Two new personal parishes for Vietnamese Catholics

On July 2, Archbishop Gregory Aymond established St. Joseph Parish in Algiers to serve as a personal parish for Vietnamese Catholics. It had served previously as mission church of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh Parish. Father Joseph Thang Nguyen will serve as the first pastor.

Assumption of Mary Church in Avondale also had served as a mission church of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh Parish until being elevated to the status of a personal parish for Vietnamese Catholics on July 2. Father Hoai Nguyen will serve as the first pastor.

On July 2, Archbishop Gregory Aymond established two personal parishes for Vietnamese Catholics on the West Bank – St. Joseph in Algiers and Assumption of Mary in Avondale.

The two faith communities had been serving as missions of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh Parish in Marrero.

Archbishop Aymond said his decision to elevate the missions to the status of a parish was based in large part on the lively faith and the growth of each community.

“In many ways, they are already functioning as individual parishes, and it’s important that they have their own individual pastor and a certain level of autonomy as a parish,” the archbishop said.

“It’s also a way of recognizing that these faith communities are alive, vibrant and growing,’ Archbishop Aymond added. “It’s an opportunity to go from being a mission of St. Agnes Le Thi Thanh Parish to actually being their own parish communities.”

A special section in the July 5, 2014, issue, "Vietnamese Catholics", provides a detailed account written by several Vietnamese priests and laypersons about the amazing history of Vietnamese Catholics in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

From a small cadre of immigrants, the Vietnamese Catholic community has blossomed since 1975 into a spiritual powerhouse that has showered countless blessings upon the archdiocese.