Hyeonri Catholic Church

History & origins

The formation of the parish community in Hyeonri began with the effort to provide a proper church building even before an independent parish was established. When the existing mission-station building became too small, a military chaplain asked Bishop Thomas Park of Chuncheon for assistance. Land was secured in Hyeonri and construction of a church and presbytery began. With the cooperation of the Diocese of Chuncheon, local Catholics, military chaplaincy supporters, and soldiers, the work was completed, and Bishop Thomas Park blessed the new church on July 5, 1979.

As the Catholic community continued to grow around the church, Hyeonri was separated from Cheongpyeong Parish and became a quasi-parish on September 1, 1983. This was an intermediate stage toward becoming an independent pastoral community. Under the ministry of diocesan and military priests, the number of Catholics increased and the community’s institutional foundation developed further.

On April 19, 1994, Hyeonri Quasi-Parish was elevated to a parish and St. Andrew Kim Taegon became its patron. The progression from a cramped mission-station space to a new church, then from quasi-parish to parish, shows how the Catholic community of Hyeonri gradually established a stable pastoral structure through cooperation among military and civilian Catholics and the diocese.

It is also significant that the church building in Hyeonri preceded the creation of the quasi-parish. A stable place for Catholics to gather came first; the community then grew around it and only afterward received the successive canonical structures of quasi-parish and parish. This shows that Hyeonri’s development was not simply an administrative decision, but the institutional recognition of a Catholic life that had already taken root locally.