Seocho-dong Catholic Church

History & origins

The roots of Seocho-dong Parish reach back to the Seoripul mission station established by Fr. Doucet in 1901. It was one of the early Catholic mission stations in the area south of the Han River and became known as Seocho-ri mission station after a meeting hall was built in 1947. Later pastoral reorganization and a decline in the number of Catholics led to the closing of its hall for a time. In the early 1970s, however, farmland was converted into residential districts and apartment complexes, and a Catholic community again took shape in Seocho. The Geukdong mission station, under Banpo Parish, was formally established in 1977 and provided the foundation for an independent parish.

After moving its meeting place several times, Geukdong mission station was designated Seocho Quasi-Parish on November 25, 1980, and raised to parish status on January 6, 1981. The new parish then had 261 households and 843 Catholics. Rapid growth required a temporary church in 1981 and a new church complex with offices, meeting rooms, and rectory in 1982, but even this soon became insufficient. The present site was acquired in 1985–1986, construction began in March 1986, and a new church with one basement level and three floors above ground was completed in October 1987.

Growth eventually led the parish to give rise to new communities. On October 18, 1993, Seocho 3-dong Parish was separated, receiving 648 households and 1,958 Catholics, and in September 1998 Banpo 4-dong Parish was also separated. On the same day, Seocho-dong was designated the seat parish of the Archdiocese of Seoul’s 12th district, adding a coordinating role within Seocho. The history of Seocho-dong therefore forms a continuous line from the early-twentieth-century Seoripul mission station, through the re-emergence of Catholic community life amid southern Seoul’s development in the 1970s and 1980s, to parish subdivision and district leadership in the 1990s.