Features 26/07/27 Korean grandparents keep faith alive across generations

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Catholic family shows how everyday examples help pass faith from grandparents to grandchildren

Cho Ki-sik and Lee Seung-jin, along with their grandsons Hwang Si-won and Hwang Ye-chan, pray the Rosary together. (Photo by Byun Kyung-mi)

By UCA News reporter

Published: July 27, 2026 08:23 AM GMT

Updated: July 27, 2026 08:24 AM GMT

Before family vacations begin, Jo Gi-sik and Lee Seung-jin first look for a Catholic church or shrine near their destination. For the elderly South Korean couple, attending Mass is not an interruption to the holiday but part of the journey itself.

“Wherever we go, we first check where we can attend Mass,” Lee said. “A family trip feels complete only when we can pray together.”

Their grandsons, Hwang Si-won and Hwang Ye-chan, have grown up watching such small but consistent acts of faith at home, on the road and in parish life.

“At first, they simply followed us,” Jo said. “But little by little, prayer became something they did on their own.”

The family of Jo, 69, and Lee, 74, from Gongdeok-dong Parish in the Archdiocese of Seoul, spans three generations of Catholics united by a simple belief: Children learn faith first by watching adults live it.

Their daughter, Lee Yeon-ji, 44, and son-in-law, Hwang Jun-hyeop, 44, belong to Jichuk-dong John Parish in the Diocese of Uijeongbu.

Like many working parents, Lee and Hwang have often relied on the grandparents to help care for Si-won, 11, and Ye-chan, 8. But their support extends beyond meals, school routines and homework.

Jo and Lee ask the boys whether they attended Sunday Mass, what prayers they said and how they tried to help others. Even small acts of kindness are praised.

“We do not try to force faith on them,” Jo said. “We just want them to see that prayer and Mass are part of daily life.”

Si-won now makes the sign of the cross and prays before and after lunch at school. He also says morning and evening prayers and regularly prays the Rosary.

“I saw them praying often, so I naturally started to follow,” he said. “Praying the Rosary calms my mind.”

The family's story comes as Catholics observed the International Day of Grandparents and Older People on July 26.

Pope Francis established the observance in 2021 to highlight the role of grandparents as a bridge between generations and as witnesses who pass on life experience and faith.

That message carries particular significance in South Korea, where the Catholic Church faces the twin challenges of an aging population and declining participation among younger Catholics.

Recent Church statistics show the country's Catholic population has surpassed 6 million, but Sunday Mass attendance has declined, and nearly one-third of Catholics are now age 65 or older.

Against that backdrop, the Hwang family's everyday practices point to a pastoral question facing many parishes: How can faith remain vibrant when family time is shrinking and religious practice can no longer be taken for granted?

Learning the faith together

For Hwang Jun-hyeop, his children's faith has become a mirror of his own. He attended the Mother and Father School, a faith formation program organized by the Council of Lay Apostolate Organizations of the Catholic Church in Korea and the Sunshine Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Seoul, twice because he felt he could not guide his children in faith while neglecting his own spiritual life.

“I realized that I could not ask my children to pray if I was not praying with them,” he said. “Their faith made me look again at my own.”

The family also participates in Chiro, a Sunshine Pastoral Center program where parents and children learn the faith together through play, conversation and shared activities. The program gives families with children of similar ages an opportunity to encourage one another and approach faith formation as a shared journey.

The influence has flowed both ways. When Si-won attended early morning Mass for a month before becoming an altar server, his father accompanied him.

“My faith has actually deepened while attending Mass with my child,” Hwang said. “I learn more often than I teach.”

Cheon Jin-ah, research director at the Sunshine Pastoral Center, said adults have a responsibility to help the next generation grow in faith. The center launched the Mother and Father School in 2021, when parish catechism classes were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to help parents become their children's first catechists.

Cheon said many parents discover through the program that faith cannot be passed on through rules or parish classes alone.

“Children do not grow in faith only because adults tell them what to do,” she said. “They need to see adults living the faith with joy and consistency.”

She said the responsibility extends beyond parents and grandparents. Older Catholics throughout the Church, she said, have experiences and values that can help younger generations find their place in the faith community.

“The Church must continue faith formation within the community, and the family must create an environment where children can develop a personal relationship with Christ,” Cheon said.

“When these two roles are fulfilled together, the Church can grow together with the younger generation.”

For Jo, Lee, their children and grandchildren, that growth begins in ordinary places: at the dining table, before school lunch, in a parish pew at dawn, or on a family trip that starts with Mass.

This feature is brought to you in partnership with Catholic Times of Korea