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About this place
Jungangdong Catholic Church is a parish of the Diocese of Masan in the Changwon district, where Catholics in the central area of Jinhae, Changwon, gather around the Mass and the sacraments. The directory of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea lists Jungangdong as a parish of the Diocese of Masan, and the present church serves as a center for liturgy, catechesis, fellowship, and service in Jinhae’s long-established urban core.
Jungangdong holds an important place in the history of the Catholic community in Jinhae. The present parish continues a central community that served Catholics in the area before other neighboring parishes were separated from it. Visitors can understand its significance more deeply by seeing the current church together with the history of a Catholic community that took root and grew amid the social changes of Jinhae after Korea’s liberation.
Jungangdong is also a place where the urban history of central Jinhae naturally meets the history of the Church, because it is a long-established parish in the old city center. The present community does more than preserve buildings or institutions from the past: through continuing liturgy and faith formation in the same area, it carries historical inheritance into a living practice of faith.
History & origins
The history of Jungangdong Parish began in earnest with the changes that followed Korea’s liberation. During the period when U.S. forces were stationed in Jinhae, a military chaplain, Father Dregg, celebrated Mass at the Gyeonghwa mission station and became involved with Korean Catholics. The faithful, in consultation with him, worked to acquire Anguksa, a Japanese Buddhist temple located on the site of the present church. With the help of local figures, the temple and nearby buildings were secured, giving the Jinhae Catholic community a physical base for growth into an independent parish.
In March 1946, the Diocese of Daegu elevated the Jinhae mission station, then with about 150 Catholics, to parish status and appointed Father Kim Gyeong-u Alexius as its first pastor. Because of a cholera outbreak, he was not able to take up his assignment until April 10. The community then began organizing parish life around the former Anguksa buildings. Transforming facilities left from the Japanese period into the space of a new local Church was a distinctive feature of the parish’s early years.
In 1957, during the pastorate of Father Jang Byeong-hwa, work began to demolish the former temple structure and build a new church, which was later dedicated. In 1965, when Gyeonghwadong Parish was separated and established, Jinhae Parish adopted the local name Jungangdong Catholic Church. Thus the parish developed from the post-liberation elevation of the Jinhae mission station, through construction of a new church and the creation of a daughter parish, into the community known today.
The early parish used not only the former Anguksa temple but also a former financial association building and nearby houses. By acquiring and adapting these properties, the parish created spaces needed for worship, priestly residence, education, and community activities. The conversion of facilities left in the city after liberation into spaces for the needs of the Church provides a concrete picture of how Jungangdong Parish grew within the wider social transformation of Jinhae.
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Masan Diocese (Diocese of Masan)
Official website: https://cathms.kr
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