SEOUL (UCAN) -- Catholic Church groups across South Korea have voiced objection to the government's recent agreement to import beef from the United States.

On June 3, the Justice and Peace Committee (JPC) of Seoul archdiocese released a statement criticizing government policies it says encourage materialism and focus only on economic growth. The committee charged such policies are immature and cause social conflict, and urged instead policies based on morality.

"Recently, the government made a rough-and-ready agreement with the United States allowing beef import without considering that the people may be threatened by 'mad cow' disease," the statement says. It notes the United States demanded that South Korea import the beef to gain U.S. congressional approval for a broader free-trade agreement between the two countries.

"The government, with poor excuses, has consistently refused to safeguard the people's health," it says.

On April 18, during a bilateral summit, President Lee Myung-bak agreed to resume beef imports, which South Korea suspended in late 2003 after cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow" disease, were discovered in the United States. The agreement includes unrestricted import of beef from cattle older than 30 months and allows import of "specified risk materials" (SRM) such as skull bones, brains and vertebrae of cattle younger than 30 months.

SRM are highly susceptible to contamination by prions, abnormally shaped proteins that many scientists are convinced cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, both fatal and incurable. Cattle older than 30 months are believed more at risk.

Since May 2, South Koreans have been protesting the government decision through candlelight vigils across the country. On May 31, about 100,000 people joined a vigil in downtown Seoul and marched toward the presidential office, demanding the president cancel the agreement and renegotiate the import terms. Riot police responded by using water cannon to dismiss the protesters, injuring more than 100 people.

Besides the agreement on importing U.S. beef, the Seoul JPC also voiced objections to the Pan-Korea Grand Waterway, a project to link rivers in South Korea with 17 canals, and the proposed revision to the bioethics law that would allow payment to egg donors. The committee urged the government to adopt policies that help poor and alienated people in society.

Its director, Father Hugo Park Jung-woo, told UCA News on June 3: "The government is losing the important value of morality by focusing on economic growth. ... Our archdiocese urges the government to lead the country properly in accordance with the voice of the people."

On June 2, the JPC of Kwangju archdiocese, based 270 kilometers south of the capital, also released a statement demanding the government renegotiate the beef-import terms. It argued that even people in the United States do not consume "old" beef for fear of their health. It pointed out that mad cow disease broke out because greedy people fed cattle with animal products to make them grow faster.

On May 30 in Jeonju, about 200 kilometers south of Seoul, about 300 laypeople, priests and nuns gathered for a Mass the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) had organized at Jungang Cathedral.

At the Mass the CPAJ released a statement urging the government to listen to the people. "The voice of the people is the voice of God. Now the people's voices of pain and sadness are echoing all over the country, but the government is neglecting the voice of God," the statement says.

Afterward, Massgoers marched with candles to the Jeondong parish church.

Meanwhile, local media reported that the government has delayed publication of the government gazette promulgating sanitary conditions for the resumption of U.S. beef imports, scheduled for June 3. This action effectively puts off the resumption of the imports.

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