He was ordained in 2010 and served in a New Jersey parish before coming to South Carolina in 2011. Currently, he is parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Greenville, S.C. and coordinates Vietnamese ministry from his office at Greenville’s Our Lady of the Rosary Church, home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the diocese. Each weekend he travels to Rock Hill, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and other cities as needed to celebrate Mass in Vietnamese.
The hours are long and he puts many miles on his small car, but the work is worth it, he says, because he is sharing the love of God with people who need it.
“I asked to come here and work with the Vietnamese because I knew there was a need,” he said. “I have a passion for working with immigrants because I know they have struggled like I did with language barriers, with understanding how to integrate into American culture while still having a Vietnamese identity, and they still want to continue to worship in their own language.”
Faith has always been central in his life. Before he was born, his parents relocated to South Vietnam to escape persecution against Catholics in the North. He was the second of 10 children raised in a devout home, and said he first thought about becoming a priest while still in grade school.
That dream was put on hold for decades. The Phan family, like millions of others in South Vietnam, faced hardships and poverty after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Communist workers at one point forced them from their home, took their belongings and sent his father to prison.
One thing symbolized all they had lost: “My mom and dad had a cassette player they would play all the time, and one of the men stole it and used it at his house,” he said. “I was 12 or 13 at the time and when I was walking to church, I would pass his house and hear him playing music on that cassette player. I decided then I would like to escape somewhere I could find peace.”