SAN DIEGO — When he’s installed, Bishop Michael Pham will become the first Vietnamese bishop to lead a diocese in the United States.
He arrived with his family in San Diego in 1985, the last leg of a journey that had started a decade before, when they had fled from the advancing Communist army in Vietnam.
In fact, Vietnamese Catholics began arriving in the region in 1975. Giai Do was one of the first ones. He was 17 years old at the time.
He, his parents and sisters and brothers had escaped Vietnam when Saigon collapsed and a repressive Communist government took on April 30 of that year.
“On that exact date, we left the Port of Vung Tau on a small fishing boat,” he recalled. “We went out to sea and were lucky enough that an American ship picked us up.”
They arrived at Camp Pendleton later. From there, they were sponsored by St. Martin of Tours Parish in La Mesa, which helped them to settle in San Diego.
The Do family had been part of a small, but devoted Catholic community in Vietnam, where Catholic European missionaries, primarily Portuguese and French Jesuits, had introduced the faith starting in the 16th century. The majority of the population was Buddhist.
The first Vietnamese Catholic families that arrived in San Diego began to look for a place to worship. They were able to connect with one another and found a way to have a Mass in Vietnamese at St. Columba Church.
“There were just 10 to 20 of us who gathered at that first Mass,” he recalled.
The fledgling community organized quickly and began to have a weekly Mass in Vietnamese at Holy Family Parish, where Do and his family became members. The parish would go on to play a central role in the community, with Do himself becoming one of its leaders.
As more Vietnamese Catholics arrived, they expanded to more parishes, where weekly Mass would be held in Vietnamese. Early communities were organized at Holy Family in Linda Vista, St. Francis of Assisi in Vista (this community has now moved to St. Thomas More in Oceanside), and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in San Diego. Later on, the communities at Good Shepherd in Mira Mesa and Holy Spirit in Oak Park were established.
The refugees came together to form the Vietnamese Catholic Community of San Diego. In 1977, Bishop Leo T. Maher approved its charter and bylaws, and its members began to engage with the diocese and with other cultural communities.
In November of 1979, the community organized the first diocesan Vietnamese Martyrs Mass, celebrated by Bishop Maher with both American and Vietnamese priests concelebrating. Its most significant cultural celebration, the Mass commemorates the sacrifices of Catholics martyred for their faith in Vietnam during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Do recalled then Father Pham’s leadership as pastor of Holy Family Parish, where he served for 11 years, ending in June of 2014. He said that Father Pham had a goal of bringing together all of the cultures present at the parish to live and celebrate their common faith.
He launched a multi-language Mass on special days, including the Easter Vigil. He also invited the communities to work together on all major parish celebrations. He included the cultural leaders in the parish’s Pastoral Council, where they assisted him in making key decisions.
“He guided us toward integration with the parish, which was really, really important for us as a community,” he recalled.
That guidance served as a model for how the community would work at the other parishes where Vietnamese congregations were present and for how they would work with the diocese, he said.
Today, the Vietnamese Catholic community has between 7,000 and 8,000 faithful across the San Diego region, according to Hien Nguyen, its president. Several Vietnamese priests serve in the diocese. The Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, which teaches faith, leadership and service to children and young people, has more than 500 members.
Community members play a vibrant role at the parishes where they have a significant presence. These are Holy Family, Holy Spirit, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Good Shepherd parishes in San Diego and St. Thomas More Parish in Oceanside. These parishes offer at least one Mass in Vietnamese, sometimes two. However, many members now speak English and opt to attend Mass in that language.
And community members play an active role in the diocese, where one of their own is now becoming its bishop.
