About this place
The Salesian Lifelong Education Center “House of Youth” is a retreat, prayer, and educational facility of the Catholic Diocese of Masan in Sodap-dong, Changwon, under the responsibility of the Salesian Sisters. The Catholic Directory of Korea lists it among the diocese’s “retreat/prayer houses,” and the Salesian Sisters’ Changwon community at the same location combines its youth-education apostolate with religious community life.
As its name suggests, the House of Youth was created to help adolescents and young adults develop a positive understanding of themselves and others and grow within community. From the time of its foundation, character formation and integral human development were central goals, and the building—with a chapel, hall, lodging, and educational spaces—was planned to support education, retreats, and communal life together. Its Catholic significance therefore lies not simply in being a residential education facility, but in bringing together the Salesian tradition of youth education and experiences of spiritual formation.
History & origins
The prehistory of the House of Youth begins with the Auxilium Center, a ministry of the Salesian Sisters for young working women in the Masan area. In the late 1970s, the sisters opened a residence for young women employed in the industrial complex and operated it for about ten years. As social conditions and apostolic needs changed, they closed that facility and began planning a new center focused on the integral education and welfare of young people.
In 1988, the Auxilium Center was sold and the present site in Sodap-dong was purchased. Ground was broken for a new building in March 1991, and after about a year of construction a facility was completed that could accommodate education, lodging, liturgy, and community activities together. It included a kindergarten, chapel, hall, dining room, multiple bedrooms, and living quarters for the sisters.
On May 14, 1992, the House of Youth was blessed in the presence of Bishop Michael Park Jeong-il of the Diocese of Masan. At the time, the sisters presented it as a center for character education for young people in the region and planned it so that sizable groups of adolescents could be received for entrusted educational programs.
This change illustrates how the Salesian Sisters’ local apostolate expanded from protecting young working women during the industrialization era toward the integral formation and education of youth. The House of Youth gave physical form to that transition and has continued as a base for putting Salesian educational principles into practice in the Changwon area.
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- 한국천주교주교회의 온라인 주소록
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Masan Diocese (Diocese of Masan)
Official website: https://cathms.kr
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