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Fr. Chris Nguyen Escapes Vietnam to Enter Priesthood
7/30/2008
 Chris Nguyen believes in the power of prayer and the power of hope.
In the midst of a violent ocean storm, packed in the belly of an overloaded shrimp boat, Nguyen began to pray the Rosary as he and 106 other Vietnamese refugees frantically attempted to bail water from the leaking boat.
Miraculously, without food and water for days, all 107 refugees escaping the Communist Vietnamese government survived, and eventually landed in a camp in Malaysia.
“I believe our prayers were answered,” he said. “God was there to guide our boat, and when we all saw the island, we all jumped and praised God that we had all survived. When we got to the camp, they gave us a bowl of soup – kind of like Ramen noodles. I remember, that was the best bowl of soup of my life.”
Now, 20 years later, Father Nguyen tells the tale of his harrowing journey and as testament to the power prayer and of God’s will. As a graduate of the University of St. Thomas School of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary, Fr. Nguyen was ordained into the priesthood on May 31, 2008 at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. He will serve as a parochial vicar for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston at St. Michael Catholic Church.
“When I finished high school, my family sold everything to pay for me to escape Vietnam otherwise I would be drafted into the Communist military, and it was very dangerous,” he said. “I was raised Catholic, and I wanted to become a priest, but there was no freedom in Vietnam to become a priest. My escape was on a symbolic day because I left on the same day Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs.”
Fr. Nguyen was fortunate to stay in the refugee camp for only a year and a half, whereas many of the other 15,000 refugees could not secure refugee status for five to 10 years. Nguyen eventually made it to Houston, his first home in the United States.
Once he was settled in Houston, Fr. Nguyen began the arduous task of going to night school to learn English and earn a GED while working in various jobs to sponsor his family’s immigration to the United States. In his first job, he worked for a company which manufactured football pads. He learned to cut hair, later becoming the unofficial St. Mary’s Seminary barber. Fr. Nguyen also studied engineering at North Harris County Junior College, worked as an optical technician and a machine operator for Compaq Computers. None of those jobs satisfied his desire to help others, so he went to work as a social worker for the Texas Department of Human Services.
“By 2000, I thought I needed to do something more meaningful, and I recognized that I could help people who are suffering by giving them more than food stamps. I wanted to feed not only their bodies, but also feed their spiritual lives,” he said. At that point, he finally made the move to realize his boyhood goal of entering into the Seminary.
Fr. Nguyen said both his training at St. Mary’s Seminary and his past life experiences have prepared him to begin his vocation as a priest.
“My experiences will help me to relate to people who are vulnerable, who may not have any family, or who are struggling to learn English,” Fr. Nguyen said. “I thank God because He has enabled me to better understand the suffering of others.”
Fr. Nguyen said he was very thankful for the faculty and staff at St. Mary’s Seminary, especially, Monsignor Charles Elmer, whom he described as his spiritual mentor.
“Having Monsignor Elmer as my spiritual mentor has really helped me grow in my relationship with God,” he said. “Now that I am in my parish, people ask me a lot of questions. I feel St. Mary’s has trained us to be better servants to God, and the Seminary has equipped us with the knowledge we need to go out and serve in our parishes.”
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