Jinheung Mission Station

History & origins

The community of Jinhung Mission Station is connected with the Catholic village tradition of Hoemunsan during the persecution era. According to material republished by the Diocese of Jeonju from the Catholic Peace Weekly, Bang Heung-seok (Andrew), who had lived his faith in the Hoemunsan Catholic community, moved down to Seokjeom in Gamgok-myeon, made pottery for a living, and devoted himself to evangelization. The number of Catholics around him increased, and later Shin Yong-un (Peter), who took over the pottery workshop, became mission-station leader and further developed the community. Jinhung grew into a local center to which Catholics from nearby Okdan also came for major feasts and seasonal confessions.

The mission-station building was created through the shared effort of the faithful. Diocesan material states that construction was pursued from the mid-1970s, with members contributing according to their means and taking part in the work themselves. A brick building of about 50 pyeong on a site of roughly 150 pyeong was completed, and a blessing ceremony was held in September 1977, presided over by the diocesan bishop. The basic form of the present mission-station building dates from this project.

In 1989, aging facilities were repaired: the roof and interior ceiling were improved and the cement floor was converted to a wooden floor. The history of Jinhung thus links the memory of a Catholic community formed through persecution, a livelihood based on pottery and evangelization, and the collective construction and maintenance of a place of worship. Though modest in scale, the building gives concrete witness to local Catholics creating and preserving their own place of faith.