2/11/2010
Another new year
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 | Most Rev. John Vlazny
Archbishop of Portland |
Last month the United States Postal Service chose to salute the Lunar New Year with a commemorative 12-stamp souvenir sheet. Asian communities across the world continue to share their traditions, culture and heritage wherever they make their homes. I am pleased that our Southeast Asian Vicariate, situated at Our Lady of LaVang Church in Portland, continues to celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year. This time it will be the Year of the Tiger and it will all get underway for the very special celebration of the Eucharist on New Year’s Eve, Saturday, Feb. 13, in the church of Our Lady of LaVang, at 7 p.m.
This coming Year of the Tiger begins on Feb. 14, 2010, and ends on Feb. 2, 2011. The lunar years come and go in a 12-year cycles, all named after different animals. I myself was born in the Year of the Buffalo, the lunar year just concluding. Many Asian people are of a mind that people born in the year of a particular animal are said to share characteristics with that animal. Those who are born during the Year of the Tiger are said to be courageous and to have hidden reserves of strength. They are typically quite candid but remain rather mysterious to folks around them.
The celebration of the Lunar New Year is not a religious event, but our Vietnamese community, like many other Asian communities around the globe, takes the opportunity to blend the secular with the religious at this festive time of the year. You may recall that this is much the same as what happened in the early Christian community when its leaders chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus at the time of the festive pagan winter solstice celebration. The evangelizing mission of our Catholic community here in western Oregon has been greatly enhanced by the presence of the Vietnamese Catholic community among us. We gave them a warm welcome when they first started arriving after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Since then they have contributed more than their fair share to the faith life of our community.
This past November, Msgr. Morton Park, a priest of the archdiocese, died. He was the Director of Catholic Charities at the time our Vietnamese neighbors were looking for homes and jobs in and around Portland. Under his leadership Catholic Charities became very active in helping people settle here and even decide to stay here. The vicariate itself was officially established by Archbishop Cornelius Power in 1981. Auxiliary Bishop Paul Waldschmidt became a dear friend of folks in the vicariate, so much so that when he was dying some of our Vietnamese sisters were singing religious songs in the corridor outside his hospital room.
Back in October of 1999, it was my privilege to dedicate the new Southeast Asian Vicariate Church of Our Lady of LaVang, some 34 years after the founding of the vicariate. It all began for the Vietnamese community with a bilingual Mass on Sunday at the neighboring parish of St. Rose of Lima here in Portland. Catholics would drive as far as 30 miles in order to be able to celebrate the Eucharist in their native language and with other friends and neighbors from the Vietnamese community. The vicariate always hosts an annual Freedom Mass at Portland’s National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother on the first Sunday in July. Other ethnic groups have been invited to participate in the liturgy and it has become a multicultural event, a proud and festive celebration of the diversity in unity which is ours here in the United States.
On the occasion of the beginning of another Lunar New Year, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the good people of our Southeast Asian Vicariate and, in particular, those who worship at Our Lady of LaVang Church. As the community has grown, the number of Vietnamese-speaking ministries here in the archdiocese has also grown. In addition to Our Lady of LaVang Parish in Portland, St. Joseph Church in Salem, St. Anthony Church in Tigard, St. Andrew Dung Lac Catholic Community, which worships at Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Portland have also become sacramental centers for our Vietnamese friends.
Two communities of Vietnamese sisters are now active in the archdiocese: the Adorers of the Holy Cross whose principal residence is located at the convent in Ascension Parish of Portland and the Sisters Lovers of the Holy Cross whose residence is situated in Aloha. The communities are youthful and vibrant, generous and faithful in their service. A number of Vietnamese women have also joined some of the long-standing American communities serving in the Archdiocese of Portland as well.
In addition, five men from the vicariate have been ordained as priests of the archdiocese over the past 20 years. Other Vietnamese priests have sought and received incardination in the archdiocese. Most recently we have been blessed with four priests from the Domus Dei Society, serving at Our Lady of LaVang Church and also St. James Parish in McMinnville. Two of our archdiocesan seminarians come from Vietnamese families in the vicariate and some others are either preparing for or considering ordination as deacons, following the leadership of Deacon An Vu, whose ministry is based at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Portland.
It was the work of our Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Program that resulted in the presence of a vibrant Vietnamese faith community here in the archdiocese. Back then seeds were planted that truly blossomed into graces and blessings for many. How difficult it must have been for those first Vietnamese refugees back in 1975 to grow accustomed to a land in which the language, the traditions, the lifestyle and even the weather were all so different from what they had known before. Back then Catholic people here in western Oregon were welcoming and assisting these newcomers. The payback for us now has been rich and bountiful. Let’s keep that in mind the next time we are called upon to welcome newcomers into our communities. The Benedictine monks and sisters are right on when they remind us, “When a guest comes, Christ comes.” Happy Year of the Tiger, one and all!
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