CHARLOTTE — This year parishioners at St. Joseph Vietnamese Church are celebrating 40 years since the first Vietnamese Catholics found refuge in the Diocese of Charlotte, and they are giving thanks in a special way this Thanksgiving holiday.
The diocese welcomed its first Vietnamese refugees in 1975, the year when Saigon fell and the Vietnam War ended.
Since then, many more Vietnamese immigrants have made the journey to settle in western North Carolina, and the Vietnamese Catholic community continues to grow. St. Joseph Church on Sandy Porter Road in southwest Charlotte is home to many of these first- and second-generation immigrant families.
"This year marks 40 years since we first arrived in Charlotte," explained Father Tri Truong, pastor of St. Joseph Church and himself the child of a Vietnamese immigrant. "It is a significant milestone for us on our journey. We have journeyed from a few families in 1975 to over 900 registered families at St. Joseph Church.
"We have journeyed from having Mass once a month at the parishes of St. Ann Church, Our Lady of Consolation Church and Our Lady of the Assumption Church, to having a parish serving the Vietnamese Catholics in the Charlotte area with Mass every day and four Masses on the weekend."
The Vietnamese community has also fostered priestly vocations in the diocese, with five Vietnamese priests ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte.
"We have come so far in our journey, and we are very thankful for what we have," Father Truong said.
On Thursday, Nov. 26, a Mass of Thanksgiving will be offered for this significant milestone.
Before Mass, the parish will also have a procession in honor of the Vietnamese Martyrs. (Editor's note: For details about the Vietnamese Martyrs, see page 2.)
All of the parish choirs will sing and pay tribute to these saints at Mass. A celebration will follow in the parish fellowship hall featuring traditional music, dancing and food.
Vietnamese Catholics can find more information about the annual Thanksgiving celebration and St. Joseph Church at www.giaoxuthanhgiuse.net.
— Catholic News Herald
Bishop Jugis preaches at closing Mass of 40 Hours devotion for Vocation Awareness Week
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter J. Jugis celebrated Mass Nov. 4 at St. Patrick Cathedral to conclude a Forty Hours devotion to pray for more vocations in the Diocese of Charlotte.
The Forty Hours devotion Nov. 3-4 and the Mass commemorate the U.S. bishops' National Vocation Awareness Week, which runs this year from Nov. 1 to 7. The weeklong celebration is dedicated to promote vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations. The Diocese of Charlotte's celebration was organized in part by Father Jason Barone, the new vocations promoter for the diocese.
Hundreds of people participated in the Forty Hours devotion at the cathedral, where special kneelers were on display that will be given to the two men expected to be ordained to the holy priesthood next June. The kneelers, a project of the lay apostolate Mary's Sons, will travel throughout the diocese until then so that everyone can have the opportunity to pray for the two men – Deacon Cory Catron and Deacon David McCanless – as well as pray for an increase in religious vocations for the Church in western North Carolina.
During his homily at the Nov. 4 Mass, Bishop Jugis spoke about vocations as something God gives to each of us as a sign of His love.
"In love then He gives to each person whom He has created a special chosen vocation ... by which that person will serve Him in this world," he said.
"To some He gives the vocation to married life and parenthood. To others He gives the vocation to single life. To others the vocation to the priesthood. To others He gives the vocation to the consecrated religious life – but all comes as a gift of God."
The Mass was celebrated on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of seminarians – a perfect opportunity to tie in praying for vocations and Vocation Awareness Week, he noted. St. Charles Borromeo's own personal holiness and his reforming work as a bishop in the wake of the Council of Trent serves as an example for the priesthood today. He particularly was renowned for establishing many seminaries to better train and educate men for the priesthood.
Bishop Jugis went on to explain that the vocation to the priesthood is a mystery of God's choice.
"He chooses certain individuals by His own free election to give them this special grace of following Jesus, leaving everything to follow Him. It is a mystery why He chooses some and does not choose others. Some whom we might think, judging by human standards, might be quite capable and talented to fulfill the priestly office, He overlooks and instead directs His attention to others that we might not think at that moment to be worthy of such a call," he said.
God is intimately involved in this call, he said, and young men must have the ability and openheartedness to listen to His voice. The call from God is experienced at the center of one's heart and the process of discernment has to be conducted with great reverence and seriousness, he said.
"It requires attentive listening to God's voice – in fact, a reverent listening to God's voice. That's why prayer is so essential. A seminarian has to be a man of prayer because he is engaged in that important work of reverently listening to God, who is speaking to him in the depths of his heart."
