Gimhae Catholic Church

History & origins

Gimhae Parish was established on October 20, 1959. This is the parish's official starting point recorded in the Catholic Directory in Korea. As the city of Gimhae grew and patterns of local life changed, the parish community continued its Catholic life over many decades. Later diocesan records offer glimpses of this development through sustained lay devotional activity and pastoral care for migrants.

On October 10, 2018, the "Our Beloved Mother" praesidium of the Legion of Mary at Gimhae Catholic Church held its 2,000th weekly meeting. The Diocese of Busan recorded the milestone in diocesan news, providing concrete evidence of a lay devotional community that had continued regular prayer and activity for a very long period. It shows that the parish's history was formed not only through buildings and institutions but also through the steady common life built by lay Catholics.

In 2020, diocesan material identified Gimhae Catholic Church as one of the parishes that had been offering Mass for foreign Catholics. In a region marked by industrial development and migration, this is one example of parish ministry extending to migrants and members of multicultural families. Although public sources do not present every detail of the parish's history since 1959, the continuity of lay devotional life and the widening of migrant ministry show a parish community responding to changes in its local setting and broadening the people it serves.