By Maybe this is one way for Korea to increase its extremely low birth rate 
Gupodong Catholic Church (Image from Robert Koehler)
The Catholic Church in South Korea has lost four priests to the Anglicans in recent years, with marriage cited as the most important reason.
“They want to marry and at the same time serve as pastors,” Anglican Fr. Peter Lee Kyong-nae, a former Catholic seminarian, told the Asian church news agency UCA News. Two more Catholic priests are currently preparing to become Anglican priests, he added.
While the buzz in the Catholic Church around the world concerns Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to make it easier for Anglicans to become Catholics, in Korea there is some movement in the opposite direction.
“The priests made an honest and courageous decision to leave the Catholic Church in order to build a family, and they gave up all the privileges they enjoyed in the Catholic Church,” Fr. Lee told UCA News.
Fr. Abraham Kim Gwang-joon, secretary-general of the provincial office of the Anglican Church of Korea, confirmed that the Catholic Church’s requirement of celibacy was a major factor in the priests’ decision.
“There are various personal reasons, but marriage is the most important,” he said. [National Catholic Reporter]
You can read more at the link.
6:09 am on December 5th, 2009 1
Four priests is chump change. Korea has thousands of priests. Each parish usually has two or three, a much larger number per capita than the U.S., Europe, or Latin America.
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December 6th, 2009 at 9:19 am
I know. I was telling someone the other day that in Canada we like to think that Montreal has the most churches per square km than Vatican city…But, any little Korean town’s got Montreal beat on that count.
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