Looking for a Home
Triangle Korean Catholic Community, New Hill
In the garage next to the New Hill rectory of Fr. Choong Seob Kim, chaplain to the Triangle Korean Catholic Community (TKCC), stands a large wooden crate. It contains a statue of Mary, which awaits a place of honor in the new church this community is hoping to build.
The TKCC, according to Cheung Ji, Chair of the community’s Pastoral Council, began almost 20 years ago. “Our history,” he says with a smile, “might be described as ‘making something out of nothing,’ maybe even a miracle!”
In the 1980’s, the late Fr. Joe McNamara was ministering to students at North Carolina State University. Under the guidance of Fr. Joe, with assistance from Sister Mary Lynch, several Korean graduate students, as well as post-doctoral and other Korean visitors, regularly participated in the Sunday Masses at Aquinas House, now relocated as the Doggett Center.
The first change to this small community came on a cold winter night in 1988, when the group celebrated Mass in the basement of Sacred Heart Cathedral. At that time Fr. Paul Han, an American priest who spoke fluent Korean, was a frequent visitor, and intended to minister to the Korean community in the Triangle area as well as a second community in Fayetteville. Fr. Han was called away, but the idea of forming a larger group beyond the NCSU campus ministry was planted. Soon the Koreans, welcomed by Fr. John Wall, were meeting at the old St. Michael Church in Cary, and today the Korean Mass on Saturday evenings at the current St. Michael draws up to 150 families. The community is a fixture at St. Michael’s 15-year-old International Festival.
In the early 1990s, Korean priests from Charlotte visited the community on a regular basis. Then, in 1994, a Korean priest on sabbatical, Fr. Sang-Jin Kim, ministered to both the Raleigh and Fayetteville communities for a year and a half. In 1997, the Diocese of Raleigh Diocese invited a priest from Korea to minister in both Raleigh and Fayetteville for a longer period. Fr. Sung-Nam Kim stayed for four and half years, during which time the current rectory in New Hill was purchased and blessed. By 2003, the growth of both communities required that each have its own chaplain. The TKCC now celebrates Mass in the rectory chapel on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Fr. Kim, from Seoul, is grateful for his welcome in the Diocese of Raleigh. He hopes that visiting Koreans, who often attend Mass with the community, will take positive impressions with them when they return home, so that the TKCC “can be a kind of bridge between our countries.”
Cheung Ji, alluding to Bishop Burbidge’s recent visit to the community and his promised return for Confirmation in the spring, says, “We appreciate his support so much. His motto is ‘Walk humbly with God,’ and we want to walk with him in that spirit. We want to grow and mature and be more open to other communities.”
The TKCC now has a pastor and a sizeable congregation. The next step will be finding its own home – building a church. That is the dearest wish of Fr. Kim, who looks forward to the day when the community can have a Sunday school for its children. The Diocese has given the community permission to purchase land for building, and agreed to lend 50% of the projected construction cost. Plans are moving forward.