Sinnae-dong Catholic Church

History & origins

The formation of Shinnae-dong Catholic Church began in the early 1990s as the Catholic population and residential development around Sangbong-dong expanded. Sangbong-dong Parish records that land for a church in Shinnae-dong was purchased on March 31, 1992, while the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia states that Shinnae-dong Parish was separated on September 24 of that year and that 355 households, comprising 1,202 Catholics, were transferred to it. The mother parish chronology gives October 8 as the date of separation. Although the precise dates differ, the sources agree that an independent Shinnae-dong community emerged from Sangbong-dong in the autumn of 1992.

The new parish took St. Andrew Kim Taegon as its patron and established an independent liturgical and pastoral community in Shinnae-dong. At the time, housing and apartment development was proceeding rapidly, and the new parish allowed the growing Catholic population to celebrate Mass and the sacraments and receive catechesis within its own living area. In April 1994, another 236 Catholics were transferred from Sangbong-dong Parish to Shinnae-dong as parish boundaries were adjusted. This shows how ecclesiastical territory was refined in response to the changing urban landscape and actual residential patterns.

Shinnae-dong Parish subsequently became firmly established as a local parish in Jungnang-gu, continuing faith formation for different generations, small-community life, devotions, and service. Its founding significance lay not merely in obtaining a new building but in creating an independent Catholic community for a rapidly growing district. The sequence of receiving land and parishioners from Sangbong-dong, becoming independent, and then adjusting boundaries reflects a broader pastoral pattern in the Archdiocese of Seoul during the suburban expansion of the 1990s. Today's parish continues the community formed through that period of change.