Top Stories 24/10/04 Korean Mission Society to revitalize missionary work for jubilee

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Korean Mission Society to revitalize missionary work for jubilee 

The missionaries are all set to observe their golden jubilee in 2025

A missionary from the Korean Mission Society distributes Communion in Baguio diocese in the Philippines. (Photo: Korean Mission Society)

By UCA News reporter

Published: October 09, 2024 05:05 AM GMT

Updated: October 09, 2024 05:43 AM GMT

The Korean Mission Society (KMS) has announced plans to revitalize diocese-level collaboration with missionary priests and a vision for lay missionary formation as part of its golden jubilee in 2025.

At a press conference ahead of its 50th anniversary on Oct. 4, KMS officials acknowledged the importance of lay missionaries in the Korean Church’s missionary activities.

“The rich experience of lay people who have been active in various fields of society will be of great help to the Korean Church in its mission,” said Father Stefano Choi, a member of the KMS, based out of South Korea. 

The congregation said it will organize its anniversary celebrations to live out its new missionary slogan, “Going Out.”

The officials said the KMS would hold a symposium, 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Korean Missionary Society and 50th Anniversary of Overseas Mission, at the Catholic University of Korea's College of Theology in Hyehwa-dong in the capital Seoul on Oct. 19.

The congregation will also organize a Mass on Feb. 26, 2025, and release a 50th anniversary booklet.

In October 2025, nine missionary bishops will be invited to celebrate a Thanksgiving Mass with the sponsoring members. A music concert will take place at the time.

The KMS was established in February 1975 at the request of the late Bishop Emeritus John A. Choi Jae-seon of Busan and was approved by the Korean Bishops' Conference. 

Established around 22 years after the end of the Korean War in 1953, the KMS has played a key role as a catalyst in helping the Korean Church grow from a “receiving Church” to a “giving Church,” KMS officials said.

The missionary congregation currently has 87 members, including 85 missionary priests and two lay missionaries. It works in nine countries, including Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and China.

Choi pointed out that five priests from various dioceses in South Korea have been going abroad as missionaries for several years. 

“We will further strengthen and revitalize our cooperation with each diocese in the face of the sharp decline in missionary priestly vocations,” Choi added. 

The Korean Church’s own research in 2023 found a decline in priestly vocation and the number of priests ordained every year.

In 2023, a total of 85 new priests were ordained compared with 131 in 2011, and seminary admissions dropped by 30 percent in 2021 compared with 2011, the study said.

An alarmingly low birth rate and secularization were cited as major factors behind the drop in priestly and religious vocation in the country.

South Korea's fertility rate — the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — dropped to 0.72 in 2023, down nearly 8 percent from 2022, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February this year, AFP reported.

The country’s fertility rate is far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain the current population of 51 million, which at these rates will nearly halve by the year 2100, experts estimate.

South Korea's 0.72 birth rate is the lowest among OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations, while the average age to give birth is 33.6, the highest in the OECD, AFP reported.

Father Jeong Doo-young, president of the missionary congregation, pointed out that the spirit of “sharing together” of the Korean Church, which has been realized by sending missionaries to foreign countries despite the lack of material resources, “has been highly praised by the world Church.”

“However, due to the declining birth rate and the trend of indifference to religion, the number of missionaries has slowed down, so we need the attention of sponsors and the entire Church community,” Jeong emphasized.

* This report is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea.