Cheongyang Catholic Church

History & origins

Cheongyang Parish began in 1964 when it was separated from Gyuam Parish. The parish's official history contains an internal date discrepancy: its overview gives June 24, while the chronological table gives July 7; the official Catholic directory also records July 7 as the establishment date. For that reason, the text here centers on the undisputed fact that the parish was separated from Gyuam Parish in 1964 rather than forcing a single exact date into the narrative.

The early community used a building in Eupnae-ri and later began construction of a new church in 1975, completing that church in May 1976. As parish life developed, the community also became involved with mission stations and places associated with the memory of martyr faith in the Cheongyang area. In the 1980s, the parish chronology records plans and land preparations connected with the Nongam-ri Julmudeom site, showing that local pastoral activity also became linked with preserving the region's Catholic memory.

A major transition took place in the 1990s and led to the present church. Land for a new church was purchased in 1994. In 1997 the former church was sold and construction of the new church began. The community moved to the new site at Eupnae-ri 2 in June 1998, and on November 7, 1999, the church was dedicated in a liturgy presided over by Bishop Joseph Kyeong Gap-ryong. This sequence established the physical base of the present parish church.

Work on the church and its pastoral environment continued afterward, including repairs to the church in 2012. Cheongyang Parish's history can thus be read as the development of a small local Catholic community that first secured an independent church, later rebuilt and relocated to its present site, and at the same time cared for the region's memory of martyr faith.