빌렘(Wilhelm, 홍석구) 신부의 활동과 對韓認識

This study is to trace the missionary work of Father Wilhelm and his understanding of Korea from 1883 to the early 1896 for 13 years, before he was sent to Hwanghaedo. Following is the discussion which I brought into. First, Father Wilhelm was with ‘La Societe des Missions Etrangeres de Paris’ on 17th of February 1883, he became a priest. Therefore, he started his first missionary work at Seminary in Penang as a professor. At the seminary, he taught the Latin language and met Koreans students. Father Wilhelm could learn about the Joseon Dynasty indirectly from them. Second, Father Wilhelm came to the Joseon Dynasty and called the country as a ‘new hometown’, ‘the land of martyr.' Back then, there were Protestant missionaries also. Father Wilhelm had a faith that only Catholic people can be saved and get eternal life. Therefore, he believed that Protestantism was different from Catholicism and spread wrong doctrine. Therefore, he didn't acknowledged them. In addition, even though the Joseon Dynasty is the land of martyr, low class officers had hostility against Catholicism and he assumed this was causing persecution of Catholicism. Third, Father Wilhelm was appointed as the first priest of Jemulpo parish church. Regarding the fact that most of his people were merchant, he asked the bishop to expand the number of mass and made sure that anytime, they could receive the sacrament. To have a stable and firm foundation for the missionary work, he bought land and established catholic church and the attached building. He did this because he wanted Jemulpo parish church to play the key role and function in Jemulpo area. These efforts brought incredible increase of the number of people in the Jemulpo parish church. Four, on the 1st of November 1890, Father Wilhelm became a professor of Yongsan Seminary and met his old students at Penang. While he was at Yongsan, there were two ceremonies of ordination in 1866 and 1892. He was pleased because students he taught in Penang became Priests. He was a principal of that school before he went to France because of the death of Father Liouville. Five, to achieve the nationality of France, Father Wilhelm left the Joseon Dynasty for a while on 19th of August 1893. Before he went to France, Bishop Mutel gave him a mission to collect a fund for the missionary work. Therefore, he had a fund raising activity in France mainly to families and people in the hometown. When you see the letter while he was in this kind of job, you can notice that he preferred meeting with people to professor job. He wanted to go into their lives and breathe together changing and leading them as a missionary.