SEOUL (UCAN): “Evangelisation must not simply be a matter of spreading the faith, but must be carried out with the goal of restoring the value and dignity of human existence,” said Professor Anna Yoo Hye-suk, the first woman to lead the evangelisation committee Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, said evangelisation should aim to restore the value and dignity of human existence.
Yoo, a lay theologian from Daegu Catholic University, was appointed secretary general of the bishops’ conference’s National Committee for Evangelisation and Mission on February 10. She is the first layperson to hold the position traditionally manned by priests.
Among her major responsibilities are overseeing pastoral work related to the Korean Church’s evangelisation and missionary activities.
“I hope to contribute even a little to the evangelism of the Korean Church,” she noted.
Yoo says her appointment is not just a change in position, but also shows how the Church should follow the synodal process and make it participatory with active involvement of various stakeholders who can share responsibility for the Church’s mission at structural and practical levels.
Evangelisation must not simply be a matter of spreading the faith, but must be carried out with the goal of restoring the value and dignity of human existence
Anna Yoo Hye-suk
“Even in the synodal process, the expansion of lay and women’s participation was understood not as a simple matter of functional supplementation or efficiency, but as an element that enriches the Church’s discernment capacity through joint participation in the discernment of the Holy Spirit,” she added.
Yoo says she has an important role to play in strengthening the awareness that “living a gospel life in everyday life, especially by laypeople, is missionary work.”
The Church in Korea faces challenges as society confronts rapid secularisation, individualisation, disconnection from relationships, and a loss of meaning, she said.
“Just as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes] suggests that the Church must share in the joys and hopes, sorrows and anguish of the world, evangelisation must likewise begin from a position of solidarity with the world,” she added.
“Therefore, the language of mission today must be the language of accompaniment, and it must be the ‘embodiment of the gospel’ achieved through the ‘witness of life,’” Yoo added.
Even in the synodal process, the expansion of lay and women’s participation was understood not as a simple matter of functional supplementation or efficiency, but as an element that enriches the Church’s discernment capacity through joint participation in the discernment of the Holy Spirit
Anna Yoo Hye-suk
According to official data, the Catholic Church in South Korea has an estimated 5.6 million members, accounting for about 11 per cent of the country’s population of about 52 million.
Overall, Christians make up about 30 per cent of the population, making Christianity the most widely practiced organised religion in the country.
Once considered “a receiving Church” for its reliance on foreign donations and missionaries, the Church in Korea in the past few decades has become known as “a sharing Church” that sends missionaries and donations around the world annually.
This story is a translated and edited version of a Korean-language report first published by the Catholic Times of Korea on February 25.
