Features 26/04/15 For South Korea’s hard-of-hearing Catholics, faith is experiential

[성기화 요셉]

In a Seoul parish, Catholics with hearing difficulties transform worship from mere observation into full participation

Father Park Min-seo (right) and Father Kim Dong-jun (left) use sign language to spell out their names. (Photo: Lee Ho-jae/Catholic Times of Korea)

By UCA News reporter

Published: April 23, 2026 03:23 AM GMT

Updated: April 23, 2026 03:24 AM GMT

Liturgical ceremonies at Ephphatha Parish Church in Seoul archdiocese are celebrated in silence, because visual cues and signage are the only “language” they know.

Father Park Min-seo, ordained in 2007, is South Korea’s first Catholic priest with a hearing impairment. He serves Catholics with similar difficulties, helping them “watch” the Holy Mass and by understanding and communicating with them in a language they know well. 

“For the hearing impaired, sign language is not merely a series of gestures, but a ‘native language’ that embodies their thoughts and emotions,” says Park in sign language.

People with hearing challenges “hear” the Word of God by “seeing” the priest. The sign language liturgy in the parish restores the hearing-challenged community’s “personal dignity and religious autonomy,” stresses Park.

Park recalled that 20 years ago, people with hearing challenges in the parish were viewed as “objects of pastoral care.”

The initiatives for sign language liturgy in the parish have helped people with hearing challenges actively participate in the liturgy and even in pastoral committees, promoting inclusiveness, Park said.

Park’s ordination also contributed to interest within the community of hearing-challenged people, showing them “that they can bear witness to their faith in their own language.”

Father Kim Dong-jun, the second hearing-impaired priest to be ordained in South Korea, says Park’s ordination inspired him to become a priest.

Park has “played a significant role in helping hearing-challenged communities across the country become more deeply rooted within the Church,” says Kim, who assists Park in  Ephphatha parish.

The word Ephphatha, taken from the Bible, means “be opened” or “be released,” and the Bible says Jesus spoke the word while healing a deaf man.

Kim says he consulted Park before deciding on his priestly vocation, and Park supported him in joining the seminary and being ordained as a priest.

Structural challenges in participation

While Park and Kim have brought about a wave of change through increased community participation, they also spoke about challenges ahead.

Park recalled an incident where a meeting was called to highlight the issues faced by people with hearing difficulties in the church. But the target group was smaller, with most attendees being people without hearing problems.   

Sensitivity towards people with disabilities is increasing in Korean society. “But these changes sometimes feel somewhat slower within the Church,” said Kim.

He said, for example, that seminary training is “non-disabled-centric” and that this is a barrier that must be overcome.

Park also pointed out that there are misconceptions among people that hearing-challenged people can communicate entirely through written language.

“Sign language and written language are distinct from one another, much like a second foreign language, so there are limitations to engaging in deep spiritual dialogue,” says Park.

Besides, the social attitude that people with disabilities are “objects of compassion” remains a barrier to inclusivity. Considering people with disabilities as “those who need help” turns them into “someone different from us,” says Park.

Park and Kim said they work toward helping people with disabilities blend naturally into the Church community.  

*This is a translated and edited version of a feature published by the Catholic Times of Korea on April 15, 2026, and has been republished with permission.