The newest immigrants

by Tom Roberts on Jul. 07, 2009

11th in the series

Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Md., is a soaring representation of that ethnic group's presence in the Washington area and in the larger U.S. church. Though a tiny minority in the overall church, Vietnamese are well represented among religious and diocesan clergy.

While Asian Americans make up just 1 percent of the Catholic church in the United States, "they account for 12 percent of all Catholic seminary students nationwide. And the majority of those are Vietnamese."

Read the full story here: U.S. Vietnamese preserve ties to their 'first home'

My former parish had a

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Jul. 12, 2009.

My former parish had a Spanish-speaking priest because we were more than 25% Hispanic. Although our diocese has been impacted by the sudden influx of people from Vietnam, most have settled several miles and many parishes away. "Our" priest was transferred to another parish that was even more Hispanic than us, and the bishop sent a Vietnamese priest with limited English and no Spanish; our parish had three bilingual, English/Vietnamese families.

We were eventually sent a Spanish-speaking associate pastor who had been pastor for a predominantly Spanish-speaking parish that was being closed as a nearby a new parish of Our Lady of Vietnam was being erected. The Hispanic community was told they would need to assimilate with the new parish.

Oh! I am just an interested bystander. I'm Irish but do not speak Gaelic.

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