Imagine studying for the priesthood at a seminary where there are no Bible commentaries or online homily resources in your own language. For the students at St John Mary Vianney Major Seminary in Laos this is the situation they face. Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD recently visited Laos to lend a hand.

“I was invited to teach a three week intensive Homiletics course at St John Mary Vianney Major Seminary in Thakhek, Laos,” Fr Anthony says.

“The reason I was invited to teach is not because I am an expert at teaching homiletics (even though I’ve been told that my homilies are not bad!). It is because for many years, the seminary in Laos has been extremely lacking in professors for its formation program.

“This leaves both philosophy and theology students to go up in level, year after year, without actually having the knowledge that goes along with it.”

Recently, Fr Joseph Toan Dau CSsR began assisting with the academics program at the seminary, and through his efforts, teachers, from Laos and Thailand, have been coming to the seminary for short term intensive courses in both philosophy and theology.

Fr Anthony was born in Vietnam and resettled with his family in the United States following the Fall of Saigon. He became a missionary priest of the Society of the Divine Word and for the last five years has been Parish Priest at St Michael the Archangel Parish in Nong Bua Lamphu, north-eastern Thailand, which is part of the SVD Australian Province.

Having become proficient in the Thai language, Fr Anthony faced the challenge of teaching to students whose first language is Laos.

“Fortunately, the Laos language is similar to Thai, and spoken Laos is very much like the dialect in north-eastern Thailand, where I have been serving,” he says.

“Due to exposure to Thai television and other mass media, Lao people can understand and read Thai very well, so I was able to conduct my lectures in Thai to Lao seminarians.”

Fr Anthony says that as part of the course, the students were expected to write and preach three homilies - one weekday and two Sunday homilies - in Mass or in front of fellow seminarians. The homilies were videotaped and then evaluated in class or by the audience.

“The homilies, of course, were in Laos, a language that I could understand quite well, thanks to my experience in Nong Bua Lamphu,” he says.

“However, the peer evaluation was a great help for me as a teacher since it helped to confirm my impressions of the homily. The students were also able to give input on certain aspects of word usage or cultural references of which I did not have adequate knowledge.

“The whole experience of teaching in Laos was very enriching for both the students and me.”

On the last day of class, Fr Anthony says the group went to a beautiful Buddhist temple by the Mekong River to pray and reflect on their experience.

“The seminarians said they received more from the class that they had expected. They said they enjoyed learning and being taught as adults, being given the tools to craft a homily, but also being left to pray, to meditate, to create and to revise the homily on their own,” he says.

“For me, it was a tremendous joy to see the seminarians working very seriously and enthusiastically on their homilies.

“Despite the fact that the seminary had no Bible commentaries in Thai or Laos, or any online homily service in their language, the seminarians did their best to come up with a homily that came from the Word of God and the fruits of their own prayer and reflection.”

Following his experience in Laos, Fr Anthony returned to Bangkok to begin a new journey in his missionary life, studying for a Doctorate in the area of Religious Studies at Assumption University.

The program is taught entirely in English and the professors and students are a mix of Thai and non-Thai.

“Despite some limitations in doing my studies in Thailand, I have intentionally decided to stay in this country because I am interested in exploring religious studies topics especially in the Asian/Southeast Asian context,” he says.

“I hope that by immersing myself in the Asian religious-cultural-social environment, I will be able to gain some insights for my research that an academic experience in the United States or Australia may not be able to afford.”