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Minor Seminary Alumni Visit Their Former Educators In Paris

Updated: October 31, 2006 05:00 PM GMT
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A delegation of former students of a minor seminary in central Vietnam recently visited their priest-educators and Vietnamese teachers in Paris to express their gratitude.

Bishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh of Thanh Hoa, 56, led the alumni to the headquarters of Missions Etrangeres de Paris (MEP, Paris Foreign Missions) in early October. A priest alumnus and five lay alumni of Nha Trang-based Stella Maris Minor Seminary was with Bishop Linh, as were the families of the five lay alumni, all of them now living in France or the United States.

Also joining the delegation were four other priests of Nha Trang diocese who, with MEP support, presently live or study in Paris. The coastal city of Nha Trang is 1,040 kilometers south of Ha Noi.

During the formal visit on Oct. 7 to the MEP generalate, they met with two MEP priests: Father Jean Baptiste Etcharren, superior general, and Father Jean Mais. Father Etcharren used to work in Hue archdiocese, north of Nha Trang in central Vietnam, while Father Mais taught philosophy at Da Lat-based High School of Adran, run by De La Salle Brothers in central Vietnam´s highlands.

Students who graduated from Stella Maris Minor Seminary were sent to Hue-based St. Sulpice Major Seminary or Da Lat-based Pius X Pontifical Institute.

Three former Vietnamese professors, two priests and one lay Catholic also attended the meeting. Five other MEP priests who once worked at the minor seminary or elsewhere in Nha Trang diocese planned to join the meeting too but could not due to poor health or because they were busy with pastoral duties.

During the meeting, Bishop Linh described the visit as a "historical pilgrimage" and a "homecoming." On behalf of the alumni, he said: "Today we joyfully come together ... to express our deepest gratitude to you. You are the great source of knowledge that we have received. We spent the happiest days of our lives with you in Nha Trang and Da Lat."

The bishop, who entered the minor seminary in 1962, also said: "We often forgot you and your teachings, for which we ask pardon. We are also thankful for all that you taught us and for your love for all of us."

After graduating from the minor seminary, Bishop Linh went on to study at Pius X, which the government closed in 1976. He later completed a doctorate in philosophy at Institut Catholique de Paris before we was ordained a bishop in 2004.

Bishop Linh caught up with the other alumni in Paris after attending a workshop in Rome for newly ordained bishops from around the world.

The late MEP Bishop Marcel Piquet Loi of Nha Trang founded Stella Maris Minor Seminary in 1958 and MEP priests ran it until 1965, when Vietnamese clergy took over its administration. It was closed in 1975, when the country was reunified under communist rule. Since then the government has used the building as a college of culture and arts.

In its 17 years of operations, the seminary provided secondary education as well as early priestly formation for about 750 students of the diocese.

Besides the sharing of memories, the Oct. 7 meeting featured a presentation of photos of former professors and seminarians, and their activities. The participants also prayed at a Mass led by Bishop Linh for all living and deceased professors and alumni. At a banquet of Vietnamese food, the alumni and their families sang songs they had composed about the minor seminary.

Father Etcharren reminded the alumni about the great past and present contribution of French missioners to the Catholic Church in Vietnam. The general superior also noted that his society was founded to serve the Church in Vietnam. Their service in Vietnam was interrupted in 1975, when all foreign missioners were expelled from the country.

Since the 1990s, the French missionary society has given financial and moral support to the Church in Vietnam by granting Vietnamese clergy scholarships to study in Paris as well as in Toulouse, southwestern France.

The alumni say that, in addition to Bishop Linh, their minor seminary has produced 55 priests and two permanent deacons. Ten of the priests now serve in Australia, Canada, France and the United States, and the rest are in the Vietnam dioceses of Da Lat, Long Xuyen, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet and Xuan Loc.

Still other alumni are lay Catholics who are active in various fields, such as business, communications, education, health care and journalism.

END

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