Fr. Simon Hoang, SVD

Looking back

I was born and raised during the Vietnam War, in a Catholic family of five children, in a small fishing village in central Vietnam. I entered an underground seminary for my home diocese, Hue, two years after finishing high school. During my eight years of underground seminary, I was unable to study for priesthood because of the political situation. I left Vietnam in search for freedom in May 1991 and went to Hong Kong as one of the Vietnamese Boat People. After two years of living in the refugee camps in Hong Kong, I came to the U.S.A. at the end of 1993.

Soon after, I enrolled in Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, and earned a BA in 1999 with a major in Philosophy and a minor in Cross-Cultural Studies. Then, I entered the Novitiate at Techny, Illinois. After professing First Vows in August 2000, I enrolled in Catholic Theological Union in Chicago to study Theology. In the summer of 2002, I went abroad for 2 years for language, culture and missionary experiences in Germany. I returned to Chicago, finished a MA in Theology in May 2006 and spent an extra year to pursue a Masters in Spirituality in May 2007. The title of my thesis was The Spirituality of Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Postwar Context for the Vietnamese-Americans. It was directed by Fr. Robert Schreiter, CssP, one of only a few very well-known, worldwide professors in this field.

I professed perpetual vows with the Divine Word Missionaries in Techny, Illinois, in September 2006 and was ordained a priest in Chicago in May 2007. My years of formation with the Divine Word Missionaries have helped me to embrace the multicultural living and international dimension of missionary life, to be a better listener, and most importantly, to become a beacon of God’s unfailing love and presence in this world. During the past few years, I have been involved in many retreats, mostly for youth and Vietnamese communities dealing with the issues of forgiveness and reconciliation. I am currently ministering at the Catholic Church of the Ascension and also helping in campus ministry for the Diocese of Memphis.

Ministering

The campus ministry is the most challenging, yet most enjoyable one. The fact that I love to be around young people makes it easier. My out-going nature helps me to quickly befriend college students. Celebrating the sacraments of Eucharist and Confession is a great blessing and witnessing the genuine responses from the youth to these sacraments is very rewarding. Challenges are often found in the fact of making theological concepts accessible and applicable. Words are powerful, but they are useless unless they carry the messages through the listener. Homilies, therefore, must be well prepared, of course, precisely short, and delivered with a sense of humor. The college students’ brains are often filled with academic concepts! Another challenge of campus ministry is time. Campus ministry is often outside of “working hours” and normally during weekends. Sunday mass at 8:00 pm is an example. Some prefer it to be at 10:00 pm!”

Nowadays, as missionaries, we are called to multiple ministries. My campus ministry, much demanding as it is, is still an “onsides” ministry. My main ministry is as associate pastor of the Ascension Church, which is a bilingual parish—English and Spanish. Hispanic ministry calls me to venture myself into a new and unknown world, for which I neither prepared nor anticipated during my formation years. A summer language program was close to nothing, but it was all I had. I am courageously emerging myself into this ministry after an intensive six-week program of language study in Mexico City. With broken Spanish, I started saying Sunday mass and providing other sacraments without understanding most of it. Thank God the language of the Eucharist is universal!

Yet, pastoral ministry is more than just about responding to sacramental needs of the faithful. It consists of cultural and social dimensions. Knowing the “sacramental” language is perhaps one big step into this ministry, but it is neither enough nor adequate. More than ever, I am convinced of the wisdom of St. Joseph Freinademetz, the first Divine Word Missionary to China, when he said, “The language of the heart is the language that all understand!” I have learned that I would never be adequate or feel ready in ministry. I have also realized how blessed I am with the formation I received that provided me an open heart of a learner; thus, the Spirit of God can work with and through me.

I am looking into the possibility in advancing my Spanish so that I can serve the people of God more sufficiently and adequately.

As a Divine Word Missionary, my conviction is that the people of God deserve the best of me. On the day of my graduation from Divine Word College, I received a congratulatory card from a very dear professor. She wrote: “Dear Simon, congratulations on your achievements. Wish you all the best for your future. I know that wherever you will be on your journey of life, you will be the beacon in the sky for those who are lucky to meet you. With love, from Dr. Marilyn Taylor.”

On the celebration of my perpetual vows, my favorite cousin sent me a beautiful hallmark card. In it she wrote: “Dear Simon, congratulations on your final vows. I wish you all the best! Have a great journey as a Divine Word Missionary. Remember, the people of God deserve the best of you! With love, Mong Thu.”

To tell you the truth, I did not understand all these words until recently. These beautiful, but challenging messages have been with me since then. After three years of ministry in Memphis, I am starting to understand what it means to be the beacon in the sky, to be the symbol of hope, the bonfire in the dark and cold night, the inspiration of faith and encouragement to all those I am called to minister.

As I have quickly learned how inadequate I am, and will always be, I am called to bring hope for those who are hopeless, to kindle fire for those who are lacking enthusiasm in life, to inspire those who are weary and encourage those who are disheartened. I always remind myself with these words every morning when I wake up: “People of God deserve the best of you!” “Be the beacon in the sky of life!” For that, I have no excuse for being lazy in my ministry, for having lousy homilies, for lacking enthusiasm and love, or for walking a journey only half way! Like many of my college students often tell me, “Father, you give 120% in everything you do,” and that brings me great joy in knowing that I am making a small difference in someone’s life as well as my own.