Korea Received the Faith From France, Now They're Sending It Back

In my years as a Catholic, I've known many priests from former "mission countries". One was from South Vietnam, another French mission country.

From Aleteia

By Theresa Civantos Barber

190 years since French missionaries struggled to enter Korea, priests from South Korea go as missionaries to France and other nations.

The 20th century saw Christianity decline in much of the Western world — but not in the East. And now, centuries after European missionaries carried Christianity to Asia, evangelization is happening in reverse.

On February 20, the Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea, gathered at Myeongdong Cathedral for a departure Mass that “carried an unusual historical symmetry”: 

Three priests were commissioned for overseas service — two to France and one to Japan — marking what Church leaders described as a symbolic reversal of Korea’s missionary past.

The most resonant posting is that of Father Lee Jun to the Diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne in southern France. The region was home to Barthélemy Bruguière, the first Vicar Apostolic of Korea.

“It has been 190 years since our first Vicar Apostolic struggled to enter Korea,” Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick said in his homily. “Today we retrace his path in reverse, reconnecting that missionary road to his homeland. In a sense, the journey of Bishop Bruguière — from Carcassonne toward Joseon — is completed.”

That first vicar actually never made it to Korea: Authorities at the time were persecuting Christians, and they prevented him from entering the country despite his repeated attempts. But other French priests from the Paris Foreign Missions Society successfully entered the country soon after that — albeit illegally — bringing their faith and the sacraments to the bravely persevering Christian community.

Opposite trajectories

While Christianity declines in much of Europe, in other parts of the world — including India, Korea, and many African nations — the opposite is happening. 

Especially in South Korea, the Catholic Church is seeing explosive growth, with membership increasing by nearly 1,200% over the past 50 years to roughly 6 million people — about 11% of the population. 

The nation will host World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027, the first to be held in a country where Christians are a minority, and only the second to take place in Asia (after the Philippines).

Korea has a proud Catholic heritage as “the only country in history that evangelized itself,” when Korean scholars in the 1700s learned about Catholicism from reading Western books. 

Without any priests or missionaries among them, more than 4,000 Koreans were Christians by the time a priest missionary came to them.

An almost unbelievable prediction

Incredibly enough, at least one European intellectual guessed that missionaries from the East would come back to evangelize Europe someday.

Nobel Prize-winning Catholic writer Sigrid Undset predicted this scenario almost a century ago:

In 1927 she prophetically wrote in an essay that the number of the faithful would diminish in Europe, but also predicted that countries that once were evangelized by the West would send its missionaries from Latin America, Asia and Africa to bring the faith of our forefathers back.

Ninety-nine years after Undset wrote those words, her prediction came true.

It’s a remarkable historical moment, and a powerful witness to the vibrancy of the Korean Catholic Church. Korea’s CPBC News described the change “from mission Church to missionary Church”:

South Korea is now home to one of Asia’s most dynamic Catholic communities, with seminaries that produce more priests than are required for domestic service. Sending clergy abroad—once unthinkable—is becoming routine.

The growth of the Church in South Korea is blessing the Church around the world—what a fitting time for Seoul to host World Youth Day.

Pictured: Yakhyeon Catholic Church (Church of St Joseph), Seoul, South Korea