Father Tue labored for his church, countrymen

    Father Joseph Van Pham Tue, the pastor of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh, was an indispensable priest who helped thousands of Vietnamese refugees make a transition to south Louisiana after they escaped the war in their native country in the mid-1970s, Bishop Dominic Luong said at Father Tue’s funeral Mass April 13.
    Bishop Luong, who is the auxiliary bishop of Orange, Calif., worked with Father Tue for more than a quarter century in establishing the archdiocesan Vietnamese Apostolate and then Mary Queen of Vietnam Parish in New Orleans East. Father Tue, pastor of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh in Marrero since 2008,  died April 3 at the age of 66.
    “He was a great, great person,” said Bishop Luong, who was named auxiliary bishop of Orange in 2003 after coming to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1976 at the urging of Archbishop Philip M. Hannan. “When Archbishop Hannan established the apostolic center for Vietnamese, I was the director and Father Tue was my associate and did a lot of great work.”
Loved Scripture
    Bishop Luong said Father Tue was one of his closest friends and was a tireless pastor who had a great interest in explaining the Scriptures, both in the homilies he delivered to his congregation and through his writings in the popular Vietnamese magazine, Dan Chua (The People of God), which is published in Gretna.
    The two were together many times since Bishop Luong left for California, including three retreats they gave together in recent years in Oakland, Sacramento and Orange.
    “At all these conferences Father Joseph shared the Scriptures with such a vibrant message,” Bishop Luong said. “He taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is so suitable, especially in the Year of Faith that Pope Benedict called for. He challenged everyone in the congregation to do the same, to become living disciples of Jesus Christ, to make him alive, to make him credible. This is what our time needs.”
    Father Tue was born in South Vietnam and attended elementary and high school there. He attended college in Vietnam before going to Rome to further his theological studies. He was ordained a priest by Pope Paul VI on Jan. 6, 1973, for the Diocese of Xuan Loc in Vietnam but never served there because of the Vietnam War.
    “He was one of over 300 priests from all the world who were ordained by Pope Paul VI,” Bishop Luong said. “That was the vision Pope Paul VI had for the priesthood. He wanted to show the universality of the priesthood.”
    While he was in Rome, Father Tue opened a gift shop to sell items associated with the 117 Vietnamese martyrs, who eventually were canonized in 1988 by Blessed John Paul II. Bishop Luong said the venture was so successful that it defrayed 85 percent of the cost of the canonization process.
    Father Tue came to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1975 at the invitation of Archbishop Philip Hannan and, working with then-Father Luong, became a chaplain for the thousands of Vietnamese refugees who had arrived in New Orleans.
    “I remember the archbishop told us one day, ‘Some Vietnamese families have 24 people. Where are we going to find housing for them?’” Bishop Luong said, smiling. “Nevertheless, somehow we survived.”
    There were harrowing episodes when the assimilation process did not go smoothly for Vietnamese immigrants. Bishop Luong and Father Tue were called one day before the Plaquemines Parish Council and “lectured” for more than an hour about why they were not welcome to live or fish in the parish.
    “I remember vividly one of the council members telling me, ‘We have no land for your people here. Get out! If you don’t get out in three days, we will force you out,’” Bishop Luong said.
    Several Vietnamese boats were sabotaged. One child was so badly burned in a boat fire that he was given only a 20 percent chance of living. But after undergoing 38 surgeries during his lifetime, the fire victim is now an electrical engineer in Florida, Bishop Luong said.
    Bishop Luong said he saw a portrait of the Vietnamese martyrs at St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh and stopped for a moment of prayer.
    “In the Latin, it says, ‘paradiso’ – he is going into paradise,” Bishop Luong said. “May the Vietnamese martyrs accompany him to the new Jerusalem.”
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.