Yeongji Catholic Church

History & origins

Yeonji Parish began when Catholics from Imho and Gimhae Parishes formed a new community during a period of expanding population and residential development in central Gimhae. From the beginning, securing an independent church building was a central task, and the community prepared to construct a new place of worship.

Ground was broken for Yeonji Catholic Church on June 19, 2011. The project called for a four-story church building, and Bishop Son Sam-seok, then vicar general of the Diocese of Busan, attended the groundbreaking and encouraged the new community. During construction, parishioners supported the project through prayer and offerings, seeking to build the church through diocesan support and the resources of the parish community rather than relying on fundraising from other parishes.

About ten months after construction began, the new church was dedicated on May 6, 2012. In addition to the main worship space, the building included a hall, dining area, rectory, parish office, meeting rooms, and catechetical rooms needed for pastoral life. With the dedication, Yeonji Parish moved from being a newly separated community to a parish with a stable and independent pastoral base.

The early history of Yeonji Parish is brief but clear: growth in existing parishes gave rise to a new Catholic community, and the faithful soon joined together to build a church and establish an independent center of faith in a new residential area of Gimhae. At the time of the dedication, the parish community was described as comprising more than four hundred households and over one thousand Catholics. This indicates that the new parish was not merely creating a small place of worship; an already substantial community required independent spaces for liturgy, catechesis, administration, and parish life.