AUSTRALIA’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.”