{"id":121813,"date":"2026-08-13T10:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ofmcap.org\/la-presenza-cappuccina-in-corea-del-sud\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:13:14","slug":"la-presenza-cappuccina-in-corea-del-sud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmcap.org\/en\/la-presenza-cappuccina-in-corea-del-sud\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Capuchin Presence in South Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">From the arrival of the first Irish missionaries in 1986 to the development of a growing custody\u2014the history, essential life choices, and vocational challenges within the vibrant South Korean Church.<\/span><\/i><\/h4>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Korea has a rich culture, with a history marked by complex political periods and eras of religious persecution. Despite this, the Catholic Church has experienced significant development and growth in recent decades. The Catholic faith has unique roots in these lands: evangelization did not initially begin with missionaries, but in 1784, a Korean layperson, baptized in China, brought Catholic texts there, thus initiating catechesis. In this sense, the Church in South Korea has a distinctive origin thanks to the service and courage of the laity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In recent decades, there has been significant growth among Pentecostal Christians and also within the Catholic Church. Currently, the religious breakdown in the country is as follows: 51% with no religion, 20% Pentecostal Protestants, 16% Buddhists, 11% Catholics, and 2% other religions. Today, the Korean Catholic Church is one of the most vibrant in the East, but the numbers indicate that it remains a mission field in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The Capuchins<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Capuchin friars arrived in South Korea in 1986, when a group of four friars came from Ireland. A moment that profoundly marked the history of the mission occurred in 1995: one of the missionaries lost his life in a tragic car accident, becoming the first foreigner in the country to voluntarily donate his organs. This gesture stirred great emotion in the local media.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the early years, the friars lived in rented homes until they purchased their first residence in 1990. As early as 1993, they welcomed their first candidates, and in 1996, four of them made their first profession in our Order. That same year, the fraternity moved to its current location, a four-story friary in Seoul. In 2005, Friar John Corriveau established the Custody of South Korea, and in 2008, the first priestly ordination of a Korean friar was celebrated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the very beginning, the friars decided not to take on the pastoral care of parishes. In fact, the local bishop\u2019s invitation already included a proposal to establish a conventual church dedicated to adoration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In the main friary in Seoul, there is a chapel where daily Mass is celebrated from Monday through Saturday; afterward, the Blessed Sacrament remains exposed until late in the evening, and every day the friars hear confessions for three hours, drawing a good number of people daily. In addition, there is a wonderful SFO community (Secular Franciscan Order) there with a very dynamic life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another distinctive feature of this community is their decision not to hire employees: the friars themselves cook, clean, and maintain the various facilities. In addition, they have chosen not to own cars, relying exclusively on public transportation for their travel.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for the formation program, after a thorough selection process, our candidates undergo one or two years of postulancy, one year of novitiate, and at least three years of post-novitiate without pursuing further academic studies. Only after taking perpetual vows may they undertake studies in philosophy and theology or other specific academic programs. Currently, there is only one post-novice and a few candidates in the process of vocational discernment.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The Current Situation<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the Custody has 18 friars. Among them are one post-novice, two Irish missionaries with over thirty years of service in the mission, one friar serving at the International College in Rome, and another who was recently sent to Ireland to work with the Province.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The friars are distributed among four houses. The main one is located in Seoul. Another is situated in the nearby Diocese of Incheon and was previously used by friars engaged in studies of philosophy and theology. The third fraternity is located in Gapyeong, where the formation center that once housed the novitiate and post-novitiate is located. There is also a small house in the historic center of Seoul, which was rented when there was a need for a suitable environment to welcome postulants.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past month, the Secretary for Evangelization and Missions of the General Curia had the opportunity to visit this region, a rich presence in the Order. His aim was to learn about its history and to present our missionary charism and the missionary reality of the Order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the arrival of the first Irish missionaries in 1986 to the development of a growing custody\u2014the history, essential life choices, and vocational challenges within the vibrant South Korean Church.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[917],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Our Capuchin Presence in South Korea - Frati Minori Cappuccini<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ofmcap.org\/en\/la-presenza-cappuccina-in-corea-del-sud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Capuchin Presence in South Korea - 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