THE CHURCH IN KOREA

New Zealand Tablet, 26 September 1912, Page 49

THE CHURCH IN KOREA

The action of Japanese officials in power in Korea in accusing American Protestant missionaries of a murder conspiracy has been condemned by the various mission boards whose representatives have been under fire. The State Department at Washington has been asked to interfere and to inquire , into the charges that the Japanese officials used torture to extort a so-called confession from Korean Christians. No doubt a rigorous examination will be made, and it will be decided without delay whether or not the case calls for official action (says a writer in America). It is interesting to note the establishment of the Catholic Faith in Korea as far back as 1781, and the attitude of the Japanese officials of to-day serves to recall the persecutions suffered by the early Korean Catholics and the European missionaries. - Japan received the Faith from St. Francis Xavier, and for a century Christianity flourished there. When it disappeared from the kingdom, the survivors of so many massacres bore with them to their retreat in the mountains many of the practices, and in a mutilated. form, two of the Sacraments of the Catholic Faith. '.Korea, however, presents even a more miraculous history. It was cut off from the outer world, and it had never ■ seen a priest. At the end of the eighteenth century several native students came across some religious treatises in Chinese. One of them, a Peter Seng-Houni, became acquainted with the Bishop of Peking, a Portuguese Franciscan. On his return to his own country he took with him religious books, crucifixes and sacred pictures, which he distributed among his friends. He instructed and baptised a number of his countrymen, who in turn became catechists and spread the truths of the Faith. They instructed the neophytes in Christian practices, the sanctification of Sunday, the observance of fasts and abstinence, and according to their, knowledge even the Sacrament of marriage. Ten years later the first Catholic priest entered . Korea. In the meantime, thinking that they could . transmit the priesthood, as they did Baptism, they consecrated a bishop and ordained a number of priests, following the description of Peter Seng-Houni, who had seen an ordination ceremony in Peking. When informed of their errors they immediately obeyed the order of the Bishop of Peking and discontinued their practices. In 1791, the first persecution broke out, and the history of fidelity of the neophytes to their newfound faith is one of the most glorious pages of the Church. In 1794, the first priest, Father James Tsiou, sent by the Bishop of Peking, arrived in Korea. Pie found more than four thousand Christians. His ministry was blessed with splendid results, and for seven years the number steadily increased. In 1801 the second persecution broke out, and Father Tsiou, thinking to avert danger from his people, delivered himself up to the authorities, and was beheaded, after undergoing indescribable tortures. In 1831, a Vicariate Apostolic was established, but The First European Missionary Did Not Gain An Entrance to the country until 1836. It is worthy of remark that the Korean Church for forty-seven years carried on its work without priests, without any Sacraments, except Baptism, and with no preaching save that of the catechists. It passed through the general persecutions of 1791, 1801, 1815, and 1827, and enrolled as martyrs more than a thousand confessors of the Faith. Time and again addresses were sent to Rome, asking for priests, but owing to the unsettled condition of many countries in Europe a favorable answer could not be given. In 1831, Bishop Bruguiere was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Korea, by Gregory XVI. After incredible hardships which he suffered in passing through China and Mongolia, he died in Tartary, just as he was about to enter the country of his mission. The second bishop, Mgr. Hubert, gained entrance to the kingdom in 1837, but two years later he and two priests were beheaded. This persecution was more general and systematic than

the preceding ones, but the Korean Catholics remained faithful, and the apostasies were few.- Five years elapsed before a priest succeeded in passing the blockade, which had been established all along the Korean frontier to prevent the entrance of Europeans. Bishop Ferreol, a Father Daveluy , and a young Korean priest, Andrew Kim, who had been ordained in China, succeeded in gaining an entrance. The latter was sent ahead into the interior, fell into the hands of the soldiery, and after a heroic confession of the Faith was beheaded. The bishop, worn out by privations and sufferings, died a short time after, making the third Vicar Apostolic that the Church had lost in Korea in ten years. The Entire History of the Succeeding Bishops down to the year 1883 is written in the blood of the devoted prelates who offered their lives for the Faith, and . in the hope that God would bless the Korean mission, for which they had given their lives. In that year Bishop Blanc was consecrated at Nagasaki, Japan, and returned to his Vicariate on board a German vessel. He immediately set to work to organise his forces, consisting of eight missionaries and seven thousand Christians. In 1885, the first orphanage was established, and a home for the aged. They were at first placed in charge of native Christians,' but in 1888 the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres assumed control. To-day the number of Catholics in Korea is 78,619. There are two bishops, 51 European and 15 native priests. A seminary, fully equipped, is now supplying Korean priests, and at present fifty young natives arepursuing their studies in preparation for the priesthood. There are 73 churches and chapels and 124 schools, three dispensaries and an hospital. These are astonishing figures when it is recalled that the . persecutions ended only three decades ago. The erection of the Catholic cathedral at Seoul marks distinctly the progress that the Church had make since* the close of the days when to be a Catholic meant death. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres have received into their community native girls who wished to embrace religious life. There are now 23 professed Korean Sisters and 38 novices and postulants. Bishop Mutel bears upon his episcopal seal the words, Flortte , flores Marty ’: flourish, flowers of the martyrs. After more than a century of unparalleled sufferings the Korean Church at last is at peace. This blessed result is the work of God, helped by the heroic constancy of the native Christians and the self-sacrificing priests who gave their lives to win the blessing of faith for the people of their adopted country. The Catholic missionaries labouring in the mission field of Korea to-day are occupied with their Master’s business, content with the liberty afforded by the regency of Japan to give the Gospel Message to the people of Korea, who seem so well disposed to accept it.