Bukui Mission Station

History & origins

The formation of the present Bugwi Mission Station is closely connected with regional change caused by the construction of Yongdam Dam and the flooding of the former Yongdam mission community. According to diocesan records, Father Yun Yang-ho was pursuing construction of a new Yongdam mission chapel in 1988 when the area became subject to inundation. The compensation for the submerged property later became the basis for a plan to establish a new mission station in central Bugwi-myeon. A history of mission stations published by Jinan Parish in 2021 also records that a Catholic couple in Bugwi proposed using the compensation to build a new local mission station.

The plan took concrete form with a groundbreaking ceremony on November 3, 1996. After construction was completed, Bishop Lee Byeong-ho, then Bishop of Jeonju, presided at the blessing of the mission station on June 29, 1997. The decision to turn compensation for a lost Catholic site into a new place of faith is a defining part of the origin of Bugwi Mission Station.

The faithful later raised donations to build a meeting and retreat facility, which was operated as a retreat house for about ten years and helped sustain the mission community. At one stage Catholics from nearby mission stations, including Bongam, also gathered at Bugwi for Sunday Mass. The history of Bugwi thus illustrates how a Catholic community adapted to displacement and loss caused by regional development by creating a new common place of faith.