News

Priesthood led from Vietnam to Wautoma

By Joanne Flemming
Compass Correspondent

	MUCH-TRAVELED: Fr. Philip Dinh-Van-Thiep has served at St. Joseph Parish in Wautoma since 1995. A native of Vietnam, he fled that country as a refugee after the 1975 fall of Saigon. Part of his work in Wautoma is focused on migrant ministry. (Renae Bauer photo)

As a member of a religious order in his native Vietnam, Fr. Philip Dinh-Van-Thiep made a commitment to serve the poor.

That commitment remained "rooted" in him, he said, even after he decided not to renew his vows in that order. Now, as a priest of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Wautoma, he has committed himself to serve the poor through Hispanic ministry.

Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep said he finds great joy in journeying with the people he serves through "the ups and downs in their lives. I learn and grow from seeing the faith in people."

He was born in northern Vietnam before the country was divided in 1954 into North and South Vietnam. He and his family - including his maternal grandmother - were among one million Catholic Vietnamese, who fled to the south after the division. His family settled in a refugee town about 200 miles from Saigon in the Diocese of Da-lat.

His father had died months before their flight and an older brother had died at birth. A second brother died in 1969 during the Vietnam War.

Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep attended a Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix high school eight miles from Saigon and he joined the community after high school.

When South Vietnam collapsed in 1975, he and several co-religious on the coast boarded a boat and fled to Guam. Because the refugee camp on Guam was crowded, he and 60 others went to Wake Island, between Guam and Hawaii.

From there, he went to a refugee camp in Arkansas, and then to Missouri when he found a sponsor.

All this time, he had no contact with his family, until four years after he left Vietnam when he learned that they were still in the town they resettled in after leaving the North. His mother died seven years ago. A brother and sister and their families still live in that community.

Before coming to the Green Bay Diocese, Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep helped resettle Vietnamese refugees for Catholic Social Services in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb. While there, he decided not to take final vows in the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.

	Interested? For more information on diocesan priesthood, contact Fr. Doug LeCaptain at (920)437-7531 or 1-877-500-3580 (toll-free), ext. 8293 or e-mail vocations@gbdioc.org or contact your parish priest.

Instead, he came to St. Norbert College in De Pere to visit a priest from his former order, who talked to him about studying for the priesthood. His friend introduced him to Bp. Aloysius Wycislo, who accepted him as a candidate for priesthood. He was ordained in 1983, after attending Sacred Heart School of Theology at Hales Corners.

He first served as an associate pastor in Green Bay and Appleton. Next, as pastor of St. Mary Parish, Antigo, he learned of an opening for a priest in the diocese's mission in the Dominican Republic. He applied and was accepted.

While preparing for the assignment, he served as administrator of two parishes in southern Door County.

When he arrived in the Dominican Republic, he was "reminded of the rural life in many areas of Vietnam. The people were very poor. As little as they had, they have a joyful spirit. That struck me."

To supplement the Spanish Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep learned in college, he studied for a month in Texas. After arriving in the Dominican Republic, he spent three months in Santo Domingo, the capital, preparing for his mission.

Two years later, he returned to Wisconsin and was assigned to Wautoma, where he has been for 10 years.

What makes his ministry at St. Joseph challenging, he said, is the length of time the migrant workers stay - three or four months, depending on the work they are doing. Every year there are new people.

"When they come here, their main intention is work. Going to church is almost an extra," Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep said. He celebrates Mass and the sacraments - primarily Baptism - with them in Spanish. Marriage preparation is difficult because of the workers' length of stay.

Fr. Dinh-Van-Thiep, who also is administrator of St. Paul Parish in Plainfield, said he believes he was called to be "an instrument of Jesus to be used to share the good news, to celebrate the sacraments and to journey along with the people. I learn through the faith of the people."

After Easter, Fr.Dinh-Van-Thiep will visit his siblings and their families in Vietnam. This will be his fourth trip back since coming to the United States. St. Joseph parishioners gave him money toward the trip as a gift for the 20th anniversary of his ordination.