Namyang Catholic Church

Overview

Namyang Church is a church in Namyang-eup, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, belonging to the Hwaseong District of Vicariate 1 of the Suwon Diocese. On October 8, 1961, it was separated from Wangnim Parish and elevated from the Namyang Catholic mission chapel to a parish, with St. Joseph the Worker as patron. It later split off Sagang (1975), Bibong (2001), Mado (2011) and Sinnam (2019) churches.

History

〔Mission-chapel era〕 According to the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, the roots of the Catholic Church in the Namyang area are the Baekhak (Ssanghak-ri) Catholic mission chapel and the Hwalcho-ri (Ssari Ppuri) Catholic mission chapel, established around the founding of Wangnim (Gatdeungi) Parish in 1888. Afterwards Namyang-ri and Anseok-ri also appeared in the Seoul Diocese mission-chapel list in the early 1920s, so the Catholic mission chapels in this area, including Baekhak and Hwalcho, numbered 4 in all. Among them, the Namyang Catholic mission chapel, which became the mother of Namyang Parish, revived after Im Chun-rye (Michael), a native of Namyang, entered the faith in 1952 at the urging of Yi Jeong-ui (Peter), president of the Baekhak Catholic mission chapel, and became president of the Namyang Catholic mission chapel. At first about 7 households of faithful gathered at Im Chun-rye’s house for mission-chapel services. The Digital Hwaseong Culture Encyclopedia states that Namyang Church began when the faithful jointly purchased a tiled-roof hanok house in 1957 and made it a Catholic mission chapel.

〔Elevation to parish〕 According to the encyclopedia, from 1955 the Namyang faithful took the lead in organizing a new-church building committee and buying an auditorium building, so the movement toward parish elevation grew active, and on October 8, 1961 the Namyang Catholic mission chapel was separated from Wangnim Parish and elevated to a parish. Fr. Yang Byeong-muk (Luke) took office as first pastor (the table of successive pastors records his arrival in January 1962). The cultural encyclopedia also states that on October 8, 1961 it was separated from Wangnim Church and elevated from the Namyang Catholic mission chapel to Namyang Church, with about 40 faithful at its founding, and that on October 7, 1963, with the establishment of the Suwon Diocese, it was transferred from the Archdiocese of Seoul to the Suwon Diocese.

After consulting presidents to raise the income of local residents including the faithful, Fr. Yang Byeong-muk continued the land-reclamation work begun by Fr. Im Se-bin (Joseph) of Wangnim Parish when Namyang was still a Catholic mission chapel, cultivating salt fields and rice paddies of several hundred jeongbo in various places and laying the foundation for parish development (encyclopedia).

〔New church construction and facility expansion〕 According to the encyclopedia, when the 40-pyeong tiled-roof church used since the mission-chapel era could no longer hold the increased faithful, Namyang Parish bought land about 150m from the old church in 1965, and in November of the following year completed the church with equipment support from the faithful and the nearby U.S. missile unit. The cultural encyclopedia states that construction of the new church began in April 1966 and was completed in November, and that in April 1970, with about 1,000 faithful present, the ‘dedication ceremony for the new church and rectory’ was celebrated by Bishop Yun Gong-hui (Victorinus), then Bishop of Suwon. According to the cultural encyclopedia, to encourage church activities of the faithful a ‘Catholic Center’ was built and blessed on August 15, 1972, and the encyclopedia states that in August 1972 an education hall was built, rare even for an urban parish at the time.

After spinning off Sagang Parish in October 1975, Namyang Parish expected a sharp rise in faithful, so in April 1982 it bought about 1,000 pyeong of salt fields in Mado-myeon, and earlier, in August 1980, prepared for division with 1,000 pyeong of forest land donated by Yi Yun-deok (encyclopedia). In May 1988 the existing education hall was expanded, together with the convent building, to basement 1 floor and above-ground 1 floors (the encyclopedia gives May, the cultural encyclopedia gives the blessing ceremony for the convent and education hall on May 3), and from February of the following year a branch house of the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs was established (encyclopedia). On November 29, 1992 repair and expansion work on the church building was finished, and in 1993 Namyang Parish and Namyang Shrine jointly raised donations for Somalia (encyclopedia).

