Please pray for the repose of the soul of Father Vincent Bui P.S.S., who died on June 9, 2020, of COVID-19. He was 58-years-old. 

Vincent Bui was born on June 25, 1961 in Bien Hoa, North Vietnam. Upon graduating from high school in 1979, he attempted to escape from Vietnam but was captured in his thirteen attempts. His brother arranged another attempt and was successful on this fourteenth try. He escaped Vietnam on Easter Sunday, 1981 and arrived in the US on February 4, 1982.

Vincent Bui was ordained to the sacred priesthood for the Diocese of Lansing on June 10, 1995. He spent two years as an associate pastor at St. Robert Bellarmine, Flushing, MI from 1995-1997. It was during that time that Fr. Bui felt drawn to the Society of St. Sulpice. Fr. Bui’s trajectory with the Sulpicians began in an unusual way for his time in that his candidacy years of formation were at the Emmaus Spirituality Centre in Lusaka, Zambia. While in Africa he contracted malaria, a disease which had negative ramifications for his health from then on.

After completing a licentiate degree in Canon Law, he was assigned to the faculty of St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, CA from 2001-2006. After further studies in Canon Law at St. Paul University, Ottawa, he returned to St. Patrick’s Seminary in 2009 and remained there until the Sulpicians withdrew from St. Patrick’s in 2017. After a sabbatical year, Fr. Bui moved to Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, in 2018.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of the seminary in late March, Fr. Bui went to live with his cousin, Ngoc Do, in San Jose, CA.  Unfortunately, everyone in her family contracted the virus in late April.  Fr. Bui already brought with him a compromised immune system from his past illnesses and so was an easy victim to the virus.

A memorial service will be held in the Diocese of San Jose.

Full story at Diocese of Lansing.