ASTORIA — The latest beatified martyr from Vietnam was welcomed into the “mother church of Queens” and the hearts of its parishioners on July 12.
Father Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep, murdered in hatred of the faith in 1946, was venerated at the weekly Mass for Vietnamese Catholics at the oldest parish in Queens — Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Astoria.
The weekly celebration was also a special Mass of Thanksgiving, which included the first presentation of the parish’s new statue of Blessed Father Diep at the lectern.
Msgr. Cuong Pham, pastor, sought the statue in advance of Blessed Father Diep’s July 2 beatification at a shrine church built for him in the town of Tac Say, a community in the Mekong Delta at Vietnam’s southern tip.
About 100 parishioners from the Astoria parish’s Vietnamese community attended the Mass of Thanksgiving for Blessed Father Diep. He was widely known in Vietnam for sharing the love of Jesus Christ throughout his ministry, especially during the chaos of World War II and its aftermath.
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“He was specifically reaching out to non-Catholic communities — the animists, the Buddhists, and the people who had no religion,” Msgr. Pham said. “So, he evangelized. He would collect food, medications, and clothing from the Catholics to distribute to the non-Catholics, serving as a bridge, a representative of Christ.”
Numerous miracles are already attributed to this martyred priest, Msgr. Pham said.
Blessed Father Diep was born in 1897 into a family of Catholics farmers and was ordained in 1924.
He soon became known for preaching the Gospel through his homilies and corporal acts of mercy during the food shortages of the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. The chaos continued during the First Indochina War, which began in 1946.
That same year, Blessed Father Diep was attacked by two Japanese soldiers who refused to return home when the war ended in 1945.
They wanted revenge on Western forces that defeated Japan. Believing that Christianity was one such enemy, the expatriate soldiers murdered Blessed Father Diep.
Once canonized, he will join 117 other saints who were martyred in Vietnam between 1745 and 1862.
Blessed Father Diep’s beatification on July 2 drew an estimated 70,000 people — many of them not Catholic — to Tac Say. It was the first ever beatification ceremony held on Vietnamese soil.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over the beatification with 40 bishops and about 1,000 priests, including Msgr. Pham. Others came from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, which is Cardinal Tagle’s homeland.
Msgr. Pham originally thought he wouldn’t be able to attend the beatification because of the ongoing planning for the feast of the parish’s patroness, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
That event was held on July 11, with thousands in attendance, the day before the Mass of Thanksgiving for Blessed Father Diep.
However, Msgr. Pham managed to be in Vietnam for the beatification and for a Mass of Thanksgiving in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to celebrate the silver jubilee of his ordination 25 years ago.
He returned to Astoria on July 11, three days before Our Lady’s feast.
While in Vietnam, Msgr. Pham saw pictures of Blessed Father Diep everywhere, even in non-Catholic locations. They’re also found in businesses and food markets.
He asked people why this priest is so popular there. Msgr. Pham said the typical response was, “Because this man chose to connect us to God by extraordinary love.”
Kyla Ho, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, said after the Mass of Thanksgiving that she grew up knowing about Blessed Father Diep.
“My mom honored him at home with an altar,” Ho said. “She prayed to him every night. I asked her, ‘Who is he? Why do you pray to him? He’s just a normal priest.’
“But she said, ‘No, no. He performs miracles. And he listens to anyone who prays to him and seeks out his help — no prejudice, no discrimination.’ But that was his message. That was his heart.”
Chau Doan, another parishioner, did not attend the beatification, but she did visit his shrine church at Tac Say during a visit to her homeland about eight years ago.
Doan said she traveled on a bumpy road through the night with her two young children, but the experience was worth it because she connected the shrine to the stories she heard about Blessed Father Diep.
“I was born in a Roman Catholic family in Vietnam,” she explained, “and my grandparents and my parents talked about him and his dedication to the Mother Church, to our people, and to other people not of our religion.
“It’s such a blessing, really. I’m having goosebumps on my arms, just talking about it.”