New bishop named to help minister to Orange County’s Vietnamese Catholics

They squeezed into the boat just before it slipped out of Cam Ranh Bay. Thanh Thai Nguyen joined 25 family members in reciting the rosary, night and day, and hoping they would not die before reaching the Philippines from Vietnam.

It was 1979, and after years of suffering religious persecution, Nguyen, a seminary student, his family and relatives fled the communist rule of their homeland. They spent 18 days at sea, four without food or drinkable water and buffeted by a tropical storm.

When they arrived at their destination, Nguyen promised to dedicate his life to God.

As he stood Friday inside the glittering Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, Nguyen recounted his journey, wiping his forehead as cameras whirred and an audience applauded. The Most Rev. Kevin Vann, bishop of Orange, had just introduced the lanky immigrant with the Boston-by-way-of-Vietnam accent as his new auxiliary bishop.

Nguyen, 64, is tasked with helping to minister to Orange County’s population of 1.3 million Catholics.

In late September, he received a call at his Florida parish from the papal nuncio — an ecclesiastical diplomat — telling him that Pope Francis had selected him to go to Orange County. The county is home to the largest population of Vietnamese outside Vietnam.

Nguyen said he needed half an hour that included prayer to digest his appointment before calling back.

Bishop-elect Nguyen, the second Vietnamese American bishop in the county, will join auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer, who grew up in Huntington Beach and who was ordained this past January.

Bishop Dominic Luong, Nguyen’s predecessor, said he’s “always available” to his successor, adding: “In honesty, when you study to be a priest, what we learn is from those who came before us. I am happy for him because he can start fresh.”

“We need a leader who understands the soul of the Vietnamese,” said Tac Pham, an electrical engineer and a member of St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Tustin. “We need someone who will remind us of the respect for life” and who can unite the community “to be a model among Vietnamese Catholic communities nationwide.”

Among his new responsibilities, Nguyen is expected to provide important pastoral care and leadership within the Vietnamese Catholic community in Orange County.

“Every one of us brings our different gifts, at different times, wherever it’s needed,” Vann said. “We are blessed as a diocese to welcome such an experienced and passionate leader to journey with us in faith.” He expects Nguyen to begin in December.

Nguyen was born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and is the second-oldest of 11 children. He spent most of his elementary education in Catholic schools and in 1966, he enrolled at St. Joseph Seminary. But his education would be interrupted by the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 when the communist government took over.

As a condition of continuing their studies, he and fellow seminarians were forced into hard labor in the rice fields, until Nguyen eventually escaped to the United States.

In the U.S., Nguyen worked at Catholic Charities in Connecticut before returning to academics at Merrimack College, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree. He soon began his novitiate year in Washington D.C. and took his first vows with the La Salette order in 1987. He later headed to Massachusetts, where he graduated from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and was ordained on May 11, 1991.

Nguyen will be leaving the St. Joseph parish in the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., where he’s known for his love of music, playing the guitar and competing in tennis matches. There, he leads the faithful in a community where many people speak Spanish, Polish and Portuguese. He said he must begin a “process of letting go” of his flock as he prepares to move to California.

“I don’t think it’s important where they come from. I think it’s more important that they connect spiritually with the people where they come to,” said Elysabeth Nguyen, a member of Christ Cathedral who Vann appointed to a special committee to raise money for the Our Lady of La Vang Shrine at the church in celebration of those of Vietnamese ancestry.

As a handful of Vietnamese American priests, among 50 Asian priests in the 10th-largest diocese in the nation, posed for photos at the meet-and-greet with the new bishop, Nguyen said she hopes the new leader will support the project.

“His experience, his vision in leading through God, will be what we look forward to,” she said. “We welcome him. We know he will make a huge impact.”

The Rev. Bill Cao, of St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church in Anaheim, said what he values most in a leader “is the spirit of service. When you are a priest, you have the freedom to help anyone, anywhere.”

anh.do@latimes.com

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