개화기 프랑스 선교사들의 정착과 한국 인식

Abstract

Since their return to Korea in 1876, French missionaries, in efforts to reconstruct a Christian community, had engaged in community activities such as cultivating catechist, offering free funeral services and running orphanage, nursing home, pharmacy and even schools. Their outreach efforts played a significant role in the interactions between the Catholic Church and local communities and contributed to increasing the number of Catholics in Korea. In the meantime, the French missionaries were able to settle down in the country. They carried out their missionary work based on the Korea-France Treaty’s provisions for consular jurisdiction and the protection of foreigners and with support from the French Minister to Korea. As a result, they came to have considerable influence and better status especially in rural communities. Furthermore, the exoneration of Nam Jong-sang and Hong Bong-ju in January 1895 and the audience of Bishop Mutel with King Gojong in August of the same year constituted important backgrounds for missionaries to settle down in a local community. Meanwhile, those missionaries who settled in Korea during its Enlightenment Period treated Korean people and their culture with a Western sense of cultural superiority and recognized the Japanese rule of Korea based on the perception that the country was politically corrupt and backward, ignoring the issue of Korean independence. The missionaries took a pro-regime position in order to have freedom of religion guaranteed, although they were well aware of the difficulties of the people who had suffered exploitation and had a understanding of what Japan’s invasion did mean. Consequently, they supported the Joseon Dynasty’s regime while it was in place and accepted the Japanese rule after the forced Eulsa Treaty concluded in 1905. In conclusion, the freedom of religion and doubts about Korea’s ability to achieve independence constituted a main reason why the French missionaries ignored Korea’s national issues during the Enlightenment Period; however, the way that they looked at Korean problems as Frenchmen can be said to have underlain such perceptions.