Washington, USA - When the Rev. Augustine Tran went to Vietnamese-American parishes as a seminarian a couple of years ago, pastors and worshipers would hand him money to help him with school, though they had little of their own. When he goes to the Vietnamese enclaves of suburban Virginia, where he now works, Roman Catholics often greet him like a celebrity, his siblings said.
Father Tran's family keeps an altar in its living room, with photographs of his grandparents, his mother and Pope John Paul II.
Strong support from the community, as well as their own families, has helped propel Vietnamese-American men like Father Tran, 29, into the priesthood in ever-larger numbers.
At a time when fewer American Catholics are expressing interest in the priesthood, Vietnamese-American men are an anomaly. They are now the second-largest minority ethnic group in seminaries, only slightly behind Hispanics, who account for a far larger percentage of the general population.
While church experts and priests say that some Catholics frown upon their sons' joining the priesthood and are even embarrassed by it in the wake of the sex abuse scandals among members of the clergy, Vietnamese Catholics continue to hold the priesthood in high regard. They say that the sex scandal marred individual clergymen but not the vocation itself.
Like many of his counterparts, Father Tran, a priest at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Fairfax, Va., came to the United States from Vietnam when he was young, in his case at age 17. Those of his generation, like the one before him, often describe the priesthood as the pinnacle of service and success, as many European Catholic immigrants did a century ago.
"If you go to a Vietnamese parish and ask people, would they prefer that their son be the president, a doctor or a priest, they would say, 'A priest,' " Father Tran said. "It is seen as a blessing from God for the family."
Asians and Pacific Islanders constitute about 1 percent of American Catholics, but they account for 12 percent of seminarians, or about 397 of 3,308 men; a vast majority of them are of Vietnamese heritage, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. In 1999, they were about 9 percent of seminarians, although the number of seminarians overall was only slightly less than it is now.
That such a small group of American Catholics is able to deliver so many new priests reveals the grip tradition, family and faith still have on many Vietnamese-Americans.
"I feel like our path is different from Americans', in that they don't get the support from their family," said Paul Nguyen, 26, who is studying at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. Mr. Nguyen's older brother, John, is also a seminarian, as are three other men from their parish in Silver Spring, Md.
"When you get that support from family and from parishioners, it's very reaffirming," Mr. Nguyen said. "Sometimes when men don't have the support of parishioners, they feel alone, and some have left the seminary because of that."
The Rev. Joachim Hien, pastor of St. Anthony's Church in Spokane, Wash., estimates that at least 30 percent of the approximately 1.1 million Vietnamese in the United States are Catholic.
For the most part, the Vietnamese-American men now studying for the priesthood left their homeland after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and through the early 1980's. Many Vietnamese immigrants flocked to places like Orange County, Calif.; Houston; New Orleans; and the suburbs around Washington. They chose to live in close communities, brought over their extended families and built churches where Mass was held in Vietnamese.
"Those born in Vietnam have been through a lot of sacrifice and difficulty," said Bishop Dominic Luong, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange County and a Vietnamese immigrant. "When they suffer so much and see things passing so fast, they have to find some kind of permanence, and religion seemed to assure that."
Some seminarians were adults when they immigrated, but the majority were children and teenagers. A few older seminarians, like Trinh Quang Le, 51, who is studying at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago to join the Congregation of the Holy Spirit order, had been in the seminary before the fall of Saigon, after which seminaries were closed.
Most Vietnamese-American seminarians are nourished by early memories of their lives in towns that, because of the influence of previous French rule, were predominantly Catholic. Mr. Nguyen, the Mount St. Mary's student, who came to the United States when he was 11, remembers walking with his grandmother in the predawn darkness to Mass every day in his hometown.
The only day that Father Tran's family does not attend Mass near their home in Annandale, Va., is Tuesday, their son's day off. On those days, before a makeshift altar the Trans created in their living room with an excerpt from the Bible emblazoned on a wall and a statue of the Virgin Mary that they spirited out of Vietnam, Father Tran conducts Mass for his parents, brothers, sisters and their children.
"When my brother celebrates Mass, you have the feeling that he is one of those who were chosen, and it's very, very special," said Kim Tran, 27.
Father Tran told his parents when he was 10 that he wanted to be a priest like his uncle, now a bishop in Vietnam. His mother, Hien T. Nguyen, said she wept with joy. His father, Phuc Q. Tran, said that even then, as an altar boy, his son worshipped with a fervent devotion.
Father Tran's younger brother, Dai, 17, listening to his family on the edge of the living room on a recent Sunday afternoon, piped up with the most enthusiasm.
"In school, when some of my teachers hear that my brother is a priest, they say, 'Wow, what an honor,' and my friends think that it's really interesting," said Dai, himself an altar boy. "It feels good because you have someone to look up to."
A web of relationships in the Vietnamese-American community supports young men considering the priesthood. Many have relatives in the priesthood. Many Vietnamese priests take it upon themselves to help young men decide whether they want to join the priesthood, "which is rare in this country," said Bishop Luong of Orange County.
"The Vietnamese community responds communally sometimes, even sacrificing with money to help those who cannot afford to go to seminary," he said. "They work together to help those in seminary as a community project."
When Father Tran tells his own parishioners, mostly non-Vietnamese, that their sons might end up as priests someday, they often demur. They want grandchildren, they explain. Or they are afraid of something ineffable, Father Tran said. He added: "There isn't that level of support."
Still, there are exceptions among Vietnamese families. Mr. Nguyen said his father was alarmed because both of his sons chose to become priests. "He wasn't very pleased with my decision," said Mr. Nguyen, who had been on the path to becoming a doctor. "I pray a lot for him to understand. It has brought me closer to my dad. I talk to him every week."
And as Vietnamese Catholics spend more time in the United States, their attitudes toward the priesthood might change, becoming more like other Americans'. Seminarians say anecdotally that American-born Vietnamese are still turning to the priesthood, but Bishop Luong and others expect the numbers to taper off as the new generation becomes more assimilated and more secular.
Bishop Luong said: "Those born here are interested in making a lot of money. I had a very successful priest come and speak to a group of 12th graders. They asked, 'How much money do you make?' He said, '$35,000 a year.' They said, 'That's not enough for me - I need to make two to three times more than that.' "