Brisbane’s vibrant and rapidly growing Vietnamese Catholic community is rejoicing as building begins on a new church and community centre that will be the heart of their worship and cultural activities, reports The Catholic Leader.
“It is wonderful – we’ve been waiting for so long, we are going to have our own place we can call home,” chair of the community’s pastoral committee Ken Huynh said.
“This is going to be the heart of our Church, we are going to come here as a whole family.”
On February 20, Brisbane auxiliary Bishop Ken Howell and Vietnamese Community chaplain Fr Joseph Vu SVD celebrated Mass and took part in a sod-turning ceremony marking the start of building of the Our Lady of the Vietnamese martyrs’ Catholic church on a large block at 54 Flint Street, Inala.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge blessed the land in August 2018, but construction was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a cost of $13 million the new Church will hold up to 800 people, with construction expected to take 18 months.
Brisbane’s Vietnamese Catholic community has outgrown its site in Lilac Street, Inala, opposite St Mark’s Church, with between four and five thousand people attending big gatherings like Easter and Christmas.
“The new centre will provide a significant opportunity for Vietnamese people here in Brisbane in terms of keeping our faith, living our faith and also keeping up with our traditional values and culture,” Vietnamese Catholic Community chaplain and Divine Word Missionary Fr Vu said.
The new church honours 117 Vietnamese Martyrs who were canonised by St John Paul on June 19, 1988. They stand as representatives for the hundreds of thousands who have suffered for their faith in Vietnam since the 17th century.
In some cases whole towns known to hold Christians were wiped out.
Pastoral committee member and children’s catechist Mary To said culture and ancestry mattered “very much” to the Vietnamese Catholic community.
“The martyrs laid down their lives and they set a good example, a good faith, for us to follow and we pass that inheritance and faith to our kids, and we just keep going,” she said.
Mrs To said the community needed a larger space where they could catechise and form more than 400 young people who attended Sunday school each week.
Recently, Bishop Howell presided over 80 confirmations – an indication of the growth of a vibrant, family-oriented community.
Part of the new building works will include spacious classrooms for Sunday school, where young Vietnamese can learn about faith and their culture.
The new church design allows the altar to be seen from all angles, even outside the church where glass panels can be removed for large Christmas and Easter gatherings.
In his homily, Bishop Howell said building Our Lady of Vietnamese Martyrs church would require a leap of faith.
“There will be much sacrifice required by you, the people of this community, to build this place for the glory of God,” he said.
“The ancient words of the Church father Tertullian said ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’.
“And just as the Vietnamese martyrs’ blood was shed for Christ, we have greatly benefited from their sacrifice.
“They continue to inspire us as we take this leap of faith to provide this church and community centre, so that through our sacrifice we will keep alive the Church of Christ and share our faith, hope and love with our families and those who we encounter each and every day.
“Friends as the soil is broken this day to begin the building process, so may the soil of our lives be broken to receive the generous measures of God’s love into our hearts.
“And may this building for God be a strong structure built on good and faith-filled people who are striving to be God’s holy people and a visible sign of God’s love and mercy in the world.”
This article by Mark Bowling was published in The Catholic Leader and is reproduced with permission.
PHOTOS (By Mark Bowling, Catholic Leader)
TOP RIGHT: Vietnamese Catholic Chaplain for Brisbane Archdiocese, Fr Joseph Vu SVD and Brisbane Auxiliary Bishop Ken Howell, together with Sr Teresa Lau, District Superior of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres and other guests turn the first sod for the new Vietnamese church and community centre in Inala.
BOTTOM LEFT: Fr Joseph with members of the Vietnamese community.