East Asians and catechesis

Is it more likely to find supporters of the natural family manifesto among American Catholics and European Catholics (or Westerners in general) than with Asian Catholics living in industrialized countries? How many of those Asians would hold the restoration of the home economy to be the ideal, supporting distributism, agrarianism or the protection of family businesses?

How many Asian Catholics are open to having large families? I remember the Western Confucian posting a photo of a South Korean (Protestant) family that was held to be atypical and newsworthy, in so far as it had the largest number of children (was it 8 or 9?). In Hong Kong and other East Asian countries (Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and by extension Singapore) there may be population concerns as well as worries about earning enough money to support a large family, but what of the children of those who come to the United States?

I've never seen East Asian Catholics here in the U.S. having large families, which are common among traditionalists and 'conservative' Novus Ordo Catholics. (There have to be a better names for the two groups...) They tend to be more East Asian than Catholic in their mentality, seeking a high-paying job, middle-class comforts, and a small family. It's not clear to me what sort of means they employ in limiting the size of their families, but 2 children per family seems to be the norm, 3 at the most. I suspect that many are ok with artificial contraception--my guess being that it is not something discussed either in East Asia or in the ethnic parishes here, and that it is a practice that is accepted, if not condoned.

How many East Asian Catholic women have the goal of being a stay-at-home mother? This may be the cultural norm in Japan still, among women who actually end up being married. Is it the case for Korean women as well? It is rarely the ideal for those who immigrate to the United States or the Children nowadays.

Perhaps East Asian Catholics are no different from their non-Catholic peers either in Asia or in the United States, when it comes to expectations about family, career, and so on. Is it any surprise then that so few of their children really embrace the Christian vocation and live in accordance with it? Asian wordliness does seem to be contrary to the Gospel.

Edit: East Asian Catholics do not appear to be much different from their Western counterparts when it comes to family "planning" and job/financial "concerns." Many have remarked on the correlation between industrialization and the shrinking of family size, though I'd like to see the statistics on American and English family size and cultural practices before the Lambeth Conference, and similarly an explanation of how the reduction in family size was achieved in Europe and where and among whom it originated. Did rural European families continue to have large families before the First World War?

Why do (conservative and traditionalist) Catholics who emphasize openness to life and the priority of the family in the married vocation, despite being a minority in number, nonetheless have a presence in America and Europe and yet not in other industrialize parts of the world? (Ignoring for the moment China and its one-child policy.) This is both with respect to an actual physical presence, and the virtual presence in the Catholic media. Yes, much of the Catholic media in the United States is lay-run or involves lay people. Is it merely a lack of education and leadership by bishops elsewhere? A failure of catechesis? A lack of full orthodoxy among foreign missionaries, who have a presence both in missions, parishes, and educational institutions?

A few in the United States and Europe are aware of the problems of industrialization and peak oil. Besides those who support farmers' rights, how many in East Asia are trying to get the word out about the problems of industrialization (and its unsustainability)?

Perhaps the Holy Father could devote some space to these questions in his next encyclical.

At the bottom of all of these questions is the fact that there do not appear to be many East Asian Catholics here in the United States who share the same views and goals as I do. I am fortunate to have become acquainted with both "traditionalist" and "conservative" Catholics who are counter-cultural, tried to restore some sanity into their networks. What is probably needed at ethnic parishes is a renewed focus on evangelizing of their members and more direction from (and self-examination by) the clergy. But I am not optimistic that this will happen in time to prevent the next generation from being lost to the worldliness that surrounds them.