Hmong village boy takes first vows as Oblate religious

At the chapel of Mai Thien Loc Theologate of the Oblates of Mary of Immaculate Conception (OMI), the superior of the Vietnam Mission received the vows of eight novices, including Brother Joseph Tinh A Senh, a son of Dien Bien Parish in Hung Hoa Diocese.

He belongs to the Hmong ethnic group. This is good news not only for the newly professed brother, his family and the OMI congregation but is also an indescribable joy for members of the Hmong community.

Brother Senh was born on June 10, 1996, in Dien Bien, the seventh child of 10 children. His family are poor like many other families in the area. Poverty is rife, from one corn season to another. Nothing has changed. The local people have a joke: just the piglet and buffalo grow up, but we grow old and then die.

After graduating from the village school, he intended to go to the fields like many other boys. But Father Peter Pham Thanh Binh, parish priest of Sapa, saw that this boy was smart and virtuous, so he invited him to live and study at Sapa boarding house. He agreed to live there with his friends to study.

There are very few who hear the voice of God and respond. How many times has Sapa boarding house picked up children from Sapa village as well as other regions such as Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Son La, Yen Bai ... but then, after finishing grade 12, they return to their villages.

There are even girls who haven't finished their studies, but seeing that all of their friends are already married, they have to let the boys "catch" them, or else they will remain single. However, some people have dared to go against the flow of life to dedicate themselves to God.

Sapa boarding house has planted the seeds of vocation for the Church. Several dozen children in the boarding house participate in the parish's vocation group. I don't know how much they will hear God's voice and respond, or if they will hear the boys' call and follow them back to be the bridesmaids of someone's family before they have reached the end of school age. It is still said that "the old father needs a horse, the old mother needs a daughter-in-law."

During his time in high school, Brother Senh participated in the vocation promotions organized by the parish and the diocese. After graduating, he decided to enter the vocation class to learn about the vocation of the diocese and hoped to become a priest to serve his home diocese.

However, God gave him another way — a religious vocation. He wanted to become a religious to evangelize his people, so he went to the Oblates of the Immaculate Conception. He saw something here that urged him to find opportunities to go to the poor, to the abandoned.

“The first mission of the Congregation in the Church is to make the abandoned people recognize the face of Christ and His Kingdom and to bring the Gospel to the peoples who haven't received the Good News, helping them to discover their own values in the light of the Gospel. Where the Church is already present, Oblates voluntarily go where the Church's activity has not reached,” states the OBI constitution.

Being a Hmong, it was difficult for Brother Senh to complete the high school program, but he tried his best. When entering the congregation, he was advised to study a certain specialty. Then he studied English and graduated from college.

This was a tireless effort when just a few years previously he climbed from hill to hill to herd buffalo or work in the fields, yet he had the courage to set foot in bustling and modern Saigon to pursue his vocation.

Thanks to God, more and more religious brothers and sisters are collaborating in the proclamation of the Gospel through their commitment to priestly and religious vocations. For the Oblate congregation, there is also Brother Joseph Sung A Tinh, who took his perpetual vows in 2018. He is also a Hmong.

According to official figures, out of more than 1 million Hmong in Vietnam, around 20,000 are Catholics, mainly in Hung Hoa Diocese. In terms of religious vocation, only a few seminarians are from other dioceses.

Quite a few seminarians and religious men and women are engaged in this vast mission field: Sister Maria Cu Thi Quynh Hoa, a native of Giang La Pan Parish, took her perpetual vows in 2014 in the Dominican Sisters of Bac Ninh; Sister Maria Ma Thi Dua of Hau Thao (Sapa Parish) took her first vows in 2017 in the Congregation of Sisters of Lovers of the Cross of Hung Hoa; Brother Joseph Sung A Tinh, a native of Phinh Ho Parish, moved to the south with his family, entered Buon Ma Thuot Diocese and made a perpetual vow in 2019.

And today we have Brother Joseph Tinh A Senh , a member of the Oblates of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception.

In addition, Hung Hoa Diocese has a number of children studying at a minor seminary and two female novices in the second year. Hopefully, the Hmong Catholic community will soon have a brother who becomes a priest and have more religious brothers and sisters and seminarians to serve the Church. 

The mission field is still vast. May God send many messengers and give us many skilled harvesters.

May God awaken in young people the spirit of missionary life through consecrated life so that "where there are religious, there is more joy” and the poor are helped to know the Gospel and discover their great value in the light of the Gospel.

* Duc Trung Vu, CSsR, translated this article from the website of Hung Hoa Diocese.