OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - Former Vietnamese refugee new Bishop of Parramatta

Friday, 1 July 2016 refugees   local churches  

Parramatta diocese

Parramatta (Agenzia Fides) - "I have made many leaps of faith in my life" said His Exc. Mgr. Vincent Long Van Nguyen, who fled Vietnam in 1975 among the "boat people" who fled the country on makeshift boats to Australia. He found asylum in Australia and became a priest, today Mgr. Vincent Long Van Nguyen became the fourth Bishop of Parramatta, near Sydney.
The Bishop took office in recent days in his diocese during a Mass that was attended by many faithful. He chose "Duc in altum", "Put out into the deep" as his episcopal motto, which recalls the sea crossing: a motto that "has to do - he said - with my personal experience as a refugee", but "also adapts to the challenges that the Church in Parramatta today faces". Mgr. Loang Van Nguyen said: "I consider the critical time in which we are similar to the biblical exile with which, as an expatriate, I have a personal affinity. As a former refugee, I have special attention for those who are marginalized, people who live in the peripheries of society".
He was ordained a priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, and was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in 2011. He stood out thanks to his service as a supporter of multiculturalism in Australian society, working also as president of the Australian Bishops' Conference Commission for Migrants and Refugees. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 01/07/2016)


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