Bukdong Co-Cathedral

Overview

Bukdong Church is a church belonging to the Archdiocese of Gwangju in Buk-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and is the first Catholic parish in the Gwangju area. The present building is a red-brick church built in 1938, and on April 30, 1999 it was designated as Gwangju Metropolitan City Monument No. 25 (Gwangju Bukdong Catholic Church). In 1957, when the Apostolic Prefecture of Gwangju was elevated to a Vicariate, it became the cathedral, and together with Imdong Church it is introduced as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Gwangju.

History

The homepage of the Archdiocese of Gwangju explains that Bukdong Church began in 1929 as a Catholic mission chapel with 10 faithful and was elevated to a parish on May 21, 1933, as the first parish in the Gwangju area, and that its early name was “Gwangju Parish” and it changed to its present name in 1949. The Gwangju Bukdong Catholic Church entry in the Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia states that in 1929 Father Park Jae-su purchased 1,000 pyeong of land on the present church site and built a small hall and a Catholic mission chapel, after which evangelization accelerated in earnest, and that the Gwangju mission chapel was elevated to a parish in 1933. The following year Father Mae Gerard (Gerard Marinan) arrived as assistant priest, purchased an additional 1,300 pyeong of land and built a wooden church, and in 1935 built the rectory.

The Catholicism entry in the same encyclopedia gives a different chronology. According to it, on May 16, 1926, some 10 government officials and merchants of Gwangju invited Father Park Jae-su of Yangcheon-ri, Noan-myeon, Naju, and held the first Mass for Koreans at a rice mill, and in July 1930 they purchased 300 pyeong of church land in Buk-dong and established a Catholic mission chapel. In 1932, some 100 faithful attended the church, and on May 29, 1933 the Bishop An of the Diocese of Daegu appointed Father Min Jeong-ho as the first chief priest of Gwangju, so that a priest came to reside in Gwangju. The Gwangju Ilbo reported that in 1929 Father Park Jae-su, chief priest of Naju Noan Parish, celebrated the first Mass for the faithful of Gwangju, and that in 1933, when the Gwangju mission chapel was elevated to Gwangju Parish, Bukdong Church began, with 70 faithful at the time.

The Gwangju Culture, Arts and Humanities Story Platform states that in October 1933, as the Irish Missionary Society of St. Columban entered Korea, priests of the Missionary Society of St. Columban began to arrive as parish priests. According to the Catholicism entry in the Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia, Bishop An of Daegu appointed Father Owen McPolin as the first vicar forane of Gwangju, effective April 10, 1934. After the Gwangju Church was elevated to a diocese in 1936, Father McPolin built a brick-style rectory, and in October 1937 began construction of a brick church in Buk-dong, completing it in June 1938. The same entry states that in 1938, when Father Jeong was appointed as the 5th chief priest of Bukdong Church, it had grown into a church with some 400 members, equipped with the finest rectory and church in Jeolla-do at the time.

Concerning the end of the Japanese colonial period, the Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia explains that when World War 2 broke out, Japan confined foreign priests and conscripted Korean priests into the military, and that while Father McPolin, head of the Gwangju Diocese, was under detention, Father Wakida, a Japanese priest, took office as head of the Gwangju Diocese on December 11, 1942 upon appointment by the Holy See. To move the diocesan chancery to Gwangju, Father Wakida expanded and repaired the Bukdong Church rectory, and at the end of 1943 the chancery moved into the Bukdong Church rectory. The Gwangju Culture, Arts and Humanities Story Platform states that at the end of 1943 a nursery was installed in the parish to gather and teach children.

After liberation, Sacred Heart Kindergarten opened on March 15, 1947, and on December 8, 1949 Namdong Parish was separated from Bukdong Parish. The Gwangju Ilbo reports that many churches, including Namdong Church, independent in 1948, Gyerim-dong Church (1964) and Wolsan-dong Parish (1965), originated from Bukdong Church. The homepage of the Archdiocese of Gwangju explains that Bukdong Church became the cathedral when the Apostolic Prefecture of Gwangju was elevated to a Vicariate on January 21, 1957, and that before the dedication of the Imdong cathedral church in 1983, it gave rise to the parishes of Namdong, Damyang, Gyerim-dong, Wolsan-dong, Imdong and Jungheung-dong.

The homepage of the Archdiocese of Gwangju introduces that in the early days Hyesong Academy was founded on the church grounds to educate poor children, and the Gwangju Ilbo states that the Sinseong Academic Institute and Yangjae Academy were opened, Sacred Heart Kindergarten was opened in 1947, and a credit union was also opened in 1966. According to the Gwangju Ilbo, Bukdong Church was once used as the headquarters of the People's Army political operations unit during the Korean War so Mass could not be celebrated, and machine-gun bullet marks remain on the building. The homepage of the Archdiocese of Gwangju also states that it suffered the ordeal of being seized as a garrison for the People's Army during the Korean War, and that during the 5–18 Gwangju Democratization Movement it served as a shield for citizens and students who fled into the church, with bullet marks remaining throughout the church and rectory.

