16 FEBRUARY 2023
www.therecord.com.au
Edition #420
FORMER REFUGEE FR MINH-THUY NGUYEN ANNOUNCED AS NEW VICAR FOR CLERGY
New Vicar for Clergy Fr Minh Thuy. PHOTO: MICHELLE TAN.
By Jamie O'Brien
Thornlie Parish Priest Fr Minh Thuy has been announced as the new Episcopal Vicar for Clergy. In making the announcement, Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said he is excited about this new chapter in the life of the Archdiocese. “Providing a high level of support to our priests is a key element in the passing on of the faith to our people, and with Fr Minh-Thuy as Episcopal Vicar for Clergy I am confident we will be able to continue and strengthen our efforts in supporting our clergy across the Archdiocese in their life and mission of service to the Church,” Archbishop Costelloe said. “This is a pivotal moment in the life of the Archdiocese, and I am very pleased Fr Minh-Thuy has accepted to take on this very important ministry. “I invite all our priests and the
Archdiocese to welcome him and support him in his new ministry,” he said. Fr Minh-Thuy’s appointment comes following the retirement of former Vicar for Clergy Fr Brian McKenna. The role of the Episcopal Vicar for Clergy is central to supporting clergy practically as well as spiritually. Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, 4 December 1958, Fr Minh Thuy is the middle child of five children to Nghiem Nguyen and Tuoi Nguyen (nee Nguyen). After commencing his study at La Salle Brothers College in Saigon, Fr Minh Thuy continued his secondary education at St Phillip Minh College, which was also a minor seminary where he undertook seven years of formation towards the priesthood aged 19. However, in 1979, Fr Minh Thuy was forced underground – including being chased and shot at - by the Communists who were determined to make him join the army to invade Cambodia and Laos.
His father, who was in the army of the previous government and the director of a bank before 1975, had already been imprisoned in 1977 and his two older brothers had been recruited to the army prior to the Communists took control of South Vietnam in April 1975. The next two years were spent living without any identification, constantly trying to avoid being captured, moving from house to house. In April 1981, a 22-year-old Minh Thuy made the decision to flee Vietnam by boat in a vessel which was only 13 metres long, together with another 78 people, including some 30 young children. They spent the next five days and five nights drifting on the Pacific Ocean until they were rescued by a German supply ship. Fr Minh-Thuy says he remembers feeling scared and hopeless. “Even after I escaped, I wondered if I would die,” he recalled. “Those five days and five nights in the Pacific Ocean were the longest of my life,” he said. The boat was brought to Pulau Bidong Island in Malaysia where Fr Minh Thuy stayed for one month before being accepted to go to Australia. It was Holy Week, and Fr Minh Thuy says arriving in Pulau Bidong gave him hope for the beginning of a new life. Arriving in Perth at the end of 29 August 1981, Minh Thuy commenced a course to learn English, while working part-time as a gardener and cleaner. Full Text available at
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