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Father Paul Chin-Yong Kang, a former parochial vicar of three parishes in the archdiocese, died June 22. He was 56.
He was parochial vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, Poughkeepsie, 1993-1995; St. Patrick’s, Staten Island, 1992-1993; and St. Ann’s, Ossining, 1991-1992.
Since 1998, he had worked outside the archdiocese, including at a parish in Korea. He also served for three years in New Jersey, beginning in 1995.
He was born in Seoul, Korea, and his family was not Catholic at the time. According to a profile about Father Kang published in CNY in 1991, his introduction to the Church came when he was in sixth grade and went to Mass at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Seoul with Catholic friends. He wanted to know what the ceremony meant, and a friend spoke to a nun, who gave him a catechism. He studied it and began attending religious instruction. He was baptized at age 15 in 1977.
He became an altar boy and served Mass for the late Cardinal Stephen Kim of Seoul. At age 16, he entered preparatory seminary, Holy Ghost High School. After graduation he began seminary studies at Seoul Catholic College.
In 1983, his family immigrated to the United States. They settled in Flushing, Queens, and went to Mass at St. Philip Neri parish, the Bronx. They became parishioners of St. John Nam in the Bronx.
Guided by the pastor, Father Simon H. Nam, he entered St. John Neumann Residence in 1984 before studying at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie. He was ordained in 1991 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
He earned a master’s degree in divinity and a bachelor’s in sacred theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, and a bachelor’s in philosophy and theology from St. John’s University in Queens.
A Funeral Mass was offered June 26 at the Catholic Korean Church of St. Paul Chong Ha-Sang in Flushing, Queens.
Burial was at St. Charles Cemetery, Farmingdale.