The Gwangju Ilbo reports that on April 24, 1978 some 60 sweet-potato farmers of Hampyeong gathered at Bukdong Church and began a hunger sit-in, and that Archbishop Yun Gong-hui and the leading priests of the Catholic Farmers Association celebrated the “Farmers' Prayer Meeting for Compensation for Hampyeong Sweet-Potato Damage.” It says that in 1980 chief priest Jeong Gyu-wan was taken to the Martial Law Command and released a month later. The same article states that 33 priests have served as chief priests through Bukdong Church, of whom 18 were foreign priests.

Architecture and Space

According to the Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia, the Gwangju Bukdong Catholic Church was planned by Father Thomas Quinlan (Rev. Thomas Quinlan, Gu Thomas), the 4th chief priest of the parish, and design and construction were undertaken by a Chinese man, Brother Joseph Ga, who was experienced in church architecture. Construction began in October 1937 and was completed in June 1938, and in 1987, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the construction of Bukdong Church, the west side of the altar was extended. The homepage of the Archdiocese of Gwangju states that the present building was dedicated on June 26, 1938. The Gwangju Ilbo reports that Father Quinlan raised 6,000 dollars, and introduces the size of the church as 9.3 meters in width and 25.5 meters in length.

The plan of the building is a narrow, elongated rectangle. A tall bell tower projects from the front with an entrance in the center, and doors were also installed on both sides of the tower. From the vestibule, a wooden staircase leads to the 2nd-floor choir loft and the bell tower, and 2 round pillars of red marble were erected in the vestibule to separate the worship space. The worship hall is spacious without interior columns and the ceiling is semicircular. The sanctuary with the altar on the north side projects narrowly, with the sacristy and confessional on the west side. The walls have granite at the base with red bricks laid above, with vertical windows and round windows. The floor was originally wood but was replaced with polished artificial stone.

The Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia evaluates that the Bukdong Catholic Church retains its original form well and, as the first Catholic parish church established in the Gwangju area of Jeolla-do, clearly shows the characteristics of modern Catholic church architecture with restrained ornamentation. The related chronology recorded in this encyclopedia is extension in 1987, repair work in 2002, and implementation of a sanctuary restoration project from May 2015 to December 2017.

Related Places and People

• Imdong Church - separated from Bukdong Church and founded in 1967, and in 1983 the cathedral church was dedicated, so that together with Bukdong Church it is introduced as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Gwangju.
• Namdong Church, Gyerim-dong Church, Wolsan-dong Church - recorded as parishes branched off from Bukdong Church (Namdong in 1948 or 1949 according to sources, Gyerim-dong in 1964, Wolsan-dong in 1965).
• Father Park Jae-su - recorded as the chief priest of Naju Noan Parish who celebrated the first Mass for the faithful of Gwangju and purchased the Buk-dong site.
• Father Thomas Quinlan (Gu Thomas) - the 4th chief priest of the parish who planned the construction of the present church building.
• Father Owen McPolin - the first vicar forane of Gwangju and later head of the Gwangju Diocese.
• Archbishop Yun Gong-hui - celebrated the Farmers' Prayer Meeting for compensation for Hampyeong sweet-potato damage in 1978.

References and Sources

1. Catholic Archdiocese of Gwangju, Cathedral Church. Confirmed the mission-chapel beginning of the Bukdong Co-Cathedral, its elevation to a parish in 1933, dedication in 1938, elevation to cathedral in 1957, the parishes branched off from it, its history of suffering, and monument designation.
   https://www.gjcatholic.or.kr/church/cathedral
2. Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia, Gwangju Bukdong Catholic Church. Confirmed the background of construction and design and施工, construction in 1937–1938, architectural features, monument designation and restoration project.
   https://gwangju.grandculture.net/gwangju/bukgu/toc/GC60000989
3. Digital Gwangju Culture Encyclopedia, Catholicism. Confirmed the establishment of the Gwangju Catholic Church and the construction of Bukdong Church, and the relocation of the chancery at the end of the Japanese colonial period.
   https://gwangju.grandculture.net/gwangju/bukgu/toc/GC60003213
4. Gwangju Culture, Arts and Humanities Story Platform, Bukdong Church. Confirmed the arrival of priests of the Society of St. Columban, the nursery and Sacred Heart Kindergarten, and the separation of Namdong Parish.
   https://dh.aks.ac.kr/~gwangju/wiki/index.php/%EB%B6%81%EB%8F%99%EC%84%B1%EB%8B%B9
5. Gwangju Ilbo, Bukdong Church, the womb of Gwangju mission in 1933 … a resting place for citizens embracing modern history. Confirmed the parish beginning, church size, the Korean War, the Hampyeong sweet-potato incident, the events of 1980, and the number of successive chief priests.
   http://www.kwangju.co.kr/article.php?aid=1463497200577354213