Appointments: Archbishop of Seoul

On Thursday Pope Benedict XVI appointed auxiliary bishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishop of the metropolitan diocese of Seoul, Korea. Archbishop-elect Yeom takes over the pastoral governance of the diocese from Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jinsuk, who has retired.

Born in 1943, Archbishop-elect Yeom is a native of Seoul and was ordained a priest for the diocese in 1973. He graduated from the Catholic University in Seoul (Major Seminary) and went on to obatin a Master of Education in Counseling Psychology from Korea University. He has also studied at the East Asian Pastoral Institute in the Philippines. The Archbishop-elect will be installed on June 25.

Appointed auxilliary bishop of Seoul by Blessed John Paul II in 2001, the Archbishop-elect is President of the Committee for the Lay Apostolate of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea (CBCK) and member of the Episcopal Commission for Mission & Pastoral Care as well as being the Auditor of the Catholic Conference of Korea.

According to the Statistics of the CBCK, as of December 31, 2011, of the 15 dioceses and 1 military ordinariate in Korea, the Archdiocese of Seoul is the most populous with 27% of the total Catholics in Korea.
The number of Catholics in Korea is 5,309,964, an increase of 2% (104,375) over the last year. It accounts for 10.3% of the total population. The total number of Catholics in Korea has slightly and consistently increased at a yearly average of 2-3% during the past 10 years. It has passed the 10% mark of the total population since 2009.

According to the Statistics, the number of newly baptized in 2011 was 134,562, a decrease of 4.3% from the previous year. By gender, newly baptized men represented 73,228 and women 61,334. The number of infants baptized amounted to 25,717, an increase of 7.5 % over the previous year.