Songrim 4-dong Catholic Church

History & origins

Songnim 4-dong Parish was separated and established in 1976 as the Catholic population of its mother parish, Dohwa-dong, continued to grow. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea, Father John Hogan of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, who had been designated for the new parish, stayed at Dohwa-dong Church while gathering the views of local Catholics. In March of that year he organized a church-building committee. Parishioners began construction on a site of about 892 pyeong, and when the parish was formally established on May 30, the first Mass was celebrated in the church while it was still only at the structural-frame stage.

The first floor was completed and dedicated in February 1977, but continued growth soon made more space necessary. Construction of a second-floor church began in April 1979 and was completed in October of the same year. In 1981, construction of a convent began and was completed that October, providing a base for collaboration with a women’s religious community in parish ministry. These expansions reflect the rapid growth of Catholic life in the Songnim area at the time.

Further facilities for the formation of parishioners were developed in the late 1980s. After interior work on the church in 1987, a nearby house was purchased, and in 1988 an education center and rectory were built. The parish later continued retreats, pilgrimages, communal prayer programs, and other devotional activities. The history of Songnim 4-dong is therefore a sequence of separation from Dohwa-dong, direct parishioner participation in building the church, and gradual expansion of spaces for education and community life.