Gwacheon Catholic Church

History & origins

The Catholic community in Gwacheon began with mission-station activity before the parish itself was established. Evangelization by Catholics connected with Hauhyeon Parish reached the Gwacheon area, and around 1970 several Catholic women who had settled there began holding mission-station services in a parishioner’s home. As the community grew through evangelization and catechetical guidance by religious sisters, it moved its gathering place in 1973 and was successively under Jangnae-dong Parish and then Bisan-dong Parish.

The Gwacheon mission station was elevated to a parish on March 4, 1982. That year the faithful secured land for a church and used a tent erected on a residential lot as a temporary church, while additional property was acquired the following year. Becoming an independent parish did not immediately provide a completed church building; the community spent several years securing land and resources for construction.

Construction of the new church began in March 1984 and was completed in November 1987. During the building period, a community of the Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was established in 1985 to share in parish ministry. In 1988 the parish also received the remains of St. Peter Han Won-seo as part of its efforts to honor the Korean martyrs.

This chronology shows the community’s development from household mission-station services, through an organized mission station, to an independent parish with its own church. The long process of building a parish structure and church in response to urban growth and a rising Catholic population is central to the history of Catholic life in Gwacheon.