Chojeon Catholic Church

History & origins

The formation of Chojeon Parish grew out of the development of the mission communities in the wider Seongju area. After Seongju was raised to parish status in 1950, it served numerous rural mission stations over a broad territory, and Benedictine priests were involved in the pastoral care of the region for a period. As these communities grew, the need increased to divide the territory and provide pastoral care closer to the faithful.

Chojeon Parish was separated from Seongju Parish and established on January 5, 1980. Even after becoming a parish, the community continued to use the mission-station building constructed in 1959 as its church. This is a clear example of a mission community becoming the immediate foundation of a new parish and of rural Catholic life in Seongju developing into an independent parish.

Plans for a new church to replace the long-used mission building gained momentum around the Great Jubilee of 2000. Church-history material preserved on Catholic GoodNews records that parishioners and members of the mission communities worked together to raise construction funds, and that the new church was dedicated in 2003. The history of Chojeon can thus be read as a communal journey from mission station to parish and then to the building of a new church.