South Korea, the Asian Tiger of the Church

Chiesa has a wonderful article on growth of the Church in South Korea. The growth rate is such that adult baptisms are not merely celebrated at Easter (as is done in North America) but also on Pentecost and Christmas. Only Vietnam and the Phillipines have a higher proportion of Catholics - but South Korea is rapidly catching up. The Catholic population of South Korea is around 10%-12% but they are now in the middle of an ambitious evangelization program called Evangelization Twenty Twenty. The goal is to bring the Catholic population up to 20% of South Korea by the year 2020. It is interesting to note that while the Catholic population is a little over half-way to the 2020 goal, the Catholic presence in the South Korean military jumped to 18% by 2007.

With atheist North Korea on the boarder, the South Koreans know that Catholicism isn’t just a religion for the aged, the women, and the young.