Jeonui Catholic Church

History & origins

The Catholic community in Jeonui began in 1957 as the Jeonui mission station of Jochiwon Parish. In its early years there was no separate mission-station building, so services were held in the homes of parishioners in succession. A donation from a lay Catholic made it possible to build a mission hall in 1974, and as the community became more stable, a church-building committee was organized in 1977 in preparation for an independent parish. A rectory was completed in 1979.

The Jeonui mission station was raised to the status of a parish in April 1980. The official Catholic directory gives April 11 as the date of establishment, while the Catholic Encyclopedia gives April 17 as the date of elevation, so this account does not choose between the two days. Only a few months after the parish was founded, a major flood in July washed away the wooden church. With disaster-relief donations from parishes around the country and the contributions and labor of local Catholics, construction of a new church began in March 1981 and a one-story church was completed in October.

The community then continued to expand the facilities that supported parish life. A hall and rectory were added in 1984, and repairs and landscaping of the church were completed in 1990. Beginning in 1993, parishioners planned a residence for elderly people without family support and raised funds through a bazaar and sales of local products; the resulting “House of Joseph” was completed in 1994. The Sojeong-ri mission station under the parish was closed in 1995, and in 2001 a former convent building was renovated for use as an education center and office.

This chronology shows how Jeonui grew from a mission station into a parish, rebuilt its church after a natural disaster, and gradually added spaces for formation and care. The repeated contribution and voluntary labor of local Catholics at major turning points is one of the defining features of the parish's history.