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About this place
Bokheung Parish belongs to the Third District of the Catholic Diocese of Jeonju and serves Catholic communities in Bokheung-myeon and Ssangchi-myeon of Sunchang County. Its patron is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Together with the mission station in the Ssangchi area, it is a pastoral center where Catholics scattered through this mountainous region gather for Mass, the sacraments, faith formation, and community life. Because northern Sunchang lies at some distance from Sunchang-eup, the presence of a local parish is important for both pastoral access and the cohesion of the Catholic community.
The present parish grew from a small mission community into an independent parish. Before the parish was formally established, local Catholics and a lay missionary maintained the community and worked together to secure a proper place of worship. The current parish took shape on that foundation. Bokheung Parish is therefore more than a church building: it is a living center of the Catholic faith that has been sustained for many years in the Bokheung and Ssangchi area.
History & origins
The present Catholic community in Bokheung began to take a more definite institutional form in the early 1990s as a mission station was prepared. According to records of the Diocese of Jeonju, in 1993 Father Gwon I-bok and lay missionary Hwang Myeong-hun set up a worship space using secondhand panel materials, and about twenty Catholics continued their faith life there. The building later suffered damage from heavy snow, but the community continued working toward a permanent church, raising funds over many years through the sale of farm products and local specialties.
Construction of a new church formally began with the groundbreaking on July 30, 2010. Through the offerings of parishioners and support from the diocese, a church, rectory, and convent were prepared, and Bishop Kim Sun-tae presided at the dedication of the new church on May 21, 2011. This marked the point at which the community that had grown around the mission station acquired the facilities and pastoral foundation needed for an independent parish.
On June 5, 2011, Bokheung Parish was formally established after being separated from Sunchang Parish. The new parish was assigned pastoral responsibility for Bokheung-myeon and Ssangchi-myeon, transforming Catholic life in this mountainous area from a mission-station-centered structure into an independent parish. The development from mission station to parish remains a concrete example of how the long participation and offerings of local Catholics became the foundation for a new pastoral structure.
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Jeonju Diocese (Diocese of Jeonju)
Official website: https://www.jcatholic.or.kr
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