Tran Van Hoai

Philippe Trần Văn Hoài (March 22, 1929 – February 2, 2010) was a Monsignor in the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1980s, he was mandated by the Vatican with the responsibility of shepherding the global Vietnamese Catholic Diaspora. He organized a freedom of worship gathering, “Prayer Day for Peace in Viet Nam,” at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II and leaders of the main Vietnamese religions. He also wrote the foreword to the first edition of The Road of Hope, the book that compiled the messages of Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan during his 13-year imprisonment by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. He celebrated 50 years of priesthood with the 2009 publication of his book The Human Destiny of Jesus Christ, which he dedicated to “the faithful of all religions.”

Early life

He was born in An Ninh, Cua Tung, in the central region of Vietnam, and was the second child in a family of modest wealth and limited political connections. In 1943, he entered An Ninh Minor Seminary, where he was a classmate of the future Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.

After the conclusion of French occupation of Vietnam in 1954, he was ordained a priest in 1959 at La Vang, the sanctuary commemorating a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was the first priest to be ordained at the sanctuary and, as of 2010, one of three priests to receive the honor. Soon after his ordination, he was appointed parish priest of the Bac Vong, Hue diocese. In 1961, he was appointed a faculty member of Phu Xuan Minor Seminary and later in 1962, a rector of Hoan Thien Minor Seminary. Upon being selected to study at the Vatican, he left Vietnam in 1969.

Vatican life

After studying for four years at the Vatican he was appointed Vice Rector of Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide (Pontificia Universita Urbania) in 1973.^[1][2]

With the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, he was appointed Director of the Vietnamese Refugee Office of Caritas Italiana, a major Catholic Italian charity, in 1978. The following year, at a time of “compassion fatigue” when an increasing number of countries stranded Vietnamese boat people at sea, he led a rescue mission by accompanying three Italian Navy frigates to the South Pacific.

From 1984-1987 he was Treasurer of Pontificio Collegio Missionario Internazionale San Paolo Apostolo, the college of future Bishops, Cardinals and important prelates who have been sent to Rome to study.

He was conferred the title Monsignor in 1986.

In 1988, Monsignor Philippe Tran Van Hoai was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Director of the Center of Pastoral Apostolate for Overseas Vietnamese, to oversee the global Vietnamese Catholic Diaspora.^[3][4] He would hold this title until 2000, traveling extensively to work with Overseas Vietnamese communities from Europe, Japan, Australia to the US. It is in this capacity that the bulk of his contributions to Vietnamese and Catholic history was achieved.

Specifically, he played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in both the publishing and global distribution of The Road of Hope, the book that was secretly written in prison by his long time friend, former classmate and then-Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen, who had been detained by the government of Vietnam for his faith and family connections. Philippe Tran Van Hoai wrote the foreword in the first edition of the book and campaigned to keep Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan’s name in the global conscience.

In 1988, Philippe Tran Van Hoai was appointed to chair the Organizing Committee of the Celebration of the Canonization of 117 Vietnamese Martyrs. This was one of the most important accomplishments in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Vietnam, according to Monsignor Banabe Nguyen Van Phuong, a senior member of the Vatican’s Congregazione Evangelizzazione dei Popoli (Propaganda Fide).^[5]

He founded the global Vietnamese Laity in Diaspora Movement in 1992, an association that encourages Overseas Vietnamese parishioners to actively engage in politics to address social injustice.^[6] The movement now has 12 chapters around the world.

In 1992 he organized a freedom of worship gathering, “Prayer Day for Peace in Viet Nam,” at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II and leaders of the main Vietnamese religions. This is a first in the history of Vietnam. He was subsequently nominated to chair an inter-religious body to promote discourse and association.

In 1995, he presided over the establishment of the Vietnamese cultural center Nguyen Truong To (NTT) and founded the publication Dinh Huong. Under the umbrella of NTT, there were many firsts in the history of Overseas Vietnamese: an inter-religious discussion of Vietnamese theology in Switzerland (1996); a symposium to begin a dialogue between Overseas Vietnamese teachers, professionals and students (1996); a forum for Overseas Vietnamese to deliberate the moral foundation for national reformation and restoration (1997).

Later life

He retired in 2000.

In 2007, in response to the religious persecution of Father Nguyen Van Ly in Vietnam, he penned an open letter to the Catholic symposium in Orange County, California, arguing for the release of Father Nguyen Van Ly.^[7]

He continued his scholarly writing and in 2009 published The Human Destiny in Jesus Christ. He dedicated the book to the faithful of all religions.^[8] That same year he celebrated 50 years of priesthood.

He died on February 2, 2010 in Roma of heart complications. He is buried on Vatican grounds at Campo Verano in Rome, Italy.

Global Responses by Overseas Vietnamese Communities

Among the memorial services held in his honor were those in the US (Boston, Orange County, CA), Europe (Netherlands, Rome), Tokyo and Vietnam (Nha Trang, Tri Buu, La Vang).

Roman Catholic priest and prominent Vietnamese dissident Nguyen Van Ly authored a letter of condolences from prison in Vietnam, calling Monsignor Tran Van Hoai one of the great champions of Vietnamese refugees and a patriot and visionary of the highest order.^[9]

Bishop Mai Thanh Luong of the Orange Dioceses of California, USA, the first Vietnamese American Bishop in North America, honored Monsignor Tran Van Hoai as his role model and lauded him as “a person who was a visionary in regards to the causes of the people and who contributed much to theology.”^[10]

Quotes

• "What continues to push us, despite all the sacrifices, is the knowledge that our suffering will benefit the Church and our beloved Vietnam." – Taken from “In Search of a Theological Vietnam,” a paper presented at an inter-religious discussion of Vietnamese theology in Switzerland (1996)

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Vietnam

References

1. ^ http://rfvn.com/?p=11412
2. ^ http://usaaauc.org/content/death-announcement-fr-philip-tran-van-hoai
3. ^ http://vietcatholic.net/News/Clients/ReadArticle.aspx?ID=76694
4. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/15/local/me-13448/2
5. ^ http://vietcatholic.net/News/Html/77242.htm
6. ^ http://phongtraogiaodan.org/phanuu.htm
7. ^ http://www.luongtamconggiao.com/pages/tp.asp?topicID=338&categoryID=1&subcateID=13
8. ^ http://vietcatholic.net/News/Html/77242.htm
9. ^ http://www.vietbao.com/?ppid=45&pid=5&nid=155212
10. ^ http://vntd.org/?p=4649

External links

• Recording of Monsignor Tran Van Hoai Tet 1999 Interview
• Documentary Film of Celebration of the Canonization of 117 Vietnamese Martyrs, Vatican, 1988
• Caritas Italiana

Persondata
Name	Tran Van Hoai, Philippe
Alternative names
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Date of birth	March 22, 1929
Place of birth
Date of death	February 2, 2010
Place of death