On World Grandparents Day, a Korean Catholic family shows how grandparents nurture faith across generations through prayer, Mass and example.
Newsroom (27/07/2026 Gaudium Press) As families around the world marked the International Day of Grandparents and Older People on July 26, one South Korean Catholic family offered a living example of the role older generations can play in nurturing faith amid social change, demographic shifts and declining religious participation among youth.
For Jo Gi-sik, 69, and Lee Seung-jin, 74, family vacations begin with an unusual priority. Before considering sightseeing attractions or restaurants, the elderly couple searches for a nearby Catholic church or shrine.
For them, attending Mass is not a disruption to holiday plans. It is an essential part of the journey.
“Wherever we go, we first check where we can attend Mass,” Lee said. “A family trip feels complete only when we can pray together.”
That simple practice has left a lasting impression on their grandsons, Hwang Si-won, 11, and Hwang Ye-chan, 8, who have spent years watching faith integrated naturally into everyday life.
“At first, they simply followed us,” Jo said. “But little by little, prayer became something they did on their own.”
The family, rooted in Gongdeok-dong Parish in the Archdiocese of Seoul, spans three generations of Catholics united by a shared conviction that children learn faith not primarily through instruction, but through example.
Their daughter, Lee Yeon-ji, 44, and son-in-law, Hwang Jun-hyeop, 44, belong to Jichuk-dong John Parish in the Diocese of Uijeongbu. Like many modern families balancing work and parenting responsibilities, they have often depended on the grandparents to help care for their children.
Yet the grandparents’ contribution extends far beyond daily routines and practical support.
Jo and Lee regularly ask their grandsons whether they attended Sunday Mass, what prayers they offered and how they tried to help others during the week. Small acts of kindness are recognized and encouraged.
“We do not try to force faith on them,” Jo said. “We just want them to see that prayer and Mass are part of daily life.”
The approach appears to be bearing fruit.
Si-won has made prayer a regular part of his routine. He makes the sign of the cross and prays before and after lunch at school, says morning and evening prayers and regularly prays the Rosary.
“I saw them praying often, so I naturally started to follow,” he said. “Praying the Rosary calms my mind.”
A Message for an Aging Church
The family’s story resonates strongly with the purpose of the International Day of Grandparents and Older People, established by Pope Francis in 2021.
The annual observance highlights the importance of grandparents as bridges between generations and as witnesses who pass on life experience, values and faith.
That message carries particular urgency in South Korea, where the Catholic Church faces significant demographic challenges. Although the country’s Catholic population has surpassed 6 million, Sunday Mass attendance has declined, and nearly one-third of Catholics are now 65 years of age or older.
Those realities have prompted Church leaders and pastoral workers to reflect on how faith can be sustained and transmitted in an era when family schedules are increasingly fragmented and religious practice can no longer be assumed.
Against that backdrop, the Hwang family’s experience points to a question confronting many parishes: how can faith remain vibrant when family time is limited and younger generations are growing up in a rapidly changing society?
For this family, the answer lies not in grand programs or dramatic interventions, but in everyday witness.
Learning Faith Together
The transmission of faith within the family has not been a one-way process.
For Hwang Jun-hyeop, his children’s spiritual development has become an opportunity for his own renewal.
Recognizing that he could not effectively guide his children while neglecting his own faith life, he enrolled twice in the Mother and Father School, a faith formation program organized by the Council of Lay Apostolate Organizations of the Catholic Church in Korea and the Sunshine Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Seoul.
“I realized that I could not ask my children to pray if I was not praying with them,” he said. “Their faith made me look again at my own.”
The family also participates in Chiro, a program developed by the Sunshine Pastoral Center that allows parents and children to learn about the faith together through conversation, activities and shared experiences.
The initiative brings together families with children of similar ages, creating opportunities for mutual encouragement and helping faith formation become a communal journey rather than an individual responsibility.
In many ways, the influence within the family flows in both directions.
When Si-won attended daily early morning Mass for a month as preparation to become an altar server, his father accompanied him.
“My faith has actually deepened while attending Mass with my child,” Hwang said. “I learn more often than I teach.”
His experience reflects a broader reality observed by pastoral leaders: children can become catalysts for the spiritual growth of adults just as adults shape the faith of children.
Faith Beyond the Classroom
Cheon Jin-ah, research director at the Sunshine Pastoral Center, believes that parents, grandparents and the wider Church community all share responsibility for helping young people develop a lasting relationship with faith.
The center launched the Mother and Father School in 2021 when parish catechism programs were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal was to help parents reclaim their role as their children’s first teachers of the faith.
According to Cheon, many participants discover that faith cannot be transmitted through rules, church classes or religious instruction alone.
“Children do not grow in faith only because adults tell them what to do,” she said. “They need to see adults living the faith with joy and consistency.”
She argues that the responsibility extends beyond immediate family members.
Older Catholics throughout the Church possess valuable life experiences, wisdom and spiritual insight that can help younger generations find their place within the faith community. In this way, grandparents and senior parishioners become not only caregivers and mentors, but also essential partners in the Church’s mission of evangelization.
“The Church must continue faith formation within the community, and the family must create an environment where children can develop a personal relationship with Christ,” Cheon said.
“When these two roles are fulfilled together, the Church can grow together with the younger generation.”
Faith Passed Through Daily Witness
The story of the Hwang family is ultimately not about extraordinary achievements or large-scale initiatives. It is about the quiet power of example.
Through prayers before meals, regular participation in Mass, conversations about kindness and a consistent commitment to living their beliefs, Jo and Lee have demonstrated how faith can move naturally from one generation to the next.
On a day dedicated to honoring grandparents and older people, their family offers a reminder that the most enduring lessons are often taught not through formal instruction but through daily witness.
In a Church navigating the challenges of aging membership and declining participation among the young, that witness may be one of the most important gifts older generations can offer: showing that faith is not merely something taught, but something lived.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from UCA News
