Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The number of Catholics in South Korea soared from one million in 1975 to over six million in 2025, according to statistics recently published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea. 28.9% of them are 65 or older.

The Sunday Mass attendance rate fell from 25% in 2015 to 15% in 2025. The bishops’ conference also reported declining numbers of seminarians and religious vocations.

“The recovery of lapsed and inactive believers is an urgent task,” the bishops’ conference stated in its report. “How to invite back into the community those who have been unable to continue their sacramental life… is a pastoral question that can no longer be ignored.”

The nation of 51.5 million (map) is 32% Christian, 25% Buddhist, 15% ethnic religionist, 14% new religionist, and 11% Confucian.

The Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workmen a model and a protector. By the daily labor in his shop, offered to God with patience and joy, St. Joseph provided for the necessities of his holy spouse and of the Incarnate Son of God, and thus became an example to all laborers. "Workmen and all those laboring in conditions of poverty will have reasons to rejoice rather than grieve, since they have in common with the Holy Family daily preoccupations and cares" (Leo XIII).

Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Pius V (1504-1572). He joined the Dominicans at the age of fourteen; he was sixty-two when he was elected Pope. His reign, though short, was one of the most fruitful of the sixteenth century. To Protestantism, which had proclaimed the Reformation, St. Pius replied by applying the decrees of the Council of Trent for the reform of the Church. He played a great part in the return of the clergy to ecclesiastical discipline. Against Islam, which threatened the West, he succeeded in forming a coalition of Christian forces: and by public prayers, organized everywhere at his request, he was instrumental in obtaining the decisive victory of Lepanto in 1571. He died the following year on May 1. We also owe to St. Pius the reformation of the liturgical books of the Roman Rite.

Today is the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). She was born Catherine Benincasa in Siena at a date that remains uncertain, was favored with visions from the age of seven. Becoming a tertiary of the Dominican Order, she acquired great influence by her life of prayer and extraordinary mortifications as well as by the spread of her spiritual writings. Her continual appeals for civil peace and reform of the Church make her one of the leading figures of the fourteenth century. Worn out by her mortifications and negotiations she died in Rome on April 29, 1380.

Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841). St. Peter was born in France in 1802. He was ordained a priest in 1827, and engaged in the parochial ministry for a few years; but the reading of letters of missionaries in far-away lands inflamed his heart with zeal, and he resolved to devote his life to the Apostolate. He joined the Society of Mary (Marists), and in 1836 he embarked for Oceania. He died a martyr's death on the island of Futuna, Melanesia. He is called the apostle of Oceania where he spread the Gospel.

Today is the traditional feast of Our Lady of Montserrat. Monserrat is located in the region of Catalonia in Spain. Legend relates that the original sculpture was carved by St. Luke and brought to Montserrat by St. Peter in 50 A.D. St. Ignatius of Loyola, a former Crusader, decided to become a missionary after having prayed before this image of Mary.

Jesus said: "The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger, they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Christ Himself is the Good Shepherd, who knows each one of His sheep, who gives His life for them and snatches them from the jaws of the marauding wolf. He is the true shepherd who fulfills Ezechiel's prophecy foretelling for Israel a shepherd from the end of time who was to deliver his people.

Today is the Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist, the author of the second Gospel, was the son of Mary whose house at Jerusalem was the meeting place of Christians, where St. Peter sough refuge after having been freed from prison. He was baptized and instructed by St. Peter. He accompanied St. Paul and his own cousin St. Barnabas in the evangelization of Cyprus before he became the companion and secretary of St. Peter in Rome about the year 42 A.D.. He wrote his Gospel about the year 50 A.D. His Gospel is a record of St. Peter's preaching about Our Lord and pays special attention to the head of the Apostles, and emphasizes the miraculous powers of the Savior. The Gospel was written for Roman Gentile converts. It rarely quotes the Old Testament, and is careful to explain Jewish customs, rites and words. It excels in portraying the emotions and affections of both Christ and His hearers. St. Mark preached in Egypt, especially in Alexandria and was martyred there by the heathen.