Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul

Archdiocese of Seoul Archidioecesis Seulensis 서울 대교구
Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception (Mother church)
Location
Country	South Korea
Statistics
Area	17,349 km2 (6,698 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2017) 10,1481,166[1] 1,534,899[2] (15.07%)
Information
Rite	Latin Rite
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Seoul
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop	Andrew Yeom Sou-jeong
Suffragans	Diocese of Chuncheon Diocese of Daejeon Diocese of Hamhung Diocese of Incheon Diocese of Pyongyang Diocese of Suwon Diocese of Uijeongbu Diocese of Wonju
Auxiliary Bishops	Basil Cho Kyu-man Timothy Yu Gyoung-chon Peter Chung Soon-taek Benedictus Son Hee-Song
Emeritus Bishops	Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus (2006-2012)
Map
Website
Website of the Archdiocese

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul (Latin: Archidioecesis Seulum, Korean: 서울 대교구) is a Metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church comprising the metropolitan area of Seoul, South Korea, whose province comprises parts of South Korea (which has two more provinces) and all North Korea, yet depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Its Metropolitan bishop as the Archbishop of Seoul resides at his Myeongdong Cathedral in Jung-gu, Seoul. The Archbishop of Seoul is also the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Pyongyang in North Korea. As the episcopal see is the oldest one in Korea and that of its capital city, he is often considered to be so called the Primate of Korea, though the official title has not been expressly granted by the Holy See by canonical decree.

There are 57 Catholic secretly active parishes in North Korea, but due to the current regime in place, no Catholic priests are permitted permanent residency at current time.

Statistics

As per 2014, it pastorally served 1,472,815 Catholics (14.5% of 10,143,645 total) on 17,349 km² in 229 parishes and 183 missions with 908 priests (683 diocesan, 225 religious), 2,282 religious (445 brothers, 1,837 sisters) and 266 seminarians.

List of territorial losses

• (Background) Pope Leo XIII was the first to approve to separate the community from the control of diocese of Beijing and assigned priests from the Paris Foreign Missions Society but never went due to the Anti-Christian sentiment and persecutions during that time.
• Pope Gregory XVI granted a Papal bull declaring it as an official See on 9 September 1831, referring to it as the Apostolic Vicariate of Korea 조선 / Corea (Curiate Italian) / 朝鮮 (正體中文), on territory split off from the then Diocese of Peking, of what used to be part of Imperial China.

• It was renamed on 8 April 1911 as Apostolic Vicariate of Seoul 서울 / 漢城 (正體中文), when it also lost territory to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Taiku (Daegu).
• It lost more territories, beginning on 8 May 1920 to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan
• On 17 March 1927, it lost again to establish the Apostolic Prefecture of Hpyeng-yang
• On 25 April 1939, it lost again to establish the Apostolic Prefecture of Shunsen.
• It was again officially renamed on 12 July 1950 after its See as Apostolic Vicariate of Seul.
• It lost territories again on 23 June 1958 to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Cheongju and the Apostolic Vicariate of Daijeon,
• On 6 June 1961, it lost again to make the Apostolic Vicariate of Incheon, all three now have Suffragan bishops.
• The diocese was raised to the level of Metropolitan Archdiocese on 10 March 1962.^[3]
• It lost again on 07 October 1963 to establish the Roman Catholic Diocese of Suwon
• It lost again on 24 June 2004 to establish the Roman Catholic Diocese of Uijeongbu, now both its suffragans.

The diocese has received two official Papal visits from Pope John Paul II in May 1984 and October 1989 and from Pope Francis in August 2014.

Ecclesiastical province

The Metropolitan's ecclesiastical province comprises his own Archdiocese and the following suffragan bishoprics, mostly in South Korea :

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Chuncheon 춘천
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Daejeon 대전
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamhung 함흥 (in North Korea)
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Incheon 인천
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Pyongyang 평양 (in North Korea)
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Suwon 수원
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Uijeongbu 의정부
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Wonju 원주

Ordinaries

See also

• List of Catholic Dioceses in Korea

References

Sources and external links

• (in Korean) Official homepage
• GCatholic.org, with Google map – data for all sections

Coordinates: 37°33′48″N 126°59′13″E / 37.5633°N 126.9870°E / 37.5633; 126.9870