Korean women want Church reform to end clericalism, gender bias

Korean women want Church reform to end clericalism, gender bias

The majority of Catholic South Korean women support reforms in the Church, including the end of clericalism, and favor more freedom regarding sexuality, gender equality and pregnancy, says a new survey. 

About 87.2 percent of 149 respondents said they support Church reforms, according to the survey conducted by Ye Yeo Gong (Women Studying Jesus), a Catholic group that studies Jesus and women rights, in November.

The study was based a global-survey the International Survey of Catholic Women conducted between March and April last year by researchers from Newcastle University in Australia at the request of Catholic Women Speak (CWS), an international women’s group.

The CWS is a forum for Catholic women to explore ideas and discuss issues relating to the dignity and equality of women in the Church and society, and to raise awareness of the activities, opportunities, and struggles of women in the worldwide Church. 

The study covered women’s views on Church reforms, gender, family and women-related issues. A total of 17,200 female Catholics from 104 countries participated in the survey.

It was conducted ahead of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican held in October.

Balbina Lee Mi-young, director of Woori Theological Institute, presented the survey results on Korean Catholic women during a recent group meeting and voiced hope that the “Church would evolve to accommodate the findings.”

It would become “a community that does not dismiss women’s issues as gender ideology,” Lee said.

“Changes that are needed to create an equitable church culture can be visibly seen [in the survey results],” Lee added.

The group used the details from the international survey to gather the experiences and insights of Catholic Korean women and compared those with the international results.

The Korean version of the survey had more younger respondents (38.2%) aged 41-55. In contrast, 30.7 percent of respondents in the international survey were in the 56 to 70 age group.

About 94 percent of Korean respondents said they see their Catholic identity as “important” compared to 88 percent in the international survey.

Korean women said they have “weak faith” in the institutional Church.

They described their relationship with the Church as “an unbreakable rope” and termed the institutional Church as “a high wall.”

The majority saw “the Korean Church as a barrier to following God’s word” citing “discrimination against women that still exists in the Church.”

Lee said that some of the respondents were disheartened at the efforts put in place by the Catholic Church.

“It is disheartening for women believers to see the Church’s commitment to women’s dignity fall short of society’s efforts when there are so many challenges related to women’s rights and gender equality in our society and we are trying to improve them,” Lee said.

Some 86.6 percent of the respondents agreed that “women should be able to exercise leadership at all levels,” in the Catholic Church compared to 79 percent of respondents in the international survey.

Around 95.3 percent of the respondents in the Korean survey agreed that “the language used in liturgy and Church documents should not be sexist.”

Around 63.8 percent also said they believe that clericalism is harming the Church, which is lower than the international survey.

Lee said the survey results on sexuality and family showed the consciousness of women regarding the movement to abolish abortion in Korean society.

“In conjunction with the fact that women are sensitive to the language of the Church, it is necessary to consider how the Church communicates [sexuality] and bioethics so that it does not offend women’s changed consciousness,” Lee said.

Around 94 percent of the respondents agreed that “a woman’s freedom to have sex and become pregnant should be respected,” a response which was 20 percent higher than the international survey.

The survey also recorded the responses of the women on climate change issues.

As a social issue, 95.3 percent of respondents agreed that “climate change is an urgent issue for the entire Church to address.”

Around 93.3 percent agreed that social doctrine is important as a basis for social justice work.

* This report is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea