Haeundae Cathedral

History & origins

The Catholic community in Haeundae can be traced to November 8, 1959. At that time Father Jeong Su-gil, pastor of Suyeong Parish, responded to the long distance between the parish church and Haeundae and to the area’s growing population and number of Catholics by renting Hosu Café in Jung-dong for the first Mass and discussing the establishment of a mission station. Land was purchased in U 1-dong in March 1960, and the Haeundae mission station was formally established on April 15, 1961. Catholics from both Haeundae and the Gijang area came there for Mass and catechetical instruction.

In February 1962 the mission station became directly administered by the Diocese of Busan, beginning formal preparations for elevation to a parish. From June that year Father Je Chan-gyu took responsibility for the community and arranged a church of about 29 pyeong near the present parish site. From October Father Lee Yeong-sik continued the ministry and completed a church building in Jung-dong. This period marked the community’s transition from a temporary place for Mass to a stable Catholic community with its own liturgical space. The early church building completed in this period was later converted for use as a kindergarten, leaving a trace of how the growing parish adapted its earlier facilities for new pastoral and educational purposes.

Bishop Choi Jae-seon of Busan elevated Haeundae mission station to a parish on January 12, 1963, and appointed Father Kim Yu-jae as its first pastor. A priest’s residence was subsequently built, and a convent for a local community of the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs was also established, expanding the pastoral infrastructure of the new parish. The history of Haeundae Parish is therefore the story of a small Mass community created in response to urban growth, developing through the mission-station stage into an independent parish. After the first pastor took office, a two-story priest residence was completed in November of that year, and a convent for a local community of the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs was subsequently built and blessed the following October.