In a recent issue of the Kyeongyang magazine a priest seminary professor in the history department and director of the diocesan history research center gives the readers a look into an important issue in the history of the Asian Church.
The professor was present at the Maryknoll Mission Society's 100th anniversary of mission work in Korea. At the ceremony celebrated in the diocese of Cheong Ju, the professor met some of the old missioners still here in Korea.
The society began mission work in China in 1918 and in 1923 they moved beyond the borders of China to the diocese of Pyongyang where the relationship with Korea began.
With the Communist takeover of the North in the Korean War, the society's presence in the North ended, and the beginning of work in the South. For the last 70 years, they have experienced the results of the upheaval from a divided Korea and are now a small group of old and sick missioners. They are slowly disappearing. Extermination is a sad concept to deal with but with the missioners, it has another meaning. Like the wheat seed that has to die to give new life.
Foreign Mission work was not at one time seen as temporary. He mentions a 1935 article that appeared in a mission magazine which stated: if the missioners are so needed in our situation why are they so lukewarm in their mission work? Along with this provocative question, the writer emphasized that missioners should be working to put themselves out of a job. Many of the missioners at that time did not see themself as temporary and the response met with controversy, opposition, and anger among many.
The missioner's excessive sense of ownership of their mission area was a problem that emerged from the early days of world missions that began with the Age of Discovery. More than a person's conviction or attitude the colonialism's structure in which they were involved was more of a problem. The priest gives the readers an understanding of the Padroado, Protectorat, and Concession policies of the times.
The Padroado was the missionary jurisdiction that was given by the Church to a country. Very easy to understand the problems that would arise. Protectorate was another word for 'protected state'. Protectorates are weak territories protected and partly controlled by stronger ones. And we have the Concessions of China: residential areas in China are classed as "settlements" and "concessions," regions set apart by the Chinese Government within which foreigners may reside and lease land. The writer mentions the movie 55 Days at Peking which dramatized the siege of the foreign legations in Peking now Beijing during the Boxer Uprising in the summer of 1900.
Although the movie was made in 1963 it was easy to see the way the Western countries looked upon the Chinese. It was a minority but within that group, we had those with their feelings of superiority and controlling instincts that put the whole work of evangelization in a bad light and incited the Boxer movement in China, and gave rise to those who fought strenuously against this 'protectorate' of the status quo in China. Two such persons were Fr. Vincent Lebbe 1877-1940 and his close friend Fr. Anthony Cotta 1872-1957.
After the Opium War, the great powers slowly influenced the continent greatly and through a series of treaties the church, gained vitality. Skipping over the problems of the time that the professor describes in detail freedom of religion is a modern concept. It was a kind of acquiescence, but the church quickly became a part of imperialism with the help of the powers encroaching deep into China.
The church's reputation hit rock bottom. Lebbe's understanding of a Chinese Church of the Chinese went beyond the Jesuit idea of the Accommodation Policy of the Jesuit Missionaries. He wanted to put the yeast into the Chinese flour and let it permeate the whole mass. This was not only external but internal. He wanted to be Chinese not only in food, clothing, and shelter but also in his thoughts and attitudes.
This approach to the missions in China at that time was not received well by his own society or the Church established in China.
In 1915 Lebbe and the Chinese Catholic founded the Catholic newspaper Yishibao which became one of the great Newspapers of that period. It is not necessary to see the heroic efforts of Lebbe as the only reason for changes. Recognizing the harmful effects of mission protection early on, the Vatican also attempted to establish direct diplomatic relations with China despite repeated disturbances by France from the end of the 19th century and completely broke the link with formal diplomatic relations with China in 1946.
On October 28, 1926, the first 6 Chinese bishops ordained in modern times were consecrated by Pope Pius XI in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. At the ceremony in Rome Fr. Vincent Lebbe was present. What is sad was the first Chinese bishop was consecrated in 1685.
History is not only the will of a few authoritative people, but also the experience gained by society from the inspiration and awareness of the unknown, and often the dedication of the outcasts like Fr. Vincent Lebbe and Fr. Anthony Cotta, which gradually catch on and become part of our reality.
