Usandong Catholic Church

History & origins

Usan-dong Parish was established by the Diocese of Wonju on February 21, 1995. The Catholic Times reported that a diocesan decree assigned almost all of Usan-dong, except the Samho and Deokwon apartment complexes, to the new parish, which was separated from Hakseong-dong Parish to provide local pastoral care. At the time of establishment, the church was located at 333-34 Usan-dong. The creation of the parish was part of a diocesan reorganization responding to population growth and changing residential patterns in Wonju, allowing Catholics in Usan-dong to participate in Mass and the sacraments closer to home.

For many years after its establishment, the parish used a prefabricated sandwich-panel building as its church. On December 1, 2016, a fire believed to have been caused by an electrical fault damaged the building: about 30 pyeong of the roughly 100-pyeong structure burned, and the infant room, entrance, and parts of the ceiling were affected. No one was injured, and the altar and tabernacle remained intact. The parish carried out temporary repairs so that Mass could continue before Christmas, but the incident made the need to replace the aging provisional church even clearer.

Parishioners had long raised funds for a new church, and ground was broken on July 30, 2017. The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on December 27 of the same year. The new one-story church has a building area of 743.56 square meters and seating for about 200 faithful, together with a rectory and educational facilities needed for parish life. Its red-brick exterior and connected circulation between the church and educational spaces provided a more stable community environment than the former prefabricated building.

With the dedication of the new church in May 2018, Usan-dong Parish moved beyond the provisional worship environment it had used for more than two decades after its establishment. The parish history shows a new urban Catholic community created in response to pastoral needs, enduring the difficulty of a serious fire and then securing a new church through the sustained participation of its members.