Jemulpo Catholic Church

History & origins

The Sungui-dong area where the present Jemulpo Parish is located remained largely an orchard and agricultural district into the 1960s, but population began to increase as housing development followed. Anticipating this change, the Diocese of Incheon prepared to establish a new parish, with concrete preparations beginning toward the end of 1975. A house was acquired for use as a temporary rectory on February 21, 1976, and the next day, February 22, the new “Sungui 4-dong Parish” was established after separation from Dohwa-dong Parish.

The new community soon began the work of securing its own church. Parishioners participated actively in the construction, and on December 2, 1978, a two-story church was completed and dedicated. The Korean Catholic Encyclopedia describes this building project as the first case in the Diocese of Incheon in which a church was completed through the efforts of Korean clergy and faithful, noting that parishioners themselves covered about seventy percent of the construction cost. It was an important milestone in the process by which the newly separated parish established its own pastoral foundation.

The parish name was changed to “Jemulpo” in 1977, the year after its establishment. Community facilities were subsequently expanded: a convent was completed and blessed in 1980, and an education building was completed in 1986. These developments show a gradual broadening of the parish’s pastoral base, with spaces established not only for liturgy but also for the ministry of religious sisters and for faith formation.

Jemulpo Parish thus became one of the parishes that grew with the urbanization of Sungui-dong in the latter twentieth century. Although it shares its name with the earlier “Jemulpo Parish” founded in 1889 and continued today as Dapdong Cathedral Parish, the direct history of the present Jemulpo Parish begins with the establishment of Sungui 4-dong Parish in 1976.