The year 2012 is the fiftieth anniversary of its hierarchical constitution of the Roman Catholic Church in Korea. On March 10th, 1962, Pope John XXIII established three Provinces with as many Metropolitan Sees(Archdiocese) and eleven Dioceses(eight Suffragan Sees) in territory of Korea by his pastoral letter “Fertile Evangelii semen”. Through this act, the Catholic Church in Korea could make her own appearance of particular churches of the Roman Catholic Church. Historically, it took 131 years, since the Chosun apostolic vicariate had been established in 1831.
The purpose of this article is to reveal the juridical meaning of the ordinary hierarchical constitution in Korea and to study the various changes caused by this significant act. To accomplish these objects, it is necessary to concretely analyze juridical terms of the pastoral letter from Pope John XXIII, “Fertile Evangelii semen”, line by line.
From the canonical prospective, the ordinary hierarchical constitution brought various changes to the Catholic Church in Korea. First of all, every apostolic vicariates in Korea were elevated to become dioceses, which indicated that they were recognized as intact particular churches of the Roman Catholic Church. And three ecclesiastical provinces were established as well, which has a certain territorial boundary drawn by apostolic authority. The ecclesiastical province is community of numerous particular churches, in order to promote the common pastoral activities in neighboring diocese. Moreover, proper pastors to govern each particular church are no longer apostolic vicars, who govern their apostolic vicariates in the name of the Supreme Pontiff. Each apostolic vicars, who had been titular bishops, were elevated to diocesan bishops, and cathedra and cathedral churches of each Dioceses were appointed consequentially. Therefore, diocesan bishops, who possess all the ordinary, proper and immediate authority to exercise his pastoral office, govern each particular church with their own authorities. The hierarchical constitution of 1962, however, was not the perfect step to accomplish the complete shape of particular church. Thus to serve the faithful in better way, it was required for the Catholic Church in Korea to introduce more practical institutions; such as conferences of bishops, diocesan synod, episcopal council, presbyteral council, etc.