For Deacon Vinh Nguyen, saying yes to God’s call to the priesthood has meant the willingness to leave his homeland, master a new language, and devote nine years to seminary study.

“It’s been a long journey,” he says.

It is a journey, however, that he has embraced, and this June, he reached a milestone when he was ordained to the transitional diaconate by Bishop James Ruggieri at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. 

“This is the biggest event for me in my life. I am so excited,” he says. “I feel so blessed. This will change my life forever.”

Deacon Nguyen says he felt that change profoundly during the ordination rite, most especially when he was lying prostrate during the singing of the Litany of the Saints.

“When I laid my hands on the floor, [I thought] I will die to myself and give myself to the Church and to God,” he says.

The diaconate is the first of the three levels of holy orders and is a call to service through the ministry of charity, through sharing the word of God, and through assisting at the altar. It is service, the bishop said in his homily, that must be carried out in communion with Christ and the Church. 

“As a deacon, that is as a minister of Jesus Christ, who appeared in the midst of the disciples as one who serves, do the will of God in charity from the heart; serve others with joy as you would serve the Lord,” the bishop said.

Deacon Nguyen says, as a deacon, he is most looking forward to baptisms and to preaching the Gospel.

“It’s a call to serve. So hopefully, during my deacon year, I will serve well the people of God,” he says.

Deacon Nguyen is originally from Hà Tĩnh, a city in north central Vietnam. He came to the United States through a partnership between the U.S. and Vietnamese Catholic Churches. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 12% of the seminarians in the U.S. are from Vietnam, something reflective of the importance of faith to Vietnamese Catholic families. Although they are a minority in their country, their devotion has resulted in numerous religious vocations. That was the case for Deacon Nguyen. 

“I grew up in a devout Catholic family,” he says. “When I was young, especially during the time when I lived with my family, from when I was born to high school, I went to church twice a day.”

Deacon Nguyen says he went to daily Mass at 4:30 a.m., held early so it would not conflict with school or work. Then, in the evening, people would gather for prayer.

“We often do the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross,” he says. “I was around the church all the time.”

Deacon Nguyen says two priests played important roles in his discernment. The first was his pastor when he was an altar server in middle school.

“I really liked the way my pastor did the homily. So, his homilies really inspired my vocation. I wanted to become like him, to give a homily to others,” he says.

 The second was a priest he never met: his great uncle who died before he was born. Deacon Nguyen says Father Huan Nguyen was well-known throughout his life for motivating young people and for his care of the community.

“During this time, people in his parish were so poor. People did not have milk, so he raised goats, a lot of goats, and then gave milk to parishioners,” says Deacon Nguyen. “He was very kind.”

Deacon Nguyen says that his great uncle inspired a lot of vocations, including many in his own extended family, which includes nearly 30 priests and around 20 women religious. One of Deacon Nguyen’s sisters is a member of the Lovers of the Holy Cross, and a younger brother is a seminarian in his home diocese.

Although he felt a pull towards the priesthood, Deacon Nguyen says, as the oldest of six siblings, he felt a responsibility to help support his family, so after high school, he studied graphic design and then took a job with an advertising company.

He remained active in his faith, however, including leading a group of college students who gathered on Sunday evenings to study the Catechism.

Deacon Nguyen says he was planning to apply to the seminary for his home diocese when his auxiliary bishop, whom he had met through a seminarian, called him and brought up the possibility of serving in the United States.

“He asked me, ‘Vinh, would you like to become a priest in the U.S.?’ I was surprised because, during my life, I had never had a phone call from a priest, but now it was from a bishop,” he says.

Concerned about the language barrier, he initially declined, but after praying about it, he agreed. He arrived in the United States in 2016 and began English language studies at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.

While at the seminary, he spent summers serving at Christ the Divine Mercy Parish in East Millinocket, the result of a connection between Father Bao Nguyen, a Jesuit priest who had accompanied him to the U.S., and Father Daniel Greenleaf, then-director of the Diocese of Portland’s Office of Seminarians.

Deacon Nguyen says he loved his time in Maine.

“I just liked the people. The people are so friendly. Then the second one is the landscape. It is a very beautiful country here,” he says.

He applied to be a seminarian for the Diocese of Portland in 2019 and was accepted. He then spent another year learning English at Theological College of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before continuing his studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

During his diaconate year, Deacon Nguyen will continue his preparation at Mount St. Mary’s, which will include a retreat in Lourdes and Ars, France. He will also serve at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor, giving him an opportunity to fully experience parish life, and it is anticipated that he will be able to return home to visit his family. It will be his first time back in Vietnam since he said yes to a bishop and to God a decade ago.

“It’s a call to serve. 
So hopefully, during my deacon year, I will serve well the people of God.” 

—Deacon Vinh Nguyen