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PAGE 16 — The Georgia Bulletin, September 7, 1989 Polish, Vietnamese LaSaleftes Depict Universal Church BY GRETCHEN REISER The reality of the “universal Church” • and perhaps an insight into the progress of Solidarity and democratic reforms. They also shared good- natured frustration with American slang. Helping LASALETTES — Father Stan Witkowski and Brother Thanh Nguyen in the garden at St. Ann’s where Our Lady of LaSalette stands. ministry of the future came at St. Ann’s this summer where parishioners grew to know and love a Viet namese LaSalette sem inarian and a Polish LaSa lette priest. In Cobb County, they were plunged into the heart of a large American parish, playing basketball with teens, visiting a nearby nursing home weekly, preaching, attending sin gles meetings and joining in the parish and arch diocesan community of LaSalette priests. But Brother Thanh Nguyen and Father Stan Witkowski also brought their stories, more similar to that of one another than to the experience of or dinary Americans. Both have lived in Communist countries; Thanh Nguyen escaped by boat with his family in 1979 from Viet nam and Father Witkow ski, who is studying in Rome, Italy, looks with cautious hope to his homeland and the seeming Father Stan with his English, Thanh Nguyen ex plained that “How are you?” could also be ex pressed, “What’s up, What’s going on, How goes it, and even What’s cook ing?” While Father Stan looked amazed, Thanh ex plained, “This is the kind of thing so hard to under stand” for newcomers to the U.S. Thanh Nguyen said he is the first Vietnamese seminarian of the LaSa- lettes in this country. His vocation to Religious life began when he was a boy in South Vietnam, but war and then Communist con trol after the 1975 fall of Saigon intervened. One of 11 children in a Catholic family, Thanh Nguyen entered a Viet namese religious con gregation when he was 13. Like a minor seminary for young boys, he now looks upon rising at 5 a.m. for shower, Mass, meditation and silent breakfast as “very strict. I don’t think I can handle now.” /m /utter ond fTlcLellon Insurance 711 Lenox Towers, 3400 Peachtree Road, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30326 (404) 261-7212 “The only insurance people you’ll ever need Yet life in seminary held an unexplained “joy” and he persevered, having taken his first vow before the fall of Saigon. Sent with a classmate to a farm run by the community, they stayed together until 1978 when the congregation was accused of “illegal ordina tions’’ and “illegal residence” by the Com munist government. The religious superiors and a priest serving the com munity were taken away, he said, and he and others were under house arrest for two months. Then he was forced to sign a paper that said “I volunteer to go back to my family and con tinue my religious life on my own.” Sent home, he was permitted to go to Mass but not to carry on any religious activities or contact his superiors without permission from the government, he said. “In a hidden way I still taught CCD, participated in a singing group, and was part of a Bible sharing with a group of Religious sisters and brothers in a house after Mass on Sunday.” Then in three-year tem porary Religious vows, Thanh, 26, struggled with a decision' whether or not to join his family as boat peo ple fleeing Vietnam. He wasn’t sure whether to re main or leave was the pro per response to Christ. He decided to go at the last moment when his parents, nine of the children and other family members, 26 in all, climbed into a fishing boat with an old motor and small sail and left Cam Ranh Bay at night. 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Each time they were able to catch water, enough for about a cup each. “After 18 days the boat landed in the Philippines, 300 kilometers north from Manila.” The group included his cousin “less than two years old” and a brother “about five years old.” “We all survived. That’s a miracle,” he says matter-of-factly. Because of his parents’ piety and traditional Viet namese devotion to prayer, they continued morning and evening prayers and the daily rosary in the boat, “even in that hopeless situation,” he recalls. “It had a tremendous impact on me.” From the Philip pines to Beaumont, Texas, Thanh Nguyen eventually moved to Hartford, Conn., where his former seminary classmate, now married, was living. He ended up across the street from the LaSalette provincial house, where, in time, he found his vocation renewed and changed, now into a desire for the priesthood. Now 36, he has graduated cum laude in his study of philosphy, taken his first vows and is studying theology. One lesson he has learn ed is “openness.” “Eleven years ago I never thought I would be in America. Now I am here. Seven years ago I knew nothing of the LaSalettes, now I am a LaSalette. I never wanted to become a priest. Somehow I am on my way to become a priest.” Whatever new dif ficulties come “I have to learn to be open,” he said. Father Stan told of the dramatic impact Pope John Paul II has had on vocations and Catholic life in his homeland. “Where I was born, 25 years we were waiting for a new church, waiting for the government to permit a new church,” he recalled. “Now — no problems. Now we have a lot of new buildings. Now all of our parishes are building something.” The number of vocations “grew immediately” when the pope was elected by the College of Cardinals, Father Stan said. While in seminary, between the lack of facilities and the growth in vocations, one year he shared two rooms in a house and one bathroom with 10 other students. They spent part of their seminary time in construc tion work, building an ade quate seminary. He was one of seven LaSalette priests ordained in May 1986 in Debowiec, Poland and after one year in a parish in north Poland has spent two years study ing in Rome. He is eager to finish and return to the life of parish priest, he said. He is cautiously op timistic about the changes in Poland this summer toward democratic govern ment and leadership by the Solidarity trade union. “Earlier, what was written and the practice of life were two different things,” he said of news reports. “Now, I hope, I hope. I hope my friends can work without problems.” Economically Poland is under great duress, he said. “The life was and is hard for lay people. For young married couples, without help from parents, it would be impossible.” Commented Thanh Nguyen of the political changes in Poland: “I hope this works well in your country so Vietnam can follow your steps.” Our sacrifices are minimal when compared with the joyful freedom The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne SERVANTS Ol Ki l l! I I OR INt l RAW.I CANCER A religious community of Catholic women w ith seven modern nursing taeilities in six states. Our one apostolate is to nurse incurable cancer patients. This work is a practical fulfillment of our faith. , The most important talent, highly prized by us. is the talent tor sharing ot yourself— your compassion, your cheerfulness, your faith—with those who have been made so vulnerable and dependent by this dread disease. Not ail ot our sisters are nurses, but as part of our apostolate. all directly help in the care ol the patients. If you think you have a religious vocation and would like to know more about our work and community life, why not plan to visit with us. We would be happy to share with you a day from our lives. Write: Sr. Marie Edward DOMINICAN SISTERS <)E HAWTHORNE Rnsarv Hill Home MX) Linda Avenue Hawthorne. New York 105.12 or call: |914| 760-4794 Please send me more information about your Congregation, gb 9/7/89 NAME ADDRESS” STATE CITY
