That’s when he struck his bargain with God, and a few hours later the clouds seemed to miraculously lift. My mother told me the only hope I had was to pray. “We had no food, no water, no hope,” Vu recalls. Three years later, tired of being oppressed, they joined about 100 other refugees in a 25-foot boat illegally bound for freedom.īecause the vessel got caught in a storm and lost its engine, however, the roughly three-day passage to the Philippines lasted three weeks.
In 1975, when the city fell to the Communists, who arrested the priests and closed the churches, his family kept praying secretly at home. The son of devoutly Catholic parents in Saigon, Vu attended Mass daily at 4 a.m. That certainly was true in Vu’s world as he grew up during the Vietnam War. Vietnamese value the priesthood as a very high position.” For a family to have a son become a priest, Luong said, “is very noble and enriching. “You have the family support and environment for serving the church in that capacity.”Īuxiliary Bishop Dominic Luong of the Orange Diocese, the highest-ranking Vietnamese Catholic cleric in the U.S., agrees. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, where 25 of the 94 seminarians are Vietnamese American. “Within the culture there is a very high regard for religion, the Catholic Church and the priesthood,” said Msgr. Today, of the six religions officially recognized in the country, Catholicism, with 5 million to 7 million followers, ranks behind only Buddhism. The site was later made into a national shrine. In 1798, during a period of great persecution, Vietnamese Catholics hiding in the forest had a vision of Mary, now referred to as Our Lady of La Vang. Over the years the religion spread, but always with unique twists. Traditionally Buddhist, Vietnam began receiving Catholics in the 16th century when Western missionaries started arriving by ship. Catholicism has deep roots in the Southeast Asian country. Chief among them, according to Hoge, were Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Poland and, most recently, Vietnam. The trend became so pronounced that by the 1940s and ‘50s, according to some estimates, 80% of the priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were Irish-born.Įventually that pool dried up, and the Irish were replaced by priests from countries where economic or political turmoil put a premium on escape. Being a priest was easier and carried a lot more esteem.” “In Ireland years ago,” Hoge explained, “a man had a choice of becoming a priest or a coal miner. The recent church sex scandals may also exacerbate the trend, experts said.įor a long time, Ireland, which had a surplus of priests, filled the gap by exporting many of them to the U.S. The result, according to Hoge, is that the ratio of priests to parishioners in the United States has plunged from one in 936 around 1985 to one in about 1,450 today. Hoge, a sociology professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and co-author of a 2006 book, “International Priests in America.” “We live in the most affluent nation in history, and a young man between 20 and 30 has many more options here,” said Dean R. priest shortage to several factors, most notably a change in the culture of affluent Western nations that devalues profitless service while affording young men lucrative career opportunities. “Under the Communists we couldn’t go to seminary,” Vu said, " we have a desire to become priests.”Įxperts attribute the U.S. And many lived through political and religious repression when they weren’t allowed to practice their faith, let alone become priests. They also grew up in a poor country where entering the priesthood was an economic step up. They come from a culture steeped in religious values that bestows high status on the clergy. Vietnamese immigrants are stepping in, experts say, for a number of reasons. The influx of Vietnamese clergy comes as the number of priests nationwide has dropped nearly 30% in three decades, from 58,900 in 1975 to about 41,700 last year. In places such as Orange County, home to the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, that has translated into major change: Of 181 diocesan priests, Lilyengren said, almost 28% are Asian, predominantly Vietnamese. Catholics, they account for 12% of Catholic seminary students, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Though Asians are only 1% of the estimated 77 million U.S. “Vietnamese priests are filling the gap,” said Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange.