Hwangji Church

History & origins

Organized Catholic evangelization in the Taebaek area began in earnest in the late 1940s. The Catholic Encyclopedia of Korea identifies a 1947 visit by a priest from Gangneung Parish to administer seasonal confession in the Taebaek area as an important early step. Evangelization became more active after Sangdong Parish was established, and on May 10, 1959, the first Mass of the Hwangji mission community was celebrated in the home of a Catholic in what is now Hwajeon-dong, Taebaek.

When the Jangseong mission station was raised to parish status in 1961, Hwangji came under Jangseong Parish, and a mission building was erected that year on the site of the present church. Hwangji became part of the newly established Diocese of Wonju in 1965. Bishop Daniel Ji Hak-sun, the first bishop of Wonju, decided to build a church at Hwangji to commemorate the centenary of the Byeongin Martyrdom. Construction began in May 1966 and the church was completed in October; at the same time Hwangji was raised from a mission station to a parish. The Guide to the Catholic Church in Korea records the parish foundation date as October 5, 1966.

The parish later experienced both the growth and decline of the Taebaek mining region. Mine closures and population loss in the 1990s affected the Catholic community as well, and in 1993 the territory of the closed Sangdong Parish was incorporated as a mission area under Hwangji. The parish continued missionary, charitable, and facility-renewal efforts amid regional decline. The history of Hwangji Church thus links the evangelization of an emerging mining city, the building of a church commemorating a century since the Byeongin martyrs, and pastoral responses to the social changes that followed the collapse of the mining economy.