An Chunggun Commemoration Mass

One of the main focuses of my study is a man named An Chunggun. He is most famous for assassinating Ito Hirobumi, the first Resident-General of Korea and because of that, is a great nationalist hero in Korea today. He was also a Catholic. He didn't receive much public recognition as such from the Church until 1993 when Cardinal Stephen Kim Suhwan declared him to be both a good patriot and a good Catholic. After that, for several years there were masses in his honor. Then they stopped. After going to the secular services commemorating the 99th anniversary of his execution on March 26th 2009 I went to Myeongdong Cathederal (the central church for Catholics, located in downtown Seoul) but I didn't see anything having to do with him. This year, on October 26th, the 100th anniversary of the day he shot Ito Hirobumi, it was decided to have a mass in Myeongdong in his honor. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend.

Outside the church was a stand selling pottery and plates with An's calligraphy on them. He signed his calligraphy with his hand print, made distinctive because his ring finger was missing the tip above the knuckle. He cut it off and wrote "Korean Independence" in his blood on a Korean flag. This was a traditional way of showing sincerity.

This is one of the side doors into the cathedral. The people in the stand to the left were handing out the mass bulletins and prayer cards.

I need time to study and reflect on this and will include it in my dissertation but there were things that really stuck out to me:

1) A selection from An Chunggun's writing (the part where he describes why and how he cut off the tip of his finger) was used with the other mass readings.

2) There were no prayers for the resting of An's soul or of Ito's soul.