The fact that Catholicism growth in late Chos?n society implies that political ideologies put forth in the public sphere were separate from the religious faith held by civilians. So much as to justify a life-dependent struggle. Catholicism was subject to persecution, being branded as a “corrupt doctrine”(sagyo : 耶敎). Yet as a subculture it communicated with other such subcultures and brought about a rift in the Neo-Confucianism based late Chos?n society.
Along with the constructions of a patriarchal culture, myths and oral traditions regarding women were gradually faded out. In contrast, religious activity regarding the Holy Goddess(山神 聖母) and the Holy Mother(聖母) increased in late Chos?n. Within the worship of Holy Goddess, Holy Mother as a subculture, the Catholic Holy Mother(St. Mary) was also introduced to Chos?n society. The Catholic Holy Mother was a symbol of purity, humility, and obedience, but moreover, she was also a active agent in the birth of Jesus Christ and salvation. Thus by at first clashing and interacting with late Chos?n’S subculture of goddess worship, the Catholic Holy Mother was solidified as its own religious ethos.
The figure of Jesus was a difficult concept to convey to late Chos?n society. The idea that Jesus was born without a physical father and instead only though the active role of the Holy Mother had no correlatives within the patriarchal culture based on the Neo-Confucianism. Furthermore the idea that Jesus was the Son of God and thus a Holy Son was a source of cultural shock for Chos?n society. A more problematic relationship was that between Jesus and his father, God, who apparently was manifest as his son. It was a mystery in the intellectual framework of Confucianism as to how a substantial Jesus could be amalgamated with heavenly being. Besides, from a government’s viewpoint, Jesus, like Siddhartha Buddha, was someone claiming to have control over heaven and earth and luring people, like many ‘Living Buddha’(生佛) claimants of the time.
Another shock to Chos?n society by Catholicism was how faithful formed a new community based on the commonality of religious belief. The Catholic community had some internal organization, and believers sometimes left their family and hometown for that community. In the eyes of the state, the Catholics were a covertly organized society, potentially a threat to the stability nation as the White Lotus Movement had been for the Qing Dynasty.
It may be hard to conclude that Catholicism’s religious culture accelerated the fall of patriarchal culture. It is also difficult to say that Catholicism was a counter culture with an explicit intention to confront the normative social structures of late Chos?n. Nonetheless, Catholicism blended and clashed with other subcultures and eventually led to a greater flow of change that encompassed a shift in social structure.