is divided in four semesters for a total of 32 weeks and is intended primarily for lay people who want to experience the mission abroad. Although diocesan priests and religious, men and women, can also participate, the school's purpose is to increase the missionary spirit among the laity.

The Korean Church is one of the liveliest in Asia. After a long military dictatorship, Catholics began to evangelise were able to evangelise freely. The Catholic population thus increased from 8 per cent in 1953 to 22 per cent at present.

Various experts told AsiaNews, "the local Church often asked itself the meaning of mission. It is one of the few countries where seminarians undergo training abroad before ordination."

"I hope that the mission school will play a fundamental role in promoting awareness of the importance of the foreign mission, encouraging a missionary spirit among lay people," the prelate said.

• korea
• south
• church
• overseas
• missionary
• society