FRANCIS Canh Trung Nguyen was ordained to the priesthood in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane on July 6, culminating a journey that began in war-torn Vietnam.
Ordaining the former refugee, Archbishop John Bathersby said in his homily: ‘(Francis’) journey reaches its completion here in St Stephen’s tonight in the midst of some who have shared similar sufferings and others who can only marvel at his tenacity and commitment to his faith and his vocation’.
Fr Francis was 11 when he entered the junior seminary in his native Vietnam in 1972. The Communists overran the country three years later and his family was forced to move to a ‘new economic zone’.
They and 150 other people were able to escape on a small boat to Thailand in 1982. They arrived in Australia in 1984.
After studies at Banyo Seminary, Fr Francis was ordained to the diaconate last October, serving in St Bernard’s parish, Upper Mt Gravatt.
‘Francis must be filled with the deepest joy and satisfaction tonight as he realises that his journey to God has finally reached a goal that at times must have seemed totally impossible,’ Archbishop Bathersby said.’