Bishop Jugis also stressed that a priest cannot be reduced to just a "functionary," someone who performs tasks or duties. "Priest" is not just a job title, as the secular world perhaps considers it.
"The priest is one who has been chosen as a sacrament instituted by Jesus, and (who has) received a special call. He is in special communication with the mystery of the divine. It is God's choice. It is God's position, the way He set up the sacrament and set up the Church hierarchically.
"The man, who in communication constantly with the mystery of the divine in his heart, has important work to do bringing mankind's needs to God. He's another Christ, he is an 'alter Christus,' he's a sacrament of Christ the high priest."
Consequently, the priest must live the humility of Christ, being humble as Jesus Himself is humble. He must also live the mercy of Christ, as Jesus Himself is merciful. He must be reverent in his approach to life and reverent in his service to others, forgetting his own needs and placing himself at the service of others because of his love for God and His people.
"This is a mystery, this is a mystery of a call from God," he reiterated, "which we know is stirring in the hearts of many teenagers and many young men in our diocese even now – as evidenced by the wonderful response we have had to our Quo Vadis Days over the last few years, and others who have approached for more counsel or more advice as they discern this call.
"And as they reverently and attentively listen to God's voice in prayer, we must also accompany them with our own prayers," he continued, "so that any obstacles that they encounter now as they partake on this journey may be removed from their lives...so that they can progress along the path of holiness and grow in their vocations."
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
For more
Get more resources on the priesthood in the Diocese of Charlotte or the annual Quo Vadis Days at http://www.charlottediocese.org/vocations.
To learn more about the priesthood, contact Director of Vocations Father Christopher Gober at 704-370-3327 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Diocese's first vocations promoter discusses new role
CHARLOTTE — As the Diocese of Charlotte’s new Promoter of Vocations, Father Jason Barone’s job will be encouraging people to listen to God’s will for them.
Bishop Peter Jugis named Father Barone to the new position in July, widening the diocese’s efforts to grow vocations under the leadership of the Director of Vocations, Father Christopher Gober.
God has a plan for each one of us, Bishop Jugis noted in his homily at Mass for National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 4, and we must listen reverently to His voice so that we may discern how best to serve Him in this world. Father Barone aims to carry this message far and wide in his position as Promoter of Vocations.
The role is in addition to his other responsibilities as assistant chaplain at Charlotte Catholic High School and as parochial vicar at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.
“This position is important because by explicitly giving such an assignment to a priest, a special emphasis is being placed on the need for increased vocations,” Father Barone notes.
Father Barone already has experience organizing and leading “Quo Vadis Days,” the diocese’s annual vocations retreat for young men, as well as addressing youth at the annual Diocesan Youth Conference.
In his new role, Father Barone will continue to lead “Quo Vadis Days” as well as develop other discernment programs, including working with Sister Mary Raphael of the Daughters of the Virgin Mary to develop a future vocations retreat for young women entitled “Duc in Altum.”
He will also travel to parishes, schools and youth gatherings across the diocese to speak about vocations, and he will help organize efforts which encourage people to pray for vocations – such as the Forty Hours devotion held this week at St. Patrick Cathedral in conjunction with National Vocation Awareness Week.
The overall aim, he said, is to encourage people to discern God’s will for them in life – whether that is to a vocation to the priesthood, consecrated life, married life or single life.
“While my focus will be on the priesthood and religious life, much of my job will assist vocations to family life as well,” Father Barone noted. “There's an important teaching in Catholic theology that says ‘grace builds on nature.’ In other words, God and the supernatural life do not destroy our human nature. Supernatural virtues are built on natural virtues. A key first step in discernment is developing the natural virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. These must be employed for both vocations of celibacy and family life.
“In short, I see my job as providing the tools and opportunity for young people to discern well, and making sure people pray that ‘the Lord of the harvest sends more laborers into His harvest.’”
Since being ordained in 2012, Father Barone has also served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro and Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury. As a fairly “new” priest, how does he think his perspective on the priesthood and religious vocations may help him?
“As a priest ordained just three years, I still have a certain personal proximity to the key steps in discernment,” he replies. “Those questions were more recently on my mind and in my heart than, say, a priest of 10 or 20 years.”
And his work ministering to students at Charlotte Catholic High School will dovetail with his vocations efforts as well, he notes. “Personal contact with a priest has proven time and again to help a young person discover their vocation and pursue it successfully.”
— Catholic News Herald