Singapore university sets new research initiative on Catholicism in Asia

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is to inaugurate a new research initiative designed to increase social scientific research on Catholics in contemporary Asia. 

Various research centers specialized in the social scientific study of Buddhism, Taoism, or Islam in Asia have long existed but there is nothing on Asian Catholicism.

The initiative launched October 1 aims to remedy that issue for a better understanding of 21st century Asian societies and of world Catholicism, according to a press release.  

Surveys suggest that Catholicism is a growing Asian religion – and that Asian Catholics are playing a growing influence within world Catholicism. Thus, there is a real interest in better understanding them. 

The significance of Asia is not only about Asian prelates appointed to new responsibilities in the Vatican.  

It is also about Asian Americans bringing support and wealth to the Church in the United States, Asian fidei donum priests serving European parishes, and Asian Catholic migrant workers bringing new Christian populations to the Middle East.  

Through UCANews, publications, and public engagement, ISAC is designed to produce scientific information on Asian Catholicism available to scholars, policy makers, NGOs, church leaders.  

NUS is a leading research institution of Asia. It is a public university attracting researchers from all around the world.

ISAC is a scientific network of more than 15 scholars from various disciplinary background and institutional affiliations.  

The coordinators are Michel Chambon, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, and Bernardo Brown, an associate professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo.  

Under preparation are research conferences (Catholicism, Family and Asian Societies), pilot research projects (Asian Marianism, Catholic tombs in Asia, Digitizing Asian Catholic Archives), podcast series to propagate scholarship on Asian Catholics and small research grants to junior scholars in order to help them to conduct field research related to Asian catholic communities. 

The initiative aims to also question assumptions about Catholicism in Asia and reframe certain conversations on Catholicism in Asia. 

Many believe that Catholicism in Asia is the result from the colonial period and that policy makers, journalists, NGOs, and church leaders talk about Asian Catholics only when it fits their own agenda, said Chambon.  

“But during the post-Vatican II period, the social awareness, the theological inclusiveness, and cultural sensibility of the Church played a crucial role in bringing Asians to Catholicism,” Chambon told La Croix International.

When we talk about Asian Catholicism, we can not only ask “How many Catholics are there?” he said.

“Asian Catholics are more than a minority or a periphery of their society and Church. Furthermore, Catholicism is a multifaceted phenomenon that requires methodological and multidisciplinary investigations,” he said. 

According to Chambon, ISAC is designed to let social scientists bring their expertise in the analysis of Asian Catholics.  

“In front of a rapidly changing Asia and world Catholicism, ISAC seeks to deepen conversations on Asian Catholics and their role in Asian societies and Catholicism,” he said. 

While the Catholic Church in Asia claims an apostolic tradition of nearly 2,000 years, the continent has two Catholic-majority countries – the Philippines and East Timor. 

According to the 2019 Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican’s statistical yearbook that was published in March 2021, Asian countries with the largest number of Catholics are Philippines (more than 85 million), India (almost 20 million), China (12 million), South Korea (5.9 million) and Vietnam (6.2 million). 

In 2019 worldwide, 48.1 percent Catholics were living in the Americas, followed by Europe with 21.2 percent, Africa with 18.7 percent, about 11 percent in Asia and 0.8 percent in Oceania.

The number of Catholics in the world, as of December 2019, was 1.34 billion.