Vocation Story
Father Michael Nguyen, CM
In the late 70's and throughout the 80's there was a new wave of immigrants coming to the United States from Vietnam. These people 
were referred to as "boat people," because they used boats trying to escape from the communist regime that took complete control of Viet Nam after the war in 1975. The boats they used to escape in often were small and not equipped for the sea. As a result, many of the people never reached land safely because of all the things that went wrong. Their boats broke down and they floated on the sea for days or weeks and died from lack of food and water. Pirates captured them, stealing everything they had, raping the women, and sometimes even killing them. Only the people who were lucky and did not have any misfortunes reached land safely.
I was among those lucky people that made it. When my boat was about to be captured by pirates, a German ship happened to pass by and came to our rescue. It brought us to the Philippines. I was in a refugee camp for eight months.
In 1981, at the age of 13, I came to America. I went to Philadelphia, PA, because my aunt, Sister Agatha, a sister in the Order of the Lover of Holy Cross, sponsored me. Of course, I could not live in the convent with her, so I lived with a foster family.
Adjusting to life in America was particularly difficult in the beginning because everything was different; the culture, the climate, and the environment. I felt like a stranger. I didn't speak English. I did not have my family and friends. It took me a long time to adjust and be comfortable with life in this country.
The idea of priesthood came very early in my life. When I was growing up in Vietnam, my uncle who was a priest would ask each time he visited my home, if I wanted to become a priest. Of course, I didn't take the idea seriously, but it had always been present in the back of my mind. When I came to America, I still carried that idea with me.
At the age of 13 and without my family, I had to make all the decisions for myself. I knew I needed to look for a good school to attend. My aunt, Sister Agatha, who worked at St. Catherine's Infirmary in Philadelphia (a home for the infirm Vincentian priests and brothers) introduced me to some of the Vincentian Priests. The priests told me about St. Joseph's Seminary in Princeton. I went to a few retreat weekends and really liked the place a lot.
I got accepted and entered St. Joseph's in the Fall of 1983. During my years at St. Joseph's, the idea of priesthood became stronger. When I graduated in 1986, I decided to continue on with my vocation. I went to the Vincentian College Seminary program at St. John's University in New York. Besides the good seminary life and education, I also had the opportunity to learn about the vocation of priesthood through many different apostolates: hospital, nursing home, tutoring, soup kitchen, and night shelter for the homeless. I also met many different Vincentian Priests, Brothers and Daughters of Charity who devoted their lives to the service of the poor. These people inspired me by the way they live in community and their dedication to their ministry, especially the poor. I was quite certain that after college I wanted to become a priest. At this point, I was not only thinking about becoming a priest, but a priest in the spirit of St. Vincent DePaul; that is, to follow Jesus Christ and work for the poor and the abandoned.
I graduated from college in 1990. I entered the novitiate in Philadelphia for one year and spent four years from, 1991 to 1995, at the Seminary of Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York. During these years, again, I had more opportunities to work with various apostolates for the poor. In my experience working with the poor, I found that it is very challenging and frustrating. The poor can be very demanding, but in the end I always found it rewarding.
Since my ordination in 1995, I have been stationed in Greensboro, NC at St. Mary's Parish. It is here I feel that I am truly living out the vocation of a Vincentian priest. St. Mary's is a small but very diverse parish. We have people from all over the world that come here to pray and be a part of the parish. We have African Americans, Caucasians, Africans, Hispanics, and Asians. Many of them arrived in this country within the last five years. They came here with nothing. They don't speak English. They don't have any wealth. They don't have any family. They are truly poor in every sense; materially and spiritually. They have to make many adjustments just like I had to when I came to America. I understand exactly what they have to go through. To help them to adjust to the culture, the religion, and the life in America is very rewarding.
Michael Nguyen, C.M. Vincentian
