This article originally appeared in the spring 2025 issue of The Vincentian, the quarterly newsletter of the Congregation of the Mission Western Province.
Fr. Hoan Nguyen took a long route to the priesthood
Before Fr. Hoan Nguyen, C.M., was born, his mother prayed for a boy and said that, if she were granted one, she would offer him to God. Though it took a long time, at the age of 80 she saw him ordained a priest in California.
Growing up in Vietnam, Fr. Hoan entered the Vincentian seminary in 1969 at 19. When the Vietnamese government fell in 1975, his studies were halted because of the Communist government. While his friends left and got married, Fr. Hoan taught catechism to young people and brought communion to the elderly, all in secret.
“I decided that to keep my vocation, I had to leave for the U.S., which I did in 1989,” he said.
He connected with the Vincentians in California, restarted his formal studies, and was ordained in 1999, the day before his 50th birthday.
He has served as an associate pastor, as a chaplain for various organizations, and in a variety of other roles. Now 75, he lives at the DePaul Evangelization Center in Montebello and is chaplain for Annunciation Catholic Church in Arcadia. He has embraced every assignment.
“I am like the day laborers in the parable (Mt 20: 1-16), the workers waiting on the corner until the landowner finally calls them to work,” he said. “When the community asks me to do something, I say ‘yes,’ because I was chosen late and need to respond.”