Faithful welcome Father Jungsoo Kim as coordinator of the Korean Apostolate
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, has appointed Father Jungsoo Kim as the new coordinator of its Korean Apostolate, effective July 1.
Father Kim, who most recently served as pastor of Madonna Church in Fort Lee, said he is excited by the possibilities of what he can accomplish for the Korean Catholic community in his new role. “After about 50 years of presence in the Archdiocese of Newark and the presence of second- and third-generation immigrants within the Catholic churches, there are great opportunities for the communities to grow and become leaders in the Catholic churches in the Archdiocese,” Father Kim said.
There are about 8,000 active Korean Catholics in the Archdiocese of Newark and an estimated 14,000 to 30,000 Korean Catholics in New Jersey, according to Father Kim. Although it is difficult to estimate the growth of Korean Catholics within the Archdiocese, especially during the recovery period after COVID, Father Kim said there continues to be a strong influx of Korean Catholics going through the RCIA process every year.
“While my role involves becoming an advocate for the Korean Catholics in the Archdiocese, [the apostolate] is a great opportunity to tap into the Korean Catholics, especially their youth and young adults, to contribute to the growth of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Newark,” Father Kim said.
Father Kim was ordained for the Archdiocese of Newark in 2003. Before taking over the apostolate and leading Madonna Church, he served as pastor of the Parish of St. Joseph in Demarest, pastor of St. Joseph’s Korean Catholic Church in Demarest, and parochial vicar of the Church of the Epiphany in Cliffside Park.
According to the blog “The Archdiocese of Newark and Immigration” by Father Robert J. Wister, in the early 1970s, newly arrived Korean Catholics formed a community center under the direction of Father Augustine Park, who had come to the United States for further academic studies. Seeing the pastoral need, he quickly began to minister to the Korean Catholics, who had no priestly leadership.
Father Park celebrated the first Mass in Korean in Jersey City’s Our Lady of Victories Parish on Dec. 3, 1972. The Korean community also gathered for Mass in Orange, Teaneck, Fort Lee, and other cities on different Sundays.
To have a regular location suitable for liturgy, in 1974 the Korean Catholic congregation began celebrating Mass at Montclair’s St. Peter Claver Church, an African American parish. A committee raised funds for a place of its own and, in 1980, the congregation purchased a former Christian Science church in Orange. The church was officially renamed the St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Mission of New Jersey and began averaging 350 parishioners at Sunday Mass. The community continued to expand, and soon Mass was celebrated in Eatontown and Madonna Church in Fort Lee.
The community was growing and needed more facilities, so Saint Venantius Parish in Orange merged with St. Andrew Kim to further serve the community in the 1980s. In 2005, the archdiocese relocated St. Andrew Kim Korean Parish to its current location, the newer and more spacious site of the former Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Maplewood.
Korean-speaking priests were also needed, so Father Park recruited Korean seminarians from the immigrant community and Korea. They enrolled in Immaculate Conception Seminary and were ordained for the Archdiocese of Newark.
While St. Andrew Kim Parish initially was the only official Korean parish in the Archdiocese of Newark, it soon became clear the center of the New Jersey Korean community was developing in Bergen County. The growth of the Korean presence in Bergen County, second only to Southern California, was manifest in several ways, each following a pattern of immigrant pastoral care. As Father Park became aware of the growing Korean population, he consulted with some of the younger Korean priests and arranged for the celebration of Mass in Korean for growing communities in Fort Lee, Teaneck, Palisades Park, Saddle Brook, and Demarest. The Teaneck community later moved to Fort Lee, then Saddle Brook.
St. Joseph’s Korean Catholic Community in Demarest was started in 1988 by Father Park (who had since received the title of “monsignor”) as a mission of St. Andrew Kim Parish in Orange. Monsignor Park invited priests from Incheon Diocese in South Korea to administer the mission in 1990. The mission rented space from St. Joseph Parish. It was later established as a canonical national parish, St. Joseph Korean Catholic Church, in 1998 and continued to be served by priests from the Incheon Diocese until 2006. That year, Father Jungsoo Kim became administrator. In 2008, the parish was merged with St. Joseph’s Parish.
The merged parish enabled second- and third- generation families to get involved in English Masses, which quickly grew in attendance, fueled by the significant growth of young Korean American families.
The Teaneck community that eventually settled in Saddle Brook had grown. In 1998, the Archdiocese established the Church of the Korean Martyrs in Saddle Brook as a Korean national parish.
Like many immigrants of the late 20th and early 21st century, Koreans within the Archdiocese also entered existing parishes. In some cases, they quickly became almost half the congregation. This took place in Madonna Church in Fort Lee and St. Michael’s Church in Palisades Park.
Today, the Korean Catholic communities are served by five parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark: Korean Martyrs in Saddle Brook, St. Michael’s in Palisades Park, Madonna in Fort Lee, St. Joseph’s in Demarest, and St. Andrew Kim in Maplewood.
