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In the past ten years the Korean Catholic population has increased on average by an annual 2-3 per cent. The data released by the Catholic Bishops' conference of Korea, shows both positive and negative trends.

Figures indicate that the average age of Church members was rising and that particularly in the big cities, Sunday Mass attendance was in decline.

Of the country's dioceses, the Archdiocese of Seoul was the most populous with 27 per cent of all Catholics in Korea.

The Korean clergy includes 34 bishops, 1 Cardinal, 4,455 Korean and 166 foreign priests and 1,587 seminarians. Last year, 141 new priests were ordained, an increase of 3.3 per cent from the previous year.

"For this growth, we must thank God, the Creator of everything, but also our lay people," said Mgr Lazarus You Heung-sik, bishop of Daejeon.

He noted, "The South Korean Church depends a lot on them for every believer must proclaim the Gospel." For this purpose, "We are offering a course on how to proclaim the Good News in all the parishes of our diocese. And this is bearing fruit."

"Marriages and conversions are a gift from the Lord. Here in Daejeon, we celebrated more than 7,000 adult baptisms in 2011 and about a hundred mixed marriages," the prelate said. "What is great is that the nuptial sacrament becomes a path to conversion. It is with joy that I can say that after a year of married life there is almost always a new adult baptism in these families."

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