A citizen of war

Mike Sciacca

Hoang Trinh was born into an uncertain world during the war in

Vietnam.

Now, 33 years later, Trinh once again lives in a country at war in a

world that remains unsettled.

Trinh was born in Saigon in 1968. On Sept. 20, just nine days after

America came under attack he became a U.S. citizen.

“I feel very honored and thankful to be in this country,” Trinh said.

“There is no better feeling than that of freedom and the respect for

human dignity. I am so grateful.”

Trinh never knew that freedom while growing up in Vietnam.

He attended Catholic school at an early age and went on to graduate

from high school and college in Saigon, then taught math and physics at

the high school level.

In April 1975, when Saigon fell under Communist rule, Trinh’s father,

an officer in the Vietnam army, was jailed. He remained imprisoned for 10

years. Once he was released Trinh’s father escaped the country in 1987

and went to Thailand and the Philippines before finally coming to the

U.S. in 1987.

Trinh’s father actually was the first in the family to attain U.S.

citizenship. In 1992 Trinh came to the U.S. with his mother and five

siblings and settled in Westminster. He attended Golden West College,

then Laney College in Oakland, Cascade College in Portland, OR. and

finally went to the Franciscan Study in Old Mission San Miguel in central

California.

He studied at the Franciscan School of Theology for four years in

Berkeley and received his degree of the Master of Divinity in 2000.

“I had wanted to become a Franciscan friar at an early age because I

saw a friar help the poor in my village,” he said. “I joined the

Franciscan life when I was 17. I was an underground member -- a secret

friar. I enjoyed helping the poor, lepers and the orphans in Vietnam. It

was a wonderful ministry.”

Trinh said that, through “God’s plan,” he again became a Franciscan

friar in Aug. 1993. Then, after going through eight years of studying and

training, and five months prior to becoming a U.S. citizen, Trinh took

another oath: that of the priesthood.

He is now Father Hoang Trinh of the Franciscan order. He was ordained

this past May 5 at Sts. & Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach.

“That was such a wonderful feeling and a culmination of so much hard

work,” said Trinh, whose brother, Thai Paul, is a seminarian for the

diocese of Orange County.

Trinh presides over English masses at the church, which has a 99%

Anglo American population, he said.

“I am standing now on two feet -- Vietnamese and American,” he said.

“I am bilingual and I can work with Vietnamese and also with Americans.”

He said that as soon as he heard the news and saw video footage of the

terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., memories of his

growing up in Saigon came right back.

“It flashed before my eyes,” he said. “That is exactly what happened

in Vietnam. We could hear the bombs going off everywhere. The fear we

felt here in America on Sept. 11 is exactly the same fear we had in

Vietnam.”

After his ordination into the priesthood, Trinh visited his native

Vietnam for three weeks and returned to the U.S. with feelings of

sadness.

“It pained me to see people there working so hard, going hungry,” he

said. “There is discrimination there still, even though we all are

Vietnamese. Innocent people are being killed there, just like the

innocent people here who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.”

Trinh’s family now resides in Fountain Valley and he has found a home

at Sts. Simon & Jude. His easy smile and pleasant demeanor are inviting.

“I think he brings a lot of love here,” said parishioner Dee Wallace.

“He really does have a captivating, sincere smile. He really loves this

country and I think it speaks highly of him that he became a U.S. citizen

a few days after the attacks.”

Father Trinh went about his parish duties in the days following the

attacks, attending to wherever he was needed.

It was just about everywhere, too: he was the only priest “on duty,”

at the time.

* MIKE SCIACCA is the education and sports reporter. He can be reached

at (714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.