The Vietnamese migrants living and working in New Caledonia are a long way from home and their faith plays a big role in keeping them together as a community in a new land.
With only one Vietnamese priest in the Pacific country, the SVD AUS Province Mission Secretary, Fr Truc Quoc Phan pays regular visits to New Caledonia to help meet the faith needs of the migrant people.
“They are like sheep without shepherds,” he says.
“The first generation of Vietnamese migrants went to New Caledonia as labourers for the French and they didn’t speak the language.
“But they are very, very devoted to the Church.”
Fr Truc says he sees his ministry with the Vietnamese migrant community of New Caledonia as an important part of the Divine Word Missionaries’ commitment to work with migrants and refugees.
“It’s good that we are now reaching out to the Pacific and helping migrants,” he says. “It is the Church in need.”
Fr Truc says the Vietnamese migrants ended up in New Caledonia because of the colonial French connections in both countries.
“But now, living out in the Pacific in a French culture, they need someone who understands their culture and spiritual life,” he says.
“They also need to be helped to enter, and enculturate into the local Church.”
While there are very few Masses in Vietnamese available in New Caledonia, it is the big feasts of Christmas and Easter where the community really longs for the presence of a Vietnamese-speaking priest.
“So I try to be there for those times,” Fr Truc says. “The people have a need and I am very glad to be able to be there with them.”
