Sunday, July 03, 2011

Australia's first Asian-born Bishop consecrated

viet-bishop1.jpgAUSTRALIA’s first Vietnamese-born Catholic Bishop was ordained at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on 23 June - the latest in what will be a string of major episcopal appointments that need to be made around the country.
 
Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen arrived in Australia as a refugee crammed into a 17-metre boat with 147 people, fleeing the Communist country that shut down the seminary he was studying at.

Bishop Long said his ordination is a radical call to “risk all for Christ” as a Bishop, and asked for prayers for himself and all Bishops of Australia.

His ordination brings Melbourne’s Auxiliary Bishop count to four, while moral theologian Bishop Peter Comensoli was also ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney on 8 June. 

Bishop William Wright was also ordained Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle on 15 June after Bishop Michael Malone resigned early saying he felt “battered” and worn out after dealing with sexual abuse cases for most of his episcopal reign.

A successor is also yet to be announced for Archbishop Barry Hickey, who submitted his retirement to Pope Benedict XVI prior to his 75th birthday in April. 

The Holy Father accepted Archbishop Hickey’s offer in principle but asked him to stay on until a successor is announced. 

Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby and Hobart Archbishop Adrian Doyle were also due to submit their resignations this year as they turn 75.

Bishops also need to be found for the dioceses of Sandhurst, Wilcannia-Forbes, Armidale NSW and Toowoomba.

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv is a former refugee from Communist Vietnam, and Australia’s first Vietnamese-born prelate. 

Bishop Long - who, prior to his election as Bishop was Superior of the Franciscan Conventuals in Australia – referred to his ordination as “a new way of giving myself” and asked for prayers for himself as he undertakes his new role, the swath of newly ordained Bishops on Australia’s east coast and all Australian Bishops.

“A Bishop must not be afraid to walk with his people in the new exodus to the fullness of life and love. It’s the place we can only reach with unwavering and undying love for Christ and His people. I humbly ask you to pray for me, your newly ordained Bishops and all Bishops to walk this path with fidelity and perseverance,” said Bishop Long, who at 49 is the second-youngest Bishop in Australia.

Over 4,000 packed St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne for the ordination  ceremony including the new Bishop’s parents, some of his brothers and sisters and many from the Vietnamese community around Australia.

The ordination was also streamed live for relatives and friends overseas who couldn’t get to Melbourne for the historic occasion.

After his election last month, Bishop Long told The Age that his election was a recognition of the significant contribution of Vietnamese Catholics to the life of the Church in Australia.

The Vietnamese are disproportionately represented in Catholic seminaries. ‘’Because of their hardships, because of their experience they have a particular way of adhering to the Catholic faith.

It means much more to them than just a Sunday service. Where they are, there is more vitality and dynamism than the typical Anglo-Catholic parish,’’ Bishop Long told The Age.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart was the principal consecrator and Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Apostolic Nuncio to Australia and Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, were co-consecrators.

In his homily Archbishop Hart referred to Bishop Long’s life journey and spiritual growth. 

“From his birth forty-nine and a half years ago in Gia-Kiem, Vietnam, the love of Jesus Christ has always filled Bishop Vincent with hope. The Spirit of Christ and attendant sufferings accompanied him as he entered the Minor Seminary, faced its closure and escaped to Australia.”

Bishop Long’s parents, Mr and Mrs Van Quang, assisted with the Offertory Procession and his four brothers and two sisters were present, some having arrived from Holland and Vietnam for the occasion.

“I have taken many leaps of faith before, but perhaps none as profoundly life changing as this one,” Bishop Long said. “Nevertheless, I make bold to venture head, trusting in the sustaining power of God and the support of many.”

One leap of faith for the new Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne was back in 1980 when he left the Minor Seminary and with his parents and some siblings he fled the war and poverty of the Vietnamese communist regime and boarded a small fishing  boat for Malaysia.

He eventually arrived in a Melbourne refugee camp. A couple of years later he became a Conventual Franciscan friar and was ordained a priest in 1989.

He has been a parish priest in both Sydney and Melbourne but since 2008 has been in Rome serving as Assistant General of his order. Some 200 diocesan priests, 16 Bishops, five Archbishops, seminarians from  Corpus Christi Seminary and a number of Vietnamese priests from around Australia attended the ordination.

Bishop Long’s parents, four brothers and two sisters, some of whom came from Holland and Vietnam, sat quietly proud and very moved, remembering those great leaps of faith of which their Bishop son and brother spoke.

When Bishop Long spoke following his ordination, it was partially in Vietnamese, punctuated throughout by spontaneous applause from the congregation.

Bishop Long expressed both a sense of personal inadequacy but at the same time a profound confidence in his new role.

“I feel small above all before the enormous task that lies ahead of me, the obligations that are part of the Episcopal ministry. Yet in the midst of these uncertainties, I am at peace knowing that no one else is more responsible for me being a Bishop than the One who formed me in my mother’s womb.”

He thanked all those who had been part of his formation including the Vietnamese community in Melbourne saying: “It has been remarked that we are the new Irish of the Catholic Church in Australia.”

He also thanked the civic leaders present saying: “In a way, I, a former refugee, stand before you as a testament to the fair go mentality that has shaped this great nation.”