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| June 17, 2006 / Photo by Adam Amato |
The Rev. Tuan Nguyen, a fixture in Lewis County for the past 11 years, has accepted a reassignment to lead a four-church Roman Catholic parish in Tacoma. The move comes not long after Tuan's completion of a 260-page dissertation, on which he worked for three years, researching and discussing the challenges and contributions of Vietnamese priests in Western Washington.
Archbishop Alex J. Brunett of the Archdiocese of Seattle encouraged him to begin the project, Nguyen said. Many people had been discussing problems associated with foreign Catholic priests, he said, and more research was needed in the area.
Mary Wiley, a member of the congregation at Centralia's St. Mary's Church since the 1950s, helped Nguyen transcribe the massive project.
"He just had the desire to get this dissertation," said Wiley. "It was something he thought really had to be done."
Nguyen of all people, she said, recognized that foreign priests don't just step into a new community and fit in overnight.
"He wants them to have at least six months of information," she said. "It's just things like that that we don't realize."
THE TACOMA MOVE was actually a second request from Archbishop Brunett. After Nguyen finished the dissertation, the archbishop asked him to become the vicar to the Vietnamese in the Archdiocese of Seattle, though Nguyen politely declined.
"I like to be with people," said Nguyen, with his trademark grin, explaining why he turned down the first request.
"I thought the bishop had left me alone," he said, of his reassignment to south Tacoma. "But, they needed some pastor who is competent and has worked with a school. Not many people have the experience like I have here, and I'll bring this up to Tacoma."
In his new position, Nguyen said, he'll be the pastor of four different parishes: Sacred Heart Church, St. Anne Church, St. John of the Woods Church and Visitation Church in Tacoma. The four parishes vary from 450 to 1000 families, and Visitation Church includes the Visitation Catholic School.
"I'll have at least three assistants working with me, as a team," he said. "One of them is American, one is Samoan and one is Colombian, so we'll have four priests representing different countries and cultures."
Nguyen's energy and training were important factors in the decision for the reassignment, said Loren Lane, who has worked with Nguyen as the deacon of several of the Lewis County parishes.
"The archbishop was looking for someone who had the skills needed to bring a group of parishes together," said Lane, a retired park ranger who now serves as deacon of the Centralia, Chehalis, Pe Ell and Frances parishes. "He's a very dedicated, energetic, active pastor. He's always on the go, and he's always there to serve the people of the community."
The six parishes within the Lewis County cluster, which Nguyen will oversee until his move on July 1, total about 1,500 families, he said. The largest parish is St. Joseph in Chehalis with about 600 families. The Rev. David Mulholland will move from a parish in Bellingham to head the Catholic church in Lewis County.
NGUYEN WAS ordained in June of 1992, and worked in Vancouver and Bothell before taking over as the pastor of St. Mary's and St. Joseph in 1995.
After two years, he also became the pastor of Catholic parishes in Toledo, Winlock, Pe Ell and Frances, and he is currently the spiritual leader of the Hispanic Catholic community in Lewis County.
He arrived in the United States in 1981, after his family sent him and his 2-year-old cousin out of South Vietnam.
"I felt at home," he said, of his early years in Lewis County. "At first I was very scared, being the only Vietnamese priest, but the people, even the strangers, made me feel at home."
He liked the area so much, he said, that he went so far as to buy a burial plot at Holy Family in Frances.
The prospect of moving away from the county he calls home is scary, Nguyen said.
"I'll have to spend a lot of energy listening to people and trying to learn the area," he said. "But, being a priest, I have to be obedient and respectful to a big church. I have to have faith in God," he said, smiling.
His challenge for the first year in Tacoma is simply to see his four new parishes work together.
"I'm the one that has to bring them together," he said.
"That's why I'm scared. People think a lot of me, but I'm not," he added with a chuckle. "Maybe after a year, I'll have to come back."
The Rev. Tuan Nguyen will leave at the end of the month for new duties in Tacoma after 11 years with the Catholic churches in the Lewis County area.
Copyright © 2006, The Chronicle, Centralia WA
(Reprinted with permision from the Chronicle)
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