Father Thuan Hoang, longtime pastor of Church of the Visitacion in San Francisco, fled South Vietnam in 1987 after communist rule blocked his dream of becoming a Catholic priest.
“I was 19 when they closed the seminary,” he said.
His harrowing journey began as a refugee in an old fishing boat and ended two years later when he came to live with his brother in San Jose. He eventually resumed his interrupted formation and was ordained at St. Patrick Seminary & University in Menlo Park in 1997. Father Thuan has served as a parish priest and canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of San Francisco ever since.
A seventh-generation Catholic, Father Thuan said Christianity was brought to Vietnam by Spanish and French missionaries and colonists. In time, Vietnamese rulers rejected French influence and power and began torturing and murdering Catholics, a practice that continued on and off into the 19th century. One of his ancestors was buried alive with 11 other lay Catholic leaders by order of King Tu Dac.
Most Catholic families in North Vietnam, including Father Thuan’s, fled to South Vietnam when communists took over in 1954. He and three siblings grew up in Saigon (now named Ho Chi Minh City).
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, communists swept into South Vietnam. Many families rushed to escape. Father Thuan’s oldest brother, the one he would eventually join in America, was the only one in his family that chose to leave in a refugee boat.
The family conformed to the new communist regime as a matter of survival; the food supply was tied to attendance at nightly indoctrination meetings. Privately, Catholic families continued to practice and share their faith, but at great risk.
“Even my parents suggested to me to get married,” he said. “They did not see any hope for the Church or for me as a priest.”
One spring day in 1987, Father Thuan jumped into a moving fishing boat filled with 120 other refugees seeking freedom from the communists. He was 30 years old and had only the clothes on his back.
“If I had known what the boat was like, I would not have gone,” he said. The threats were constant: waves and weather, capture and robbery, disease, drowning and despair. The passengers packed into the boat’s dark and airless hold became violently seasick. “I often thought of hell,” said Father Thuan, who “prayed constantly.”
The boat lost its way, and then its engine. Opportunistic pirates towed it to a Vietnamese refugee camp in Indonesia, then demanded jewelry and valuables from the refugees for their “help.”
Father Thuan said he meditated on scriptural stories of divine deliverance, like when Moses parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could reach the promised land.
“I wanted to be a Catholic priest,” he said. “Communists don’t want Catholic priests.” For this reason, the U.S. granted him political asylum after he joined his brother in San Jose. In 1995, Father Thuan became an American citizen.
Father Thuan has been able to extend his pastoral ministry all the way back to his homeland. In the year 2000, he and two friends founded the Blind Vietnamese Children Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has helped Catholic sisters in Vietnam fund a network of homes, schools and health care centers for visually impaired children.
The above comes from the Immigrant Journeys story on Sept. 20 issued by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Charity Navigator gives the charity an F rating.
Watch out! Charity Navigator gave Baby Killer, Planned Parenthood, a glowing “A+” score– 90.05. With plenty of glowing remarks, such as, “Give with confidence” above the rating. Plus, many other positive, glowing comments, about Planned Parenthood’s perceived “greatness” and “trustworthiness”. A truly “fabulous” organization, doing “outstanding chartrable work”— right? Killing babies, conveniently, so you can lead a sinful promiscuous life. I wouldn’t trust Charity Navigator. Go find out the truth for yourself.
EWWWW!
I see the problem.
You can look for yourself.
I looked in the first place because priests don’t usually start their own charities and send the money to a foreign country.
We’ve been through a lot of these things in the last 20 years
Then, there are some things on the website that appear not so authentic.
Many priests, all through history, have started charities, often for causes in foreign countries. Many churches, all denominations, have missionary programs closer on the globe– in Mexico– and collect money for their missionary causes ro help the poor. People often get mail from their churches, with literature about their causes, and need for donations. Especially if there are disasters–like earthquakes in Haiti, war in Ukraine, hurricanes in Puerto Rico, starving children in Africa, etc. Fr. Hoang and the foundation he started with two friends, for the Vietnamese nuns, to help fund the sisters’ network of services (homes, schools, and healthcare centers) for blind Vietnamese children, is a typical Christian or Catholic charity. Priests are involved in these types of endeavors all the time! And often take lay parishioners on mission trips, to do volunteer work to help their mission or cause, in a fireign vountry. Sounds great! Why not call Fr. Hoang to ask about it, if interested? And call the Archdiicese, too, to see if they are involved.
Name 5 Diocesan priests who have started charities that are not overseen by the Church.
