Jibo Mission Station

History & origins

The establishment of the present-day mission community in Jibo was the result of many years of lay effort. In a diocesan feature on the mission station, Kim Jeong-il Peter recalled that when he moved to the area from Toegang in 1974, there was no nearby mission station, so he traveled to Dojang and Wonhang Gongso. Over roughly the next ten years, he sought out Catholics in the area, and about ten households—around thirty faithful—were gathered back into a community. Because there was no suitable place for the seasonal sacraments, his own home was sometimes used. The fact that lay Catholics themselves searched for other believers and rebuilt a local community at a time when no nearby mission station existed shows that Jibo Gongso began with gathering people before it had a building of its own.

As the number of faithful increased, a separate space for the mission station became necessary. Using money they had saved together with diocesan assistance, the community purchased a building that had formerly included a silkworm-rearing room and renovated it for use as a chapel. In 1983, Bishop René Dupont blessed and dedicated the space to God. The process shows how Catholics in a rural area far from the parish church first sought one another out, formed a community, and then, with diocesan help, created a place for the liturgy. The property they acquired had originally contained a silkworm-raising room, which was adapted for liturgy and community gatherings. Transforming an ordinary rural work space into a place of prayer also reflects the practical conditions under which the mission station developed.

As the years passed, plans were made to replace the older space with a new chapel. According to diocesan records, members raised funds through farming, including sweet-potato cultivation, while Yecheon Parishioners and other benefactors also contributed. The new chapel prepared through these efforts was dedicated on October 5, 2019. The history of Jibo Gongso is therefore best understood not as a single construction project, but as a continuous process that began with gathering scattered Catholics and continued as the community created the spaces it needed through its own efforts and through solidarity with the parish and diocese. Because the new chapel was made possible not only by the mission-station members but also by the parish community and outside benefactors, the 2019 dedication was also the fruit of a long-standing partnership between the gongso and its parish.