Wonsinheung-dong Catholic Church

History & origins

Wonsinheung-dong Parish was established on January 12, 2011. The Catholic Church directory in Korea records this date and names the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the parish's patronal title. According to a Catholic Times article on the dedication of the new church, the community began in January 2011 with 92 households and 245 Catholics and at first shared facilities with its mother parish, Yuseong. It emerged as the newly developed Doan district created a need for an independent parish community in the new residential area.

In December of that year, the community established a prefabricated temporary church as the base of parish life. As more people moved into the Doan new town and attendance at the principal Sunday Mass increased, the temporary church became increasingly crowded. The report notes that some parishioners eventually had to participate from outside the church while watching the Mass by video, showing why construction of a new church became an urgent concern for the community.

The new church project was pursued through parishioners' offerings and a process of gathering community opinions on the site and design. Groundbreaking took place on Easter Sunday in 2016, followed by about two years of construction. On June 9, 2018, Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik presided over the dedication of the new church. Seven years after the parish was established, the community thus moved beyond its temporary church and gained a permanent place for its liturgical life.

The early history of Wonsinheung-dong Parish can therefore be summarized as the growth of a small new-town community that began with borrowed space, passed through a temporary church, and built a permanent church through the participation of its members. The process shows how demographic change in the Doan area and the urban pastoral work of the Diocese of Daejeon came together in the formation of a new parish community.