Don’t be a smart-aleck. Ask your Pastor– he may be involved in a similar charity endeavor. Most priests are involved in charity or mission work of some type, and many give their own money to these projects, and also make trips to help out. There are three churches near where I live, all staffed with many foreign priests. All of them, I am sure, are involved in charity and mission work, in their home countries. You must have great respect for this wonderful Vietnamese priest! He is from a terrible, war-torn, Communist country, that severely persecutes Christians– and the good priest is helping the nuns, with their beautiful work, for the poor, suffering blind children!
We don’t need priests starting their own charities. It will become like the priests leading pilgrimages to get free travel.
Read the article carefully. Don’t you see— this good priest’s charity is to support the wonderful work of the nuns, in Vietnam, with their homes, schools, and healthcare clinics for the Vietnamese blind children?? Vietnam is a dangerous, war-torn, Communist country, that severely persecutes Christians. These wonderful nuns need all the help and support they can get. Charity work of our parish priests is a big part of their job. Nearly every parish has charities, such as St. Vincent de Paul, and many others. Have you ever heard of San Diego’s Father Joe’s Villages, started by Fr. Joe Carroll? Charity Navigator gives it a 3-star rating, at 89.41. Have you ever heard of San Francisco’s famous St. Anthony’s Foundation and Dining Room– in SF’s Tenderloin district– a charity founded in 1950, by a Franciscan priest, Fr. Alfred Boeddeker? They have a Charity Navigator score of 91. You should be eager to volunteer and give money to support these wonderful charities, of our Church.
And there is Father Greg Boyle with Homeboy Industries in LA. He is a Jesuit.
These are charities, actually ministries, here in the US.
In this case, the ministry is in a foreign country. OK. So he is a fundraiser for the ministry.
He is a diocesan priest, yes. Raising funds for a ministry in a Communist country. Not everything he raises goes to that ministry. There are investments. The amount he sends to Vietnam is close to $10 B a year in Vietnamese dollars. Then what happens to it? There is no oversight.
For an organization that has been around 22 years, there is very little info. The board is not paid. OK.
It could all be legit or it could not be. It has an F rating.
Sounds like you know a lot about this Vietnamese charity fundraiser. Are you involved in it? Homeboy Industries is a controversial charity. It has a Charity Navigator score of 89.68. You can read a June 6, 2013 Cal Catholic article about Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., founder and director of Homeboy Industries, which helps gang members. He is a dissident Jesuit priest who ridicules Church teaching on gay “marriage” and women priests. Not very good– regardless of its Charity Navigator score. So what, exactly, is your big problem with this Vietnamese priest’s charity fundraiser?
When something is weird, it is weird.
What, to you, seems “weird?” Maybe pedophilia or child pornography or gay sex acts, committed by priests? That’s truly weird and horrible! So, what do you think is pretty “weird?”
You have no basis to accuse them of those things. Of course, we have all had those nasty surprises, haven’t we?
You can look at the info online and if it is satisfying to you, you can donate if you wish.
You sound quite “suspicious”
of churches, priests, and charities– are you also prejudiced against Asians? Most Catholics are happy to give from their hearts, to a good cause, if announced at their parish church. They do not tell the priest– “oh, I have to first consult Charity Navigator.” They just give– in good faith. Last week, a visiting priest from Nigeria showed parishioners pictures, and told the tragic story of his hometown church– tragically firebombed by Muslim extremists, with many church-goers killed. He asked for donations. People eagerly donated to his cause.
Why are you so defensive?
I am not prejudiced against Asians.
It seems to be a ministry of Vietnamese to Vietnamese and everybody involved in it may know exactly what is going on.
The Church is the same way. There is a limit to how much info you can get. Even at a parish level.
They will tell you how much went to administrative costs. They don’t usually give details.
This charity is for a special mission to help the blind Vietnamese children, run by the nuns.
This charity helps blind children.
The evil comments regarding this good priest and his help for blind Vietnamese children should never have been printed.
There are no evil comments printed here.
Deliberate and idiotic, persistent, prejudiced, anti-Catholic attacks on a good Catholic priest and nuns helping blind children in a war-torn, dangerous, foreign Communist country that persecutes and murders Catholics– is way too low, barbaric, ignorant, and evil to print. This is a Catholic website.
There is no comment that is inappropriate much less evil or barbaric.
The navigator website measures the financial strength of nonprofit organizations, not the mission of the organization. Don’t mix the two. Planned Parenthood can get a higher score than a better charity if it spends less on administration as a percent of income, submits the names of its board members, or provides a clean financial audit report, etc.