Brisbane’s Vietnamese Catholic community came together at St Mark’s Inala last weekend to observe the feast day of the Vietnamese Martyrs and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnamese Catholic community in Brisbane.
Their chaplain, Fr Joseph Vu SVD, says the celebration was an opportunity to look back and give thanks for the flourishing of this faith community which began in 1976 with the arrival of boat people who were fleeing their war-torn homeland.
“It started out as a small group here at St Mark’s,” Fr Joseph says. “Most came as boat people and started gathering together and then holding activities and gradually beginning to build up the community.
“And through all these years they have had chaplains helping them.”
What started out as a small community has now grown into a big one, with 1500-2000 people attending the Vietnamese chaplaincy weekend Mass each week.
“These days they all come from different backgrounds,” says Fr Joseph. “Some are still the original boat people, but others are new arrivals who have settled here in Australia or students on student visas.”
Fr Joseph was appointed Chaplain to the Vietnamese Community of the Brisbane Archdiocese and as the Assistant Priest of St Mark’s, in 2014.
He loves his ministry and has much in common with the people he serves, having been born in Vietnam, but forced to flee by boat in 1978, aged 14, with just one of his sisters. Almost two years in a refugee camp in Hong Kong followed before he was allowed to settle in the United States, where he was eventually reunited with his parents and others siblings.
Fr Joseph’s chaplaincy work with the Brisbane Vietnamese community is centred on the Vietnamese Catholic Centre at Inala, but his brief is to cover all of the large Archdiocese.
“It’s a big area,” he says. “And, like any priest, the work is varied. It includes celebrating baptisms or funerals for Vietnamese families as well as providing pastoral care, just as any parish priest would.
“But as chaplain, my work also involves organising cultural events for the community, such as the Full Moon Festival or the Day of Mary, and of course the big faith celebrations of Easter and Christmas.”
Fr Joseph says his chaplaincy ministry is not without challenges as well, including a commitment to helping bring people together and to reconcile after some difficult times within the community in the past.
“There was a period before I arrived when the community had a hard time and experienced broken relations,” he says. “So part of my ministry has been to bring healing again and over the last two and a half years, the whole community has worked very hard towards getting to that goal.
“And I can say now that things are much better. Relationships between people have improved and things are much more easy-going.”
Fr Joseph says the fact that he is a Vietnamese-speaking chaplain has been a great advantage in his ministry.
“I’m very happy to be able to work with the people and give them support and accompany them on their faith journey and their life journey,” he says. “It’s very satisfying work.”
The SVDs’ commitment to interculturality means that the AUS Province has identified migrant chaplaincy as a priority.
“Chaplaincy respects that we are all culturally different in a variety of ways and it’s about respecting those differences and helping people to celebrate their faith according to their own way of life,” Fr Joseph says.
“I love being a Chaplain. I love helping people to live their faith and their life and it’s enriching to me as well because it brings an awareness of my own weaknesses and limitations and helps me to grow in good relationship with God and to find the strength to help people in different ways.
“And I know that the Vietnamese community here in Brisbane is very grateful for the SVD who have offered a confrere who is speaking Vietnamese to work with them and to journey with them.”
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane says he is also grateful to Fr Joseph and the SVD for their commitment to the Brisbane Vietnamese chaplaincy.
“The Archdiocese of Brisbane owes them a great debt of gratitude,” he says.
“The Vietnamese Catholic community in Brisbane has had difficulties in the past, but there is no mistaking its remarkable energies and gifts.”
Archbishop Coleridge says an apostolic visitation by Bishop Vincent Long helped put in place a number of positive developments that have come about since his visitation.
“Also crucial has been the support of the Divine Word Missionaries who for many years have had responsibility for the parish of Inala where the Vietnamese Catholic Centre is also located,” he says.
He thanked Fr Joseph, Inala Parish Priest Fr Stephen Pilly SVD, and the SVD priests who have previously ministered with the Vietnamese community in Brisbane.
“After three years of the new Chaplaincy, we are at a point now where we need to review what has been achieved and plan for the next phase of the journey,” he says.
“Whatever the uncertainties of that journey, one thing is sure: that the Divine Word Missionaries will not fail in either their generosity or their spirit of service.”