Volume 34 No. 3 | Spring 2024 6 Society Matters Fr Hai witnessing to God’s love in Colombia Fr Hai Duy Nguyen joined the Society of the Divine Word in his home country of Vietnam and after completing his studies and priestly formation in Australia, he is two years into his first missionary assignment in Colombia, an experience he is embracing. Fr Hai was born into a Catholic family and says his Christian faith was influenced by his grandmother who was a faithful Catholic. “Therefore, the death of my grandmother inspired me to become a priest. As a priest, I could offer Holy Mass as a sacrifice to pray for my ancestors who have died and for all the deceased,” he says. He got to know the SVD through one of his relatives who was a Divine Word Missionary priest and entered the aspirant community in Saigon in 2008. “I would honestly say that the charism of the SVD was not uppermost in my mind during the first two years. Rather, my mind was on the fact that being a priest is like a sacrifice to pray for the souls of our ancestors,” he said. “However, the vocational journey of the missionary religious priest was being concretely rooted in my mind and heart year by year, helping me see that the love of God impels me to reach out to those in need not only in Vietnam, but also around the world.” Hai took his first profession of vows in 2014 and then received the opportunity of studying at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne, Australia. “It was God’s blessing and grace for me,” he says. “I am grateful to the Society of the Divine Word, both in Vietnam and Australia provinces, which formed me into who I am now.” After professing his final vows and being ordained a priest in Melbourne, Hai received his first mission assignment to Colombia in South America. “I thanked God for this because Colombia was my first mission choice and the place where I wished to be a witness of God’s love,” he says. “I wanted to be a missionary in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, because I was influenced by the life of Saint Oscar Romero, and also by watching movies that narrate the life of the first missionaries in Latin America.” Fr Hai arrived in Colombia in April 2022 and since then has gained a variety of mission experiences in different places, including rural, jungle and urban areas. “Now I’m working in one of the biggest cities in Colombia, named Cali. It has been named one of the most dangerous cities in the world,” he says. “There are social problems including a high rate of drug abuse and robbery, a lack of security at night, parental separation and a high school dropout rate which is evident in the area where I am working as an assistant priest. “I felt useless sometimes when facing these social realities because I could not handle these obstacles. I was asking God: ‘My Lord, help me to be your instrument of love’. I try my best and the rest I entrust to the Holy Spirit.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ0MTI=