Pope Benedict’s third episcopal appointment to Australia in less than eight weeks is just the beginning, with several other dioceses due to receive appointments.
By Anthony Barich
Analysis
A VIETNAMESE refugee who fled Communism in 1980 as an 18 year old has been appointed as an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne.
Bishop-elect Fr Vincent Long Van Nguyen, 49, will become the second-youngest prelate in Australia when he is ordained as a bishop at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on 23 June.
“The appointment of Bishop Vincent as auxiliary in Melbourne is a historic one,” Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne said in a statement on 20 May.
“He escaped from Vietnam by boat as a young man, came to Melbourne, joined the Conventual Franciscans and has already given distinguished service as a pastor in Springvale, as a leader in his Order and has made a generous and gifted contribution to the Church.”
Born in 1961 in Gia-Kiem, Vietnam, he joined the diocesan minor seminary which was later disbanded by the Communist government. In 1980 he left the country on a refugee boat and joined the Conventual Franciscans in 1983 before making his solemn profession on 14 January 1989.
His family has been scattered since the fall of Saigon by the People’s Army of Vietnam in 1975, with three brothers in Holland, a sister still in Vietnam and his parents and a brother and a sister are in Melbourne.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 30 December, 1989, after which he was sent to Rome for further studies and was awarded a licentiate in Christology and Spirituality from the Pontifical Faculty of St Bonaventure (The Seraphicum) in 1994.
Fr Vincent has served as Assistant General of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual since 2008 after being elected Superior of the Order in Australia in 2005. In 2006 he was elected president of the Federation of Conventuals in Asia-Oceania.
He was appointed as the fourth Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, a position that became vacant when Bishop Christopher Prowse was appointed as Bishop of Sale, Victoria, in June 2009 by Pope Benedict.
Melbourne has three other Auxiliary Bishops – Bishop Peter Elliott, a convert from Anglicanism, Bishop Timothy Costelloe, a Salesian, and Bishop Les Tomlinson, the Archdiocesan Vicar General.
Fr Vincent’s appointment is the third in a series of episcopal positions that have or are due to become vacant in Australia in 2011.
He is already the third Bishop to be appointed to the episcopacy in Australia since 4 April, when the Pope appointed US-born Fr William Wright as Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle. The Pope appointed Fr Peter Comensoli, 47, a moral theologian, as an Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney on 20 April, as the youngest Australian prelate.
Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth tendered his resignation to the Pope just prior to his 75th birthday on 16 April, while Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane and Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart are also due to do the same as they turn 75 – the retirement age for Bishops – this year.
A replacement is also yet to be found for Bishop Joseph Grech of Sandhurst, who died suddenly on 28 December 2010 after a recurrence of a blood disorder.
The diocese of Armidale, New South Wales also needs a new Bishop after Bishop Luc Matthys, 76, tendered his resignation to the Apostolic Nuncio on his birthday last year – May 3.
The diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes, NSW, has had two apostolic administrators – Bishop Terry Brady and retired Bishop Kevin Manning – since the Pope accepted the early retirement of Bishop Christopher Toohey, 59, on 8 June, 2009 under Canon 401 §2 which concerns Bishops who have “become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause.”
On 28 April this year, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement from Bishop Toohey saying that, since retiring, he had time to reflect on his life.
“My behaviour within the context of my relationships with some young adults in my pastoral care during the early years of my ministry was not consistent with that required of a good person,” Bishop Toohey said.
“I sincerely regret the hurt I have caused to these people and their families. In the light of these reflections, I will not be returning to active ministry in the church.”
Pope Benedict also appointed Brisbane auxiliary Bishop Brian Finnigan as apostolic administrator of the Toowoomba diocese in northern Queensland after the pontiff removed Bishop William Morris for what the Australian bishops’ conference acknowledged were “doctrinal problems” on 2 May.