Chosun Prosecution of Catholics

Catholicism is now a mainstream religion in (South) Korea, but this has not always been the case.

During the late Chosun dynasty, authorities saw Roman Catholicism as a "dangerous heterodoxy that intended a social revolution (The Chosun Government's Measures against Catholicism by Cho Kwang, Translated by Ch'oe Mi-hwa, in The Founding of Catholic Tradition in Korea, Ed. Chai-Shin Yu, Asian Humanities Press 2004)

Authorities attributed their then deepening feeling of crisis to the prevalence of Catholicism, but "were at a loss to account for its popularity among the lower classes."

So counter-measures were taken, including strengthening the Confucian culture, keeping the traditional value system and social order alive, and preventing the spread of Catholicism at the local level.

"If orthodoxy was clarified, they believed, the new heterodoxy would cease; they (also) prohibited the introduction and distribution of Catholic books ... (to deter the "corrupt practice of trading in the vile books")," Cho wrote.

Attempts were also made to persuade Catholics to leave the faith "by both mild means and persecution", and even through exiles and executions.

In 1791, the Chinsan event occurred, where Yun Chi-ch'ung and Kwon Sang-yon - in an attempt to follow Catholic teachings - burned their ancestral tablets.

"They were punished neither as rebels nor as immoralists but were given the punishments prescribed for those who were followers of heterodoxy and grave robbers. They were beheaded as grave robbers."

Earlier on, measures taken to counter Catholicism were milder, and included persuading Catholics to apostatize, granting a stay of execution to those who willingly abandoned Catholicism, and setting people free "after a beating if they had renounced Catholicism due to torture."

But authorities were highly puzzled as to why nobles could become involved in Catholicism.

"Though your position is low, you are still different from the really mean people. Why did you become a Catholic?" - stated a government material.

Cho Kwang noted that ordinary people saw the faith as a way to overcome "the conflict of pre-modern society".

But according to Yi Won-sun, the nobles "thought that Catholicism sought for a better and higher value", and because they hoped "to find an outlet for the human agony in the absurd reality of late Chosun society, not through institutional innovation nor through industrialization, but through searching for the value of a new idea."

"They accepting Catholicism was an effort to seek something for humanity, and they were intellectuals looking forward to the future, " (The Sirhak Scholars' Perspectives on Sohak, in The Founding of Catholic Faith in Korea, Ed. Chai-shin Yu, Asian Humanities Press, 2004).