It has been a time of celebration at St Mark’s Catholic Parish in Inala, Brisbane, with Fr Bosco Son SVD being installed as parish priest and Fathers Joseph Vu SVD and Linh Nguyen SVD marking significant jubilees.
Fr Bosco was installed as parish priest this month by Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay in a Mass which also incorporated Multicultural Sunday.
And, in a joint celebration, Fr Joseph, who is the Vietnamese community chaplain, marked the 30th anniversary of his priestly ordination and Fr Linh, who is assistant chaplain, observed the 25th anniversary of his SVD vows.
Fr Bosco, who was previously Parish Priest at Macquarie Fields in the Wollongong Diocese, said his installation Mass and the celebration of Multicultural Sunday was a great fit for a Divine Word Missionary priest.
“The celebration went very well,” he said.
“Archbishop Shane was chief celebrant and a number of other SVD priests were present, as well as four SSpS Sisters and two local politicians.”
Fr Bosco said St Mark’s was about twice the size of his previous parish, but they were similar in being made up of people from many different cultures.
“That’s why it was great to be celebrating Multicultural Sunday as well,” he said.
“Parishioners wore their own national costumes and for the Prayers of Intercession we had people from various cultures, including Indian, Filipino, African, Australian, Vietnamese, Tongan and Samoan, all saying the prayers in our common language of English, indicating both our cultural diversity and our unity in faith.”
After the Mass, people gathered at the school hall for morning tea.
Fr Bosco said when embarking on his new assignment at St Mark’s, he returned to advice given to him by Bishop Tim Norton SVD when he was Provincial of the SVD and assigned Fr Bosco to a new ministry in Central Australia.
That advice included trying to love the people in his new parish, while being faithful to God and to his parishioners.
“That was good advice then and I tried to live by that ever since,” he said.
“My invitation to people is like the words of the hymn, ‘Come as You Are’,” he said. “We are all different, but we are all one family.”
Meanwhile, Fr Joseph said the joint celebration for Fr Linh and himself at Inala, held on Sunday July 18, was a great time of thanksgiving.
“It was a big celebration organised by the Vietnamese community here,” he said. “And it was a great chance for us to celebrate together.”
Bishop Tim Norton SVD, the Bishop of Broome, was the main celebrant for the day, while other SVD priests also attended, along with local clergy. The Mass was followed by a reception with parishioners.
Fr Joseph, who was born in Vietnam, escaped in a boat with his sister and others, living in a refugee camp in Hong Kong for nine months before being relocated to the United States of America.
His priestly vocation had been apparent at an early age and before escaping Vietnam he had attended a minor seminary, and later, after finishing school in the US, Fr Joseph applied for both the Dominican order and the Society of the Divine Word. He heard back first from the SVD Vocations Director, and he joined them.
After completing his formation and studies in the US, Fr Joseph was ordained a priest on March 23, 1996, and accepted his first assignment to the Australia Province.
“I thought I’d come to Australia for a couple of years, and after 30 years, I am still here,” he said.
Fr Joseph started out in Sydney working with the Vietnamese Catholic Community for five years and later worked at the SVD’s Epping community before being posted to St Patrick’s Parish, Wainuiomata in 2004. He was Rector of Dorish Maru College in Melbourne from 2009 to 2014 before being assigned to the Vietnamese Catholic Community in Inala.
He said that as he looks back over his 30 years of priestly life he is thankful to God for all the gifts he has received in his ministry.
“The most exciting thing for me has been my ministry with people; being able to be with them for all the big moments of their lives, like at baptisms, weddings, and funerals,” he said.
“I’m grateful for the chance to accompany them through their faith journey and, in doing that, my own faith is getting stronger, through trusting, loving and being faithful to God.”
Fr Linh said that as he celebrated his Silver Jubilee of Religious Vows, he too was thankful to God.
He entered the SVD Postulancy in Nha Trang, Vietnam in 1999, just one year after the Saint Joseph Brothers Congregation merged with the Society of the Divine Word (19 March 1998). The following year, in 2000, he entered the SVD Novitiate in Nha Trang and took his first Vows on July 16, 2001.
After Novitiate, he studied Philosophy for two years at the Dominican House of Studies in Saigon City and at the beginning of 2004, he was sent to Australia for Theological Studies at Dorish Maru College.
Fr Linh professed Final Vows on March 8, 2008, his Diaconate Ordination the following day, and was ordained a priest on December 6, 2008.
His first Assignment was for the AUS Province where he was sent to New Zealand for pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of Wellington (2009 - 2011). In 2012, he was appointed Parish Priest of Mary Mother of the Church, Macquarie Fields in Sydney, working there until end of 2017.
After completing the Siloam Program for the training of Formators and Spiritual Directors at Heart of Life, University of Divinity, he took the role of Dorish Maru College Formation Director from 2018 - 2025. In January this year he was assigned to the Queen of Vietnamese Martyrs Church, the Vietnamese Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Brisbane to work with Fr Joseph,
Fr Linh said he first felt the call to be a priest when he was about 10 years old and a priest told him he could become a good priest in the future. After finishing university that statement came back to his heart and mind and, when he could not put the thought out of his mind, he entered the SVD novitiate.
“I was attracted to the internationality mission of the Divine Word Missionaries,” he said. “The challenges of leaving behind our homeland, the adventure of learning a new language and new culture motivated me strongly as a young man who desired to discover the world. So, this made me an SVD Missionary, I now think.
“This year, my Silver Jubilee of Religious Vows, just came as a confirmation of God’s love and abundant grace on me as I can recall the so many blessings, joys and gratitude that I have received and experiences as a religious missionary priest in the Society of the Divine Word.
“The highlight of my religious Vows in the last 25 years is the joy of working with our SVD confreres from different cultures and nationalities as well as serving the people I was sent to many different places and various ministry.
“Their love, encouragement and support made me realise the value of discipleship of services…. In brief, the joy of being called to serve in different capacities as an SVD missionary here and there made my religious missionary life worthwhile.”
PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: Fr Bosco Son SVD with Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay at Fr Bosco's installation Mass at St Mark's Parish, Inala.
MIDDLE LEFT: Fr Bosco and Archbishop Shane with SVD clergy and parishioners who are wearing national dress for the parish's Multicultural Sunday celebrations.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Fr Joseph Vu SVD and Fr Linh Nguyen SVD celebrated jubilees with their parishioners at the Vietnamese Catholic Centre in Inala.