Father James Farfaglia Reports From Rome: 'Meeting Happy Priests along the Way'

When I met Father Dat, I was immediately struck by his happiness and enthusiasm. As I spoke with Father Dat, I was reminded of a common denominator that I always notice among priests that are in Father Dat's age group:  these are the priests of the John Paul II generation.  They are happy, dynamic and healthy young men who love being Catholic priests. 

Special: Father James Farfaglia Reports From Rome: 'Meeting Happy Priests along the Way' ROME (Catholic Online) - (Editors Note: Fr. James Farfaglia is a contributing writer for Catholic Online who is attending the closing sessions for the year for priests. He is on a pilgrimage, filing updates for Catholic Online along his way. We ask our readers around the globe to pray for Father James and all priests.) Father Richard Libby, a friend of mine from the Diocese of Corpus Christi and I are attending the closing events for the Year for Priests in Rome.  On Thursday we flew to Rome from Houston.  On Wednesday night we stayed over at St. Mary's seminary in order to be close to the airport.  Father Dat Hoang, the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston was our host. When I met Father Dat, I was immediately struck by his happiness and enthusiasm.  Father Richard and I joined Father Dat for breakfast before we left for our flight, and I was right.  Father Dat has a great story. Dat Hoang was born in a small Vietnamese village on February 8, 1976.  The war had just ended.  Dat always wanted to be a priest and when he was only ten years old, his father, a devout Catholic who had been imprisoned for five years, took his son to see the Bishop. "Forget it", said the Bishop of Xuan Loc.  "If you want to be a priest you have to leave the country." Dat's family began to save money so that he could travel to the United States.  At twelve years old, Dat began a perilous journey to the unknown.  As the little boat that he was on travelled to Thailand, they were attacked by pirates who stole all of their money and belongings.  Destitute, Dat found refuge in a hut with forty other people.  Now homeless and penniless, the refugees survived by begging for food.  Ten weeks later, Dat was processed to a refugee camp in Cambodia where he remained for another five months.  Father John Tuan Hoang, Dat's uncle, was already in Houston.  At that time he was the associate pastor of Houston's Notre Dame Parish.  In 1990 Dat arrived to Houston and lived with other relatives who were in the U.S. as well. Without speaking a word of English, Dat immersed himself into a public high school.  He was determined to learn English, so he made a firm decision not to hang around any of the other Vietnamese students.  "I wanted to learn the language, so I forced myself to only speak English." "I fell in love a few times in high school", Dat told me with a smile.  "But, I always wanted to be a priest."  He knew that although married love was very beautiful indeed, he was being called to stretch his heart through the charism of celibacy. 

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Upon finishing four years of high school, Dat began his studies for the Catholic priesthood.  He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston by Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza on May 17, 2003. As I spoke with Father Dat, I was reminded of a common denominator that I always notice among priests that are in Father Dat's age group:  these are the priests of the John Paul II generation.  They are happy, dynamic and healthy young men who love being Catholic priests.  Is there any wonder that Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, would ask Father Dat to recruit other young men to the Catholic priesthood?

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Father James Farfaglia is the pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Father has a hard hitting blog calledIllegitimi non carborundum.  He has also published a book called Man to Man: A Real Priest Speaks to Real Men about Marriage, Sexuality and Family Life.  You can contact Father at fjficthus@gmail.com.

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