As the Korean Catholic Church intensifies its efforts, the bishops’ campaign signals a broader call to action, urging both policymakers and the public to reaffirm the sanctity of life in all its stages.
Newsroom (29/08/2025, Gaudium Press )Bishop Moon Chang-woo of Jeju, president of the Committee for Family and Life of the Korean Bishops’ Conference, has unveiled an ambitious plan to bolster the Catholic Church’s pro-life campaign, aiming to “reawaken the sense of the mission and vocation to protect life from its beginning to its natural end” and to “raise a prophetic cry,” according to a report by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency.
The initiative, designed to restore “inalienable respect for human life” to the forefront of public debate and political action, will coordinate nationwide efforts, including regional programs like the “Project for Unborn Life,” which supports mothers in need, and “Life 31,” a cultural and advocacy movement promoting a “Culture of Life.”
On August 26, Bishop Moon, joined by representatives from the Bishops’ Conference Bioethics Committee and the Catholic Bioethics Research Institute, met with the National Assembly’s Health Committee to discuss proposed amendments to the Maternal and Child Health Act. The bill, supported by 11 members of the Democratic Party of Korea, seeks to address legal ambiguities following the 2019 Constitutional Court ruling that declared abortion unconstitutional.
The bishops warned that the amendment, if passed, would permit abortions even when a fetus is viable outside the womb and remove existing restrictions on voluntary pregnancy terminations. Such measures, they argue, would enable “unrestricted abortion,” effectively denying the fetus its fundamental right to life.
Father Leo Oh Seok-jun, Secretary General of the Pro-Life Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul, emphasized the urgency of public education on the issue. “There have been many discussions on this issue in the past: We are against abortion, regardless of the gestational age,” he said. Father Oh stressed the need to clearly communicate the Church’s stance to ensure that “believers and all people of good will do not lose touch with the central value of life, namely the dignity of human life.”
The pro-life debate has also extended to end-of-life issues. On August 28, Bishop Ku Yoo-bi, Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul and president of the Bioethics Committee, addressed euthanasia and assisted suicide during a National Assembly forum. “The increasing demand for euthanasia and assisted suicide today is due to the loss of hope for recovery,” Bishop Ku said. He criticized societal pressures that prioritize efficiency and productivity, noting that such values often frame caregiving as “wasteful and useless,” pushing vulnerable patients toward death.
Bishop Ku underscored that a society’s humanity is measured by its care for the sick and weak. He cautioned against portraying assisted suicide as compassionate, calling it a distortion of true care. “Self-determination can only apply to the living and cannot outweigh the fundamental right to life,” he said, asserting that death cannot be framed as a right.
As the Korean Catholic Church intensifies its efforts, the bishops’ campaign signals a broader call to action, urging both policymakers and the public to reaffirm the sanctity of life in all its stages.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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