My journey to Vietnam began on Tuesday evening, May 20, at 6:15 P.M. at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Phildelphia, where we picked up the bus which would drive us to JFK Airport in New York City. Then we were on the plane and ready to take off just before midnight. We then flew some 7 hours and stopped at Anchorage, Alaska. An hour or so later, we reboarded the plane and journeyed another 10 1/2 hours, landing at Taipei, Taiwan, at 6:30 A.M., May 22. Having crossed the International Date Line, we were exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Although we had only an hour to go through security again, transfer and board another plane, the airport and airline were again most efficient, and we were able to do so easily- I even had a few spare minutes to buy a Taiwanese phone card and phone my Philadelphia parish Rectory! We then began the final 3 hour leg of our journey, crossing one more time zone, and landing at Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon Airport) at 9:30 A.M. local time, Thursday, May 22.

It was a voyage that had literally taken us halfway around the world! I went through immigration and customs rather easily- though there was one anxious moment when it seemed to me the uniformed guard looked at me a bit suspiciously. I ventured outside into the tropical climate of southern Vietnam, and, true to his promise, “Cha Vang” (“FatherVang”) had a number of people (his sister, brother-in-law, and friend) waiting to pick me up and bring me into the city to lunch upon delicious bowls of pho soup, rice, vegetables, and meat. As I am with Father Vang at least once a year, I’ve had opportunities to practice eating with chopsticks. Sometimes I seem to be almost an expert, but a few seconds later, I become almost helpless!

My hosts then brought me to a wonderful diocesan parish in the Hoà Hưng section of District 10 of Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) City. “Cha Lam” was the pastor and a most gracious host. “Cha Lac” shepherded me around a couple of parts of the city that night and most of the next day. “Cha Huong” (the young associate priest curate) invited me out to breakfast the next morning- and took me to a restaurant on his motorbike! I was most touched, though, by my experience very early Friday morning.

I’m often an early riser, and I became awake in the diocesan parish Rectory around 4:30 A.M. But 15 minutes later, I heard the beautiful chant sounds of the Vietnamese Rosary emanating from the main church below. The daily Mass- Eucharist (another is offered in the late afternoon) is offered at 5 A.M.! I decided to go down and participate- not as a concelebrating priest, but as one of the congregation. I half-expected an attendance of 10, 20, perhaps 30 at most. Try over 8 times that maximum figure! 250 people participated in what was simply a normal, everyday, nothing-special, 30 minute, non-obligatory weekday Mass at 5 A.M.! How powerfully the Eucharistic Jesus has touched these faithful- and how movingly have they responded!

That night (Friday evening, May 23), I boarded a bus around 7:30 P.M. for an overnight, 12 hour bus trip north-northwest towards Pleiku. The ride was long but decent, and the people on the bus quiet and considerate. As the bus was not equipped with bathroom facilities, we stopped four times for that purpose-once at a major rest stop, but the other three times along deserted but bushy parts of the main highway!

When I arrived the next morning, sure enough, “Cha Vang” was waiting for me with other family and friends. We were whisked to an Immaculate Heart of Mary boarding school convent in the city- and we were there greeted and celebrated for Father Vang and my 25th ordination anniversary not much differently than if we were to have been Pope Benedict himself! We each received two huge, beautiful bouquets of yellow flowers, along with a decent-sized collection of native artifacts. I think our readers would agree that this was quite appropriate for “Cha Vang,” but for myself as a simple guest and priest-classmate?- I was awed and humbled! The young ladies in the boarding school then sang several songs and performed simple, modest spiritual dances, after which we sat down to a large, sumptuous breakfast.

That afternoon, we took a taxi to a rather distant Redemptorist parish church and campground for 400 Montagnard young people. It is in the area called “Chu Liet.” The 400 children and youth who attended are “living fruits” of your generosity which this year has supplied education for more than 1400 Montagnard youngsters, a good number of whom are children of lepers (Hansen’s disease) or even lepers themselves. They were gathered and crammed neatly- 20 apiece- underneath some 20 functional blue color tents which might normally fit a U.S. American family of four. Each of the 20 “tent groups”
had a leader, and these 20 leaders gave a “military-like” docility to one or more parish church leaders. They were involved in all kinds of games and activities, and were very friendly and smiling.

One of the adult leaders of this “holy jamboree” had been arrested only the night before; however (thanks be to God!), he was released the next day, albeit with a fine of 500,000 Vietnamese dong (this is a little over $30 U.S. dollars, but could also represent 2 weeks or even a month’s wages for working poor people in this area). The Communist government authorities in this “Central Highlands” area are very much committed to control and are suspicious of large group gatherings, particularly with ethnic minorities such as the Montagnards; under these circumstances, the fact that this was the only governmental “disruption” of the huge weekend proceeding (and a huge memorial gathering and Memorial Mass Monday night and Tuesday morning for a beloved Redemptorist pastor) seemed to this writer to be a tremendous grace and even a sign of hope.

Saturday afternoon (May 24) was full of activities for the youngsters, and closed with an evening Mass. But this was just the “jamboree-jubilee engine”
in “first gear.” Sunday was the “second gear,” and began with all of the 400 youth going and acting in a second campsite, and then moving towards a lake. They were supposed to simulate the “crossing of the Red Sea” at the lake, and, sure enough, “Cha Vang” asked me and a couple of other adults to be in a race with the groups to “cross the Sea”- a great way to muddy my dark trousers! Activities continued throughout Sunday, with each of the 20 groups’ leaders giving a classic “poster-board” summation of a drawing on a particular Catholic spiritual theme. Although I could not understand the presentations, given my dearth of knowledge of Vietnamese (though I did pick up the Vietnamese equivalents for the numbers 1 through 20, and also the words for “group” and “applause”), I could clearly grasp that a significant number of the leaders were very articulate, and their presentations also evidenced a strong Catholic Christian faith.

After this, in the late afternoon, came the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, particularly appropriate because it was the feast of “Corpus Christi,”
celebrating the Catholic belief that “bread wafers” and “wine” consecrated and received at Mass are actually, substantially, truly changed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I had thought that the Mass would be in Vietnamese, and I came all prepared with my Vietnamese missalette from our parish in Philadelphia, and my Viet-English dictionary. Surprise! The entire service prayers were given in Montagnard, or “Jaral”- which is the way I believe the tribespeople term it. And it is very different from Vietnamese, although the readings and “Cha Vang’s” sermon were also stated in the latter language.
I would like to say a couple of words here about the work of the Redemptorist besides Father Vang with the Montagnards.

Father James R Cascione, CSsR