Kim Cheong Catholic Church

History & origins

Catholic history in the Gimcheon region reaches well before the establishment of the parish and is connected with records from the era of persecution. The Archdiocese of Daegu's pilgrimage material states that during the Sinyu Persecution of 1801, Park Chunsan was exiled to Gimcheon because of his Catholic faith, while Hyeon Gyetak was exiled to Jeungsan in connection with his brother's faith. Later, Catholics fleeing persecution from Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces formed mountain communities in places such as Majam, Meokbangi, and Jangjateo.

On this foundation of faith, Gimcheon Parish, today's Gimcheon Hwanggeum Parish, was established in 1901. The archdiocese describes it as the third parish established within the territory of the present Archdiocese of Daegu, after Daegu and Gasil. The first pastor, Father Kim Seong-hak, began ministry in a small thatched house at Jarabatgol, and in 1907 a tile-roofed church was dedicated, giving the parish a permanent place of worship.

In 1934, a red-brick Gothic church was built, and the old church remains today as a witness to the parish's long history. On May 27, 2000, for the parish centenary, a centennial church was dedicated across from the old church in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan.

The history of Gimcheon Hwanggeum thus runs from exile and mountain Catholic villages during persecution, through the establishment of a parish and successive church buildings in the early twentieth century, to the centennial church. Its importance goes beyond the chronology of one parish: the site condenses the process by which Catholic communities took root in Gimcheon and northern Gyeongsang Province. The archdiocese's assessment that the parish established in 1901 became a center for evangelization in Gimcheon and northern Gyeongsang broadens its history beyond the chronology of its buildings. The present landscape, where the old church and the centennial church remain together, also makes the transition from the early parish to the modern community visible in one place, allowing pilgrims to read the traces of Catholic life from different periods in continuity.