If you are a Vietnamese Catholic living in South Carolina, odds are you know Fr. David Phan, OFM.
The vicar for the Vietnamese Catholic community in the Diocese of Charleston, Fr. David’s ministry extends across the state, from Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Greenville, Columbia and Rock Hill, where he ministers to pockets of Vietnamese Catholics.
He does the sacramental ministry for a particularly devout community.

Vietnamese in South Carolina, as they are in much of the rest of the country, have their roots in the mid-1970s upheaval during the takeover of their native land by the Communist victors in the war, sending hundreds of thousands off as boat people seeking refuge.
It’s family that has kept the community together, says Fr. Phan. It’s also family that creates tensions in an immigrant community as well.
His social ministry role is often to patch up differences within families or to help individuals escape conflicts through the independence of a job or a rental housing. As political tensions have eased, there is more movement between Vietnamese in the diaspora and those in Vietnam.
Pastoral approaches differ in the immigrant community, says Fr. David.

“Our faith is different than that of Westerners,” he says, noting that Vietnamese Catholics are known for an often unquestioning fidelity. It’s important for them to have an ethnic parish, he says. Vietnamese Catholics have their faith roots in the work of Spanish and French missionaries, combined with the native culture.
“They have a place where they can feel at home,” he says about the parish communities where he ministers.
It has now been decades since the resettlement of many Vietnamese, largely considered a success story.
Now there are younger generations, many of whom don’t speak the language of their parents and grandparents, and have sporadic knowledge of their cultural roots. Fr. David has addressed those concerns with regular mission trips back to Vietnam, during which young Vietnamese Americans from South Carolina can see village life back home. The volunteers often teach English, a language considered a gateway to international commerce and advancement.
The young people who return to South Carolina are changed, says Fr. David.
“They can see the values, they can see the culture,” he says.
The friar is particularly well-situated to know first-hand the cultural tensions between immigrant life and the experience of becoming American.
At age 15, Fr. David left Vietnam on a boat, lived in a refugee camp in the Philippines, and paved the way for his own family to come to the United States. He knows the burdens faced by young people who become that bridge.
His family’s struggles were long and arduous, but they clung to their Catholic faith through persecution and hardship.
His parents left the North Vietnam communist state for the South because it offered a refuge to Catholics, only to be targeted again when South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975.
Young David, their second son, was five years old at the time.
At the age of 15 in 1985, David, tired of a life that seemed increasingly hopeless, made the painful decision to separate himself from his family. He got himself on a boat to the Philippines with eight others, none of whom were part of his family. Phan eventually was resettled in Oregon through Catholic Charities. His older brother later joined him.

As he went through a series of foster homes, Phan pursued the goal of eventually reuniting his family. He studied civil engineering at the University of Oregon and the University of Portland before landing work in automobile airbag technology. All the time, his faith pulled him in the direction of a religious vocation.
“I felt I got a calling when I was a kid. But my family was poor and I had to take care of them,” he said. They all were eventually able to settle in the United States as refugees. As his family became settled, Phan began seeking his dream to become a religious.
While working in Oregon, he sought out the Franciscans, entering the Holy Name Province in 2000. Ten years later, he was ordained a priest and was assigned to a parish on Long Beach Island on the New Jersey Shore until beginning his ministry to the Vietnamese community in South Carolina.
Of the 10 Phan siblings, four have chosen religious life, including Father Phan and his brother, who are Franciscans. Fr. Phan sought out the Franciscans because “St. Francis captured my imagination.” The Franciscan charism to minister to the poor reflected his own life as a refugee without a home.
“The Franciscans work on many levels,” he says, marking off a long list. “Education. Ministry. The life of community. Work and prayer life.” He sees himself, after having provided refuge for his family, reaching out beyond, living the Franciscan values of simplicity and care for the poor.
Photo courtesy of: www.frvirgilcordanocenter.org and www.daughtersofcharity.com