Roman Catholic Diocese of Chuncheon

The Diocese of Chunchon (also romanized Chuncheon and Ch’unch’on, Latin: Dioecesis Chuncheonensis) is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in South Korea. A suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seoul, it has ecclesiastic authority over the administrative province of Gangwon-do.

Diocese of Chuncheon Dioecesis Chuncheonensis 춘천교구
Location
Country	South Korea partly in North Korea
Territory	Northern part of Gangwon
Ecclesiastical province	Seoul
Metropolitan	Seoul
Statistics
Area	12,016 km2 (4,639 sq mi)
Population Total Catholics	(as of 2017) 1,139,033 89,446 (7.9%)
Parishes	61
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	25 April 1939 (86 years ago)
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Chuncheon
Current leadership
Pope	Leo XIV
Bishop	Simon Kim Ju-young
Metropolitan Archbishop	Andrew Yeom Soo-jung
Bishops emeritus	Lucas Kim Woon-hoe
Map
Website
cccatholic.or.kr

Its cathedral episcopal see mother church is Jungnim-dong Cathedral in Chuncheon.

History

The jurisdiction was erected on April 25, 1939 as a missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Seoul under the name Apostolic Prefecture of Shunsen, the city's name during the period of Japanese rule of Korea.

It was renamed the Apostolic Prefecture of Chunchon on July 16, 1950 and made an Apostolic vicariate on September 20, 1955.

It was elevated to diocesan status on March 10, 1962.^[1][2]

On 22 March 1965, it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Wonju 원주

Ordinaries

Apostolic Prefects of Chunchon

• Owen McPolin (1939–1940)
• Thomas F. Quinlan, S.S.C.M.E. (1940–1942)
• Paul Noh Gi-nam (1942–1945; apostolic administrator)
• Thomas F. Quinlan, S.S.C.M.E. (1945–1955)

Apostolic Vicars of Chunchon

• Thomas F. Quinlan, S.S.C.M.E. (1955–1962)

Bishops of Chunchon

• Thomas F. Quinlan, S.S.C.M.E. (1962–1965)
• Thomas Stewart, S.S.C.M.E. (1966–1994)
• John Chang Yik (1994–2010)
• Lucas Kim Woon-hoe (2010–2020)^[3]
• Simon Kim Ju-young (2020–present)^[4]