This is the 11th in a series of articles highlighting the life of Ahn Jung-geun on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his assassination of the first Japanese resident-general of Korea, Hirobumi Ito, on Oct. 26, 1909, in China.

By Franklin Rausch
Contributing Writer

Catholicism played an important but complex part in Ahn Jung-geun's life.

Ahn converted to Catholicism, along with the vast majority of his family and many members of his village, at the urging of his father, Ahn Tae-hun.

The story of Ahn Tae-hun's conversion is itself quite interesting.

He led a righteous army that helped defeat the Tonghak peasant revolution of 1894-1895.

According to An Jung-geun's autobiography, after a decisive victory over the Tonghak, Ahn Tae-hun captured a large store of rice that Tonghak forces had taken from two powerful government officials.

Tae-hun used the rice to feed his army. Later, the two officials demanded that he pay them back and so Tae-hun was forced to seek refuge in a Catholic church, Catholicism being under the protection of the French government at that time.

During his time at the church, Ahn Tae-hun heard many sermons and read Catholic books.

According to Ahn Jung-geun, he came to believe in Catholicism.

After the rice incident was resolved, he returned home and converted most of his family and the people in his village, including Ahn Jung-geun.

While it seems that Ahn Tae-hun converted in part because of the power the Catholic church had to offer, Ahn Jung-geun wrote in his autobiography that after his own baptism, he learned more about the faith and became a devout and sincere believer.

After Ahn converted, he helped Father Joseph Wilhelm, the priest who had baptized him, undertake missionary work in Hwanghae Province.

Ahn recorded in his autobiography a sample of the missionary speech he would give.

In addition to the basic Gospel story that Jesus had died to obtain forgiveness of sins and then had risen from the dead, Ahn preached that God wanted people to do good deeds, which he would reward with eternal joy in heaven, and avoid evil ones, which he would punish with eternal suffering in hell.

Ahn's understanding of Catholicism can therefore be said to have emphasized justice.

Furthermore, Ahn believed that actions had consequences, not only in this life, but throughout all of eternity.

Ahn's relationship with church authorities was complex.

He and Father Wilhelm were very close and the priest seems to have had a strong influence on Ahn's thought.

Ahn later suggested to him that they ask Bishop Gustave Mutel, the head of the Catholic Church in Korea, to establish a Catholic university staffed by Western experts.

Wilhelm agreed but when they made their proposal to Mutel, he refused, arguing that such an education would make Catholics indifferent to their faith.

Ahn tried to convince him otherwise but failing to do so, declared that he could no longer trust foreigners.

Despite this incident, Ahn in fact still looked to Catholic priests for guidance.

He spoke with Father Le Gac about what he should do in order to restore Korean independence and followed his advice.

However, he was at odds with Church authorities because of his independence activism as they wanted the Catholic Church to be apolitical.

This led to Ahn being refused communion just before he left to join the righteous army movement.

Curiously, shortly after this, Ahn had a dream in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him, touched him on the chest, and told him not to worry, that everything would be all right.

After Ahn's army was defeated, he escaped into the wilderness with two of his comrades.

They walked over mountains and rivers for weeks, with almost nothing to eat.

They almost died several times and at one point Ahn despaired so much that he asked God to either let them die soon or save them quickly.

He recorded in his autobiography how right after uttering this prayer they found a stream where they slaked their thirst.

Later, he quoted Confucius, telling his two comrades that a person who knows the truth in the morning can die content in the evening and then urged them to believe in God so that they could go to Heaven.

They agreed and Ahn baptized them there in the wilderness.

It was reported in newspapers that after Ahn killed Hirobumi Ito that he crossed himself and thanked God.

Ahn confirmed this at first under interrogation but later said he had done no such thing.

It is not clear why he changed his statement but perhaps he was worried that his having done so would have hurt the Catholic Church.

Ahn asked that Father Wilhelm come and visit him in prison but Bishop Mutel refused his request, apparently because he wanted Ahn to publicly repudiate his actions before he would send a priest.

Father Wilhelm, out of concern for Ahn's soul, visited him anyway, hearing his confession and giving him Holy Communion.

Mutel later punished him for his actions but Wilhelm appealed to the Vatican and was vindicated.

Just before Ahn died, he wrote a series of letters to family members and Bishop Mutel and Father Wilhelm, asking for them to pray for him.

Ahn firmly believed that by God's grace, he would be brought into Heaven, where he would later be joyfully reunited with those he loved.

Such was his faith that he even attempted to convert one of his Japanese defense lawyers to Catholicism as he was awaiting execution!

Catholicism had a complex influence on Ahn.

It was a source of pain and conflict as he struggled with church authorities who had a different vision of the proper relationships between church, state and nation.

At the same time, Catholicism contributed to his sense of morality that spurred him on to fight against injustice.

Furthermore, Catholic doctrines on the afterlife seemed to help give him the courage to risk his life and to die for what he thought was right.

The writer is a doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia in the department of Asian studies where he focuses on Korean religious history. His research was supported in 2007-2008 by the Korea Foundation and in 2008-2009 by Fulbright Korea.