The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

Globalization

The History of the Church 216 Globalization With the upheavals of the French Revolution and empire having ended, Christian Europe resumed its missionary efforts, which had very nearly been interrupted. Furthered by the surge of foreign expeditions and the development of new means of transportation in the nineteenth century, the church’s work of evangelization reached into every corner of the globe, often preceding the arrival of Western settlers , and sometimes acting as a catalyst for them. Thus, the very anticlerical Prime Minister Jules Ferry (1832–93), known for his advocacy of colonialism, launched his offensive into northern Vietnam on the paths opened by Pierre Borie, a missionary martyred in 1838. In Korea, the presence of French missionaries provoked a diplomatic imbroglio that still has not been resolved. To avenge the execution of nine French priests (besides the massacre of the 8,000 Koreans they had converted), the regime of Napoleon III sent a punitive expedition to ravage the island of Kanghwa, where the venerated archives of the Choson dynasty were kept. Thanks to the underhanded deftness of French navy troops, the most precious historical archives of Korea made their way to the Bibliotèque Nationale in France and there remained, despite Korea’s demands for restitution. The French Republic refused to part from its national patrimony; little did it matter that it had been obtained by pillage. In 1993, François Mitterand sent two volumes from the collection to Seoul, on “permanent loan.” Vietnamese, Anonymous (contemporary with events, 1838) Beheading of Father Pierre Borie Maison des Missions Étrangères, Paris ...