〔Namyang Shrine and subdivisions〕 According to the cultural encyclopedia, excavation of the Namyang Martyrs’ martyrdom site began in 1983, and development of Namyang Shrine began from 1984. Afterwards Bibong Church was split off on January 30, 2001, Mado Church on August 30, 2011, and Sinnam Church on June 18, 2019. On March 12, 2010 the ‘Namyang Joseph Senior Academy’ was founded and its opening Mass was offered, and on October 9, 2011 the 50 anniversary Mass was offered by Bishop Lee Yong-hun (Matthias), Bishop of Suwon.

〔Mission chapels and ministry〕 According to the encyclopedia, as of March 1995 there were 19 Catholic mission chapels, including Sinnam, Hwalcho, Anseok, Jangdeok, Dugok, Seokgyo, Suruji, Siri, Geomdaji, Yangno, Gupo-ri, Baekkoji, Yupo, Ssanghak, Baekhak, Musong, Songjeong 1, Songjeong 2 and Woncheon, of which 8 had their own mission-chapel buildings. Since 2 out of every 3 faithful of the whole Namyang Parish were mission-chapel faithful, pastoral care and evangelization for mission-chapel areas were a major part of parish ministry. Because most mission chapels were far from the parish seat and transportation was inconvenient, each mission-chapel president was made an ex officio member of the pastoral council, a campaign was conducted to enroll all faithful as Legion members with at least one praesidium in each mission chapel, and parish priests visited mission chapels about 2 times a year to celebrate Mass and administer sacraments.

〔Jurisdiction and present state〕 The encyclopedia gives the jurisdiction at founding as all of Namyang-myeon, Ssanghak-ri, Baekhak-ri, Gupo-ri, Yangno-ri, Geomdaji, Baekkoji and Yupo-ri in Bibong-myeon, and Dugok-ri, Songjeong 1 and 2-ri, Seokgyo-ri, Ssangsong 1–3-ri and Cheongwon 2-ri in Mado-myeon, and gives church statistics as 1,295 in 1964, 2,325 in 1974, 1,226 in 1980, 2,212 in 1988 and 2,754 in 1993. According to the cultural encyclopedia, the church has jurisdiction over Sinoe-ri, Jangjeon-ri, Suhwa-ri, Munho-ri, Siri, Woncheon-ri, Songnim-ri, Bugyang-ri and part of Namyang-ri in Namyang-eup, Hwaseong-si, and in 2020 numbered 830 households and 1,949 faithful, with 1 priests and 2 sisters, the dispatched congregation being the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs. The church grounds are 3,266 square meters of land and 1,695.1 square meters of buildings, and affiliated groups include the Legion of Mary, Cursillo, Cenacle, choir, Knights Apostolate, Marian Association, charismatic prayer group, Association for the Deceased, Marriage Encounter (ME) and others.

〔Successive pastors〕 The successive pastors given in the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia are first Yang Byeong-muk Luke (1962.1–1970.6), 2 Bong Jun-seok Maurice (1970.6–1975.3), 3 Park Ji-hwan John (1975.3–1985.3), 4 Bang Hyo-ik Paul (1985.3–1986.1), 5 Choi Deok-gi Paul (1986.1–1989.8), 6 Lee Sang-gak Francis Xavier (1989.8–1995.2), and 7 Namoski (J. Najmowski, Na Hyeon-cheol) James (1995.2–).

Related places and figures

• Wangnim (Gatdeungi) Parish: the parish to which the Namyang Catholic mission chapel belonged when it was separated in 1961 and elevated to a parish (encyclopedia, cultural encyclopedia).
• Sagang Church (1975), Bibong Church (2001), Mado Church (2011), Sinnam Church (2019): churches split off from Namyang Church (cultural encyclopedia).
• Namyang Shrine: the excavation of the Namyang Martyrs’ martyrdom site (1983) and shrine development (1984) are recorded in the cultural encyclopedia.
• Fr. Yang Byeong-muk (Luke): first pastor of Namyang Parish and also first pastor of Sagang Parish (encyclopedia).

References and sources

1. Research Institute for Korean Church History, Korean Catholic Encyclopedia “Namyang Parish.” Mission-chapel era, parish elevation in 1961, new church construction, mission-chapel state, church statistics and successive pastors.
   https://encyclopedia.catholic.or.kr/entry/1043
2. Academy of Korean Studies, Digital Hwaseong Culture Encyclopedia “Namyang Church” (written by Jeong Jong-deuk). Founding and changes, dedication ceremony, subdivisions, present state.
   https://hwaseong.grandculture.net/hwaseong/toc/GC08600938