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About this place
Seojeong-dong Catholic Church is a parish of the Songtan District in the First Vicariate of the Diocese of Suwon and has St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus as its patron saint. The official Catholic directory in Korea identifies it as the central parish of the Songtan District. It serves as a local center of faith where Catholics in northern Pyeongtaek gather for Mass, the sacraments, catechesis, and parish life, and its long presence has also contributed to the formation and growth of neighboring parishes.
Looking back on the parish’s long history, the Diocese of Suwon has described Seojeong-dong as having played a role like a “mother” to the local Church. This means more than simply being an old church: a community that began as a small mission station has sustained the faith of several generations and helped provide a foundation for evangelization in the surrounding area. The spirituality of its patron, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, with her emphasis on small and faithful acts of love, also resonates naturally with the parish’s calling to live the Gospel in everyday life.
History & origins
The roots of the Seojeong-dong community lie in the Seojeong-ri mission station, which belonged to Pyeongtaek Parish. After the station took shape in the early 1930s, the number of Catholics grew rapidly. Fr. Joseph Moimard, pastor of Pyeongtaek Parish, prepared for its elevation to parish status by purchasing land near Seojeong-ri Station in 1934 and building a temporary rectory and hall. Around 1937, a church and rectory were newly built, providing the foundation for an independent parish.
The Seojeong-ri mission station was elevated to a parish in October 1938, with Fr. Moimard appointed as its first pastor. The new parish had about 600 faithful at the time. Around the Korean War it experienced serious difficulties, including a period without a resident pastor and the loss of parish records, but the community was reorganized afterward. During the 1950s it undertook educational work and established a cemetery. As the Catholic population increased in the 1960s, Osan Parish and Ssukgogae Parish were successively separated from it, and Seojeong-dong came to serve as a mother parish from which new communities in the surrounding area emerged.
When the number of parishioners grew again in the late 1980s, construction of a new church was undertaken. Work began in 1989, and in 1993 a new building with one basement level and three floors above ground was completed. The progression from mission station to parish, through wartime disruption, parish divisions, and the construction of a new church, shows how the Seojeong-dong community became a foundation of Catholic life in northern Pyeongtaek. Its present status as the central parish of the Songtan District rests on this long history of growth and formation of new communities.
Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia
Seojeong-dong Catholic Church: history and architecture
Read about the place's history, architecture, people, and events in the Korean Catholic Places Encyclopedia.
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Diocese
Suwon Diocese (Diocese of Suwon)
Official website: http://www.casuwon.or.kr
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