안중근 의거에 대한 천주교회의 인식

Understanding of the Heroic Action of Ahn Jung-geun by the Catholic Church

The heroic action of Ahn Jung-geun has been highly admired in the history of Korean nationalist movement. Ahn assassinated Ito based on his Catholic belief, and thus considered his action not as a criminal behavior but as a rightful one. But the Catholic Church of Korea, being controlled by western missionaries, prescribed the Ahn’s action for an criminal one and thus condemned it. This attitude of the church, contenting with the incident as it appeared, ran against the teachings of the church, without a deeper understanding of the incident. The Korean missionaries and believers at that time must not have been too different from the their western counterparts by whom they were educated, although this cannot be proved with evidences. Korean Catholic Church has long been indifferent to Ahn Jung-geun and his action even after the defeat of Japan in the Pacific War. Archbishop Noh Ki-nam of Seoul Parish conducted a memorial missa for Ahn in 1947, Cardinal Kim Soo-whan delivered a missa sermon reflecting church’s earlier attitude toward Ahn, and various other activities were done by the church to cherish Ahn’s faith. Nevertheless, these activities were often piecemeal events without a deep appreciation of Ahn and his action based on Catholic faith. There appeared many researches about Ahn’s action being a legitimate self-defense based on Catholic Church. Yet these researches were done from the standpoint of ethical theology that would emphasize the teachings of universal church. Universal church would have its meaning only when it balances its teachings with the peculiarities of the local church. The local church should look into Ahn’s action with the eyes of both nationalism and theology. The study of Ahn Jung-geun and his action has to be pursued in the direction of nationalistic conscience and theology in addition to ethical theology and divinity theology. And it must continue within the lives of the faithful and the church itself.