Pictured: Father Tri Truong, pastor of St. Joseph Vietnamese Church in Charlotte, has become an international sensation for his thoughtful homilies in his native Vietnamese language. Even non-Catholics enjoy his homilies, which are shared on Saigon Broadcasting Television Network (SBTN) and on YouTube. (SueAnn Howell, Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — Move over, Bishop Robert Barron: The words of another priest and preacher have captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of people across the world.
Father Tri Truong, pastor of St. Joseph Vietnamese Church, is drawing an audience across the United States, Canada and Australia each week through broadcasts of his weekly homilies in Vietnamese on the Saigon Broadcasting Television Network (SBTN).
If you had asked Father Tri four years ago – before he became pastor of the 950-family parish in southwest Charlotte – if he would someday be broadcasting worldwide homilies in his native tongue, he would have thought you were crazy. He had absolutely no experience in front of a camera, he says.
But God had a plan for Father Tri – what this humble priest calls an "unexpected ministry."
"It is really unexpected," he says. "Never once in my life did I ever think I would be on TV!"
It all began back in 2011, not long after Bishop Peter Jugis appointed him pastor of St. Joseph Church, the diocese's largest Vietnamese congregation.
"I took over in May. I was busy getting settled in and then in November I was approached at the parish by one of the reporters for Saigon Television Network. He told me the SBTN manager on the East Coast (in Washington, D.C.), who is not a Catholic, would like to offer me some time on TV because he had heard and had liked my homily.
"He told the reporter that I was a good preacher. I felt very flattered, but I did not expect that offer.
"I said, 'Oh my, I haven't even settled down in the parish yet,' so I told him I needed some time. It was so unexpected! After some time of praying about it and speaking with my spiritual director, I came to understand that this was a rare opportunity to bring the Gospel to those who did not have an opportunity to hear it in their own native language."
After more time of prayer and discernment, Father Tri thought he would give it a try.
At first he didn't enjoy standing in front of the camera, he said. But now after four years' experience, he is much more comfortable being videotaped.
For each week's taping, 15 parishioners volunteer to be his audience. He prepares his homilies one week in advance of the air date, and delivers them to the audience, standing at the base of the sanctuary steps in front of the altar.
These weekly broadcasts of his homilies are a way to share the Gospel with a wider audience, he points out, and they have attracted more interest about St. Joseph Church in the local Vietnamese community and beyond.
On any given Sunday, not everyone seated in the pews are parishioners, he says. Many are visitors, and their presence has contributed to a general increase in Mass attendance.
"I'm not sure if it's because of my homilies, but I have seen an increase in attendance," he says.
Not long ago a family traveling from Canada came by to meet him.
"They came to see 'Father Tri' and I told them, 'He's not home.' They said, 'Oh no! We want to see him. We watch him every week on TV. We'd love to see him.' I said, laughing, 'Here I am!'"
Even Vietnamese who aren't Catholic recognize him wherever he goes in public, he says.
"A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine from out of town came to visit and we went out to eat and catch up. When I asked for the bill, the waiter said someone else in the restaurant had already paid the bill." Turns out, it was a non-Catholic fan of his homily broadcasts.
Father Tri says he is grateful to SBTN for the opportunity to make the Gospel available to so many more people beyond the walls of St. Joseph Church each week.
"Right now in the U.S., I think we have almost two million Vietnamese living here. In most households they have first-generation Vietnamese, like my parents, who do not speak much English so they watch Vietnamese TV."
"If you ask my mother, she loves it," he adds with a laugh. "She watches the homilies with my nephew every week."
All in all, the broadcasts and his ability to spread the Gospel in his native tongue are signs of God's grace, Father Tri emphasizes.
"One thing that I have learned that God's grace is amazing," he says. "When God asks you to do something, He gives you the grace to do it. Before I had this program, I never thought I could do it. But when it came, God's grace helped me do it. I believe that."
"Looking back, I figure how this came to be. It happened that at the same time I came here (to St. Joseph Church). SBTN was training reporters to do documentaries or create news stories. Where would be the place you would have the most Vietnamese people? Right here at St. Joseph! That is how they got to know me."
The broadcast ministry is also his way of giving thanks and allowing God to work through him, in his home diocese where he was ordained.
He notes, "The longer I have been in ministry, I have learned that if the opportunity comes when God invites you to do something, take it. You will learn as you go. When I engage in the ministry, doing God's work, it transforms me from the inside out through the work of God."
Preaching the Gospel is paramount, he says, and that is what impels him in this unexpected on-air ministry.
"I am very low-key. I stay focused on my ministry. God is the center. I preach Jesus Christ and that is it."
For that reason, he says, he does not appear on other TV programs. "I would respectfully decline that honor," he says. "I stay away from all of that."
"It's God's grace," he reiterates. "To encounter people who are not Catholic, who come up to me and say, 'Father, I watch you every week and I understand what you are saying,' is powerful.
"It's not about me, it's about the Lord Jesus."
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter