Michael Nguyen SVD
In 2002 I was ordained to the priesthood in Chicago, Illinois.
In 2005 I returned to Saigon for many reasons; to name a few, to pay respect to my father who passed away in Vietnam in 1985 while I was in the US (there were no relationships between Vietnam and the US back then), and last but not least to reconcile myself with the land from which I was more or less forced to flee in 1982 due to the political situations, which were the bitter and rotten fruit of the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
On the one hand, given the complicated circumstances that I have briefly described above, I have to admit that at first it was not easy for me to make such a decision (to return to Vietnam). On the other hand, I eventually felt blessed when excitedly setting my foot in Saigon, the city where I was born, and emotionally crossing the threshold of the house where I was raised up as a teenager. However, interestingly for me to notice that a couple of the people in my home parish were very “surprised” to see me celebrating the thanksgiving mass in my home church, and offering a lecture on the Bible to the parishioners. I guess, perhaps, for these few, a priest must be a very holy and pious man; likewise, a teacher must be a person full of knowledge. Unfortunately, some confessions I have to make, I used to be a mischievous and lazy teenager, who very often skipped religious classes, and most of the time came last or penultimate in the class. And here I was, a priest from the Divine Word Missionaries.
I recall on a formal occasion, one even refused to address me with the title “Cha/Father” (a common practice/social norm in Vietnam). One even poked fun at me by calling me the ridiculous names that they used to call me in my early stripling…
Nazareth and Saigon… Nothing is new!
Source: https://.nguyentrungtay.net/saigon.html
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