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About this place
Yanggok Catholic Church is a parish church of the Diocese of Masan's Changwon District, located in Seongsan-gu, Changwon. The Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea classifies Yanggok as an independent parish, with St. Paul Chong Ha-sang, a Korean martyr saint, as its patron. The church is the pastoral center where local Catholics celebrate Mass and the sacraments and take part in catechesis and community activities; it is therefore both a church building and the home of a parish community.
The church-historical roots of Yanggok Parish grew from a small mission community in the surrounding area. To understand the present church, it is helpful to see not only the parish that was later established in an urban district but also the local missionary effort through which Catholics gathered nearby and sustained their faith before the parish existed. Today's Yanggok Church carries forward that experience of a smaller community and serves as a Catholic center for the southern part of Changwon. Its patron, St. Paul Chong Ha-sang, a Korean martyr saint, also connects the local community with both the universal faith of the Church and the historical memory of Catholicism in Korea.
History & origins
The roots of Yanggok Parish lie in Changgok Mission Station, which belonged to Jungang-dong Parish in Jinhae. According to the official history of the Diocese of Masan, the mission station began in 1957 in Changgok village, where there were almost no Catholics, with Benedict Lee Myeong-gap leading gatherings in a private home. Jungang-dong Parish also sent people to support evangelization and guide young residents, and those who completed catechesis traveled to Jungang-dong Church to receive baptism.
A donated house in Changgok-dong was later acquired and remodeled for use as a mission station, giving the community a more stable place. Although officially attached to Jungang-dong Parish, it was administered by Sangnam-dong Parish for about two years. The diocesan history notes that growth remained difficult because young Catholics carried much of the responsibility for the mission without enough experienced leaders, while the surrounding community was not always receptive.
Despite those conditions, Changgok Mission Station maintained a local Catholic presence for twenty-four years. The Directory of the Catholic Church in Korea records January 26, 1981 as the establishment date of Yanggok Parish, while the diocesan history explains that Changgok Mission Station was closed when the new parish was established in the Yanggok area. A missionary community that had begun on a small scale had thus reached the point of becoming an independent parish. The closing of the mission station did not mean the disappearance of the community; rather, the local pastoral unit had been transformed into a parish with broader responsibilities and a more developed structure.
The history of Yanggok Church therefore does not begin only with the establishment of the parish. Its prehistory is the story of a house gathering in a village with almost no Catholics, the creation of a mission building, and the persistence of a community under difficult conditions. The sequence illustrates how a small local mission in the Changwon area developed and eventually gave way to a parish structure.
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Building information
- Passenger elevators: 0
- 2 above-ground floors · 1 below-ground floors
- Approved for use in 1982
- Total floor area: 1,269㎡
Building-register record · · Source
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Sources and updates
- Information Status
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- Source
- Diocese source
- Data freshness
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- Last updated
- Source
- Francisco Diary
Diocese
Masan Diocese (Diocese of Masan)
Official website: https://cathms.kr
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