Vietnamese Catholics in Australia are celebrating the news that Pope
Benedict XVI has appointed Fr Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv as
Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
He will be the first
Vietnamese-born and the first Asian bishop in Australia.
The new
Bishop-Elect for the Archdiocese of Melbourne escaped from communism in
1980 when he was 18 year old after finding that he completely had no
chance to be a priest in Vietnam. Completely trusted in Divine
Providence, he left Vietnam in a small refugee boat packed with people
seeking freedom.
Arriving in Australia in 1981, in 1983, Bishop
Nguyen became a Conventual Franciscan friar and studied for the
priesthood in Melbourne.
After his priestly ordination on 30 December
1989, he was sent to Rome for further studies and was awarded a
licentiate in Christology and Spirituality from the Pontifical Faculty
of St Bonaventure.
He served as a parish priest for four years in
Kellyville NSW and for seven years in Springvale. He was elected
superior of the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals in Australia in 2005.
Since 2008, he has been in Rome serving as Assistant General,
responsible for the Asia-Oceania section of order.
Welcoming the
appointment, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne said on Friday: "The
appointment of Bishop Vincent as auxiliary in Melbourne is a historic
one. He escaped from Vietnam by boat as a young man, came to Melbourne,
joined the Conventual Franciscans, and has already given distinguished
service as a pastor in Springvale, as a leader in his order and has made
a generous and gifted contribution to the Church.”
The news
spread quickly among Vietnamese Catholic communities in Australia and
around the world. In particular, Vietnamese clergy and faithful in
metropolitan cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth
have burst into joy in thanksgiving Masses.
“It’s a historic
event,” said Fr Anthony Nguyen Huu Quang from Melbourne. “I think it’s a
clear sign that the Holy See and the Church in Australia highly
appreciate contributions of Vietnamese-born clergy and faithful in this
country. With the number of Vietnamese priests in Australia keeps
increasing, I have no doubts that there will certainly be a Vietnamese
Australian bishop one day. It’s so wonderful that my dream can come to
reality so quickly like this.”
There are more than 160
Vietnamese-born priests living in Australia, in which 35 are working in
the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Some minister to parishioners from their
homelands, but most work in primarily English-speaking parishes.
Fr
Anthony Nguyen Huu Quang is the Provincial Economer of Salesians of Don
Bosco Australia-Pacific. He often has to travel frequently among 16
Salesians communities throughout Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji.
However, for decades, he has managed to run a Catholic Magazine in
Vietnamese, and a Vietnamese Language weekend school. He is also a vice
director of the VietCatholic News, a Catholic agency established in 1996
to distribute Catholic news, commentary, spiritual resources in
Vietnamese.
A Vietnamese outstanding hymn writer, Fr Paul Chu Van
Chi, living in Sydney, admitted that: “I burst into tears of joy. After
so many bad news from Vietnam, it’s so great to know that a boat
refugee has become a Melbourne bishop. I would like to thank Pope
Benedict XVI, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto – the Apostolic Nuncio to
Australia, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, and the Church in
Australia for this encouraging gesture. I believe that Vietnamese
Australian Catholics can and must contribute more for the Church in
Australia, and for our Australia.”
Fr Paul Chu Van Chi had been jailed in Vietnam for years before he managed to escape in a small boat.
When
Fr Peter Nguyen Mong Huynh announced the news to his congregation on
the weekend Mass, they burst into applause. “This historic event surely
will have great positive impacts on priestly vocations among Vietnamese
youth. It certainly will lead to a surge in vocations to the
Priesthood,” he said.
Commenting on priestly vocations among
Vietnamese youth, Fr Michael Moore, the Rector of the diocesan
Redemptorist Mater Seminary said: “Perth is very multi-cultural. We have
had a tremendous response from the Vietnamese community - their
Catholic faith is very strong. A vocation is promoted in Vietnamese
families and seen as a very good thing.”
Language barriers,
cultural differences are primary factors preventing Vietnamese Catholics
in Australia from positive responds to their priestly calls.
Fr
Michael Pham Quang Hong of Western Australia Catholic community urged
his congregation “to thank God, to pray earnestly for the new bishop, to
live more faithfully to Gospel, and to trust completely in Divine
Providence”.
The priest had been jailed for more than 10 years in
communist prison before arriving Australia. He spent most of the 10
years in solitary confinement prison cell where he could see nothing
other than a thick darkness around him. But even in that situation, his
hope of being a priest was never extinguished.
About 0.8% of the
Australian resident population was born in Vietnam; in terms of
birthplace, Vietnam has been the fifth-largest source of immigration to
Australia, behind the United Kingdom (mainly from England and Scotland),
New Zealand, China, and Italy.
According to results of the 2006 Census,
159,848 Australian residents declared that they were born in Vietnam.
Among them Catholics made up 30.3%.