Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s an emotion for me to be able to preach the Holy Gospel of this Lent in this Cathedral. I…I acknowledge that before the magnificence and splendor of this chuch in comparison with the poor aspect of the parish assigned to me on the High Lands, I see an immense and incomparable differencẹ So, I am really quite “frightened” (laughs). When speaking about the Kontum Diocese could you guess how I am proud to say that my parish is in the first place in everything: it’s the biggest parish with largest number of the montagnards (mountain dwellers) and people coming from all parts of our countrỵ It’s has the most forests and mountains and finally, it’s… the poorest (laughs)

  

I have been ordained 30 years ago, I would like to introduce myself to yoụ As your pastor has just said: I am among the youngest of the Kontum Diocese priests. And I am just about 61 this year(laughs). From the Liberation Day to today, the Kontum Diocese has 4 new priests and the sum of priests in the whole Diocese is 30, but when these 4 priests were joining us, 7 others died. Most of them are very old, so, dear brothers and sisters, we are going severely short of priests…(quiet)

In sum, I am among the youngest, though rather old and I was never hospitalized nor had to take any drugs yet. Therefore I must pink on me evrerything. At my parish Sa Thay, there are 4 priests: the pastor, 77 years old, is very weak. We still have 2 priests but one stays in bed and the other has a cancer in the last phasẹ  So, there is only me left(laughs)

  

The priests are old and weak, with all kinds of deseases: lumbago; paralysis; cancer; diabetes … Therefore the works are numerous, yes, numerous but it’s interesting, very interesting. On a radius of 70 km from the Kontum Province center is our parish and I can walk to my liking until being tired.  We are very pleased because we can make ourselves useful to many peoplẹ You certainly know that Kontum has the largest number of lepers in Vietnam and since I am the youngest priest, I was then assigned to take care of them. Therefore I see them frequentlỵ As I have just told you: the Kontum Diocese has 180 thousand Catholics and 70% of them are the Montagnards, living here and therẹ  Walking only from parish to parish could make you tired, all the more reason going seing the ill people while there is only me to do it.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the people living there are very poor, maybe the poorest in our countrỵ I remember once I visited a villagẹ  The old Chief of the village said to me: “Hey, Bab, You say that I am poor? No, you, “Koâ, Baa”, are the poorman, because Ba are unhappỵ We are too poor.  We used to be poor and when we are always poor, we don’t feel any longer poor.  Unhappy are we, let’s be poor!!!” (the montagnards call catholic priests Bab)(quiet). Once I had to walk 12 km to reach a Montagnard villagẹ With the tradition they make a cottage in the jungle for the lepers because these victims have not the right to live together with the other villagers. What can they do more than a poor hut for the lepers while their own house are not well built at all? It’s looks like a nest rather than a house because it can not withstand a rain season.

Each time I come in the hut, I must bend down. Seeing me coming with them, they are very joyful. Dear Sisters and Brothers, they look at me and laugh. They say: “it’s precious, you come to see us. We are very pleased”. They laugh but, dear Sisters and Brothers, I am in tears (tears) (so did all the people in the Cathedral). They are so poor and leprous, therefore when I give them something that my parishioners have brought to me, they keep it tightly against their brest, in fear that anyone will take it away (tears. Once I heard a leper talk to me when I came in his “house”: Bab, give me a sheet, no, a piece of nylon. Give it to me if you have got some, just a little piece so that I could cover my sleeping placẹ Bab, it rains well in these days and the roof of my hut is leaking everywherẹ I was so wet, so cold that I could not sleep, Bab” (tears)

 

They’re very pitiful, dear Sisters and Brothers, poor and no education at the same time, they can not be rich. They can only count until 100, not morẹ Could you imagine, dear Sisters and Brothers, that, having in hand a 100 DONG bill. They don’t know how much left after having spent 37,000 DONG to buy a bottle of nuoc-mam (fish sauce). They receive what people give them back without any questions.  Poor and no education at the same time, how could they be rich?  They survive depending on what brought to them by their land.  Every time I went from the city to see them, I tried to find where I could buy some food at the lowest price for them. For example, I see a kilo of ruoc (small and salted shrimp) costs here 20000 DONG but it costs only 7000 at Phan Thiet.

I have some experience because I am one of those poor inhabitants of Binh-Dinh Province who wander to Kontum in search for living. Many people from all parts of our country: Northern, Southern or Central,came to Kontum. They were all together poor but very kind. When I need their help, they came at once to my assistance though they were poor.  I wander around the country in begging fish, dried cooked rice, salt or I bought them when they were at the cheapest pricẹ Many friends of mine said: “we saved some money for yoụ Buy something for your poor people”. 

Then, I bought many inexpensive things and divided them into the little packages. For example, there is one kilo the dried fish in each packagẹ I brought them to  the poor people and they were overjoyced. When coming to a village and having given out gifts, I packed again some fish left over in the transparent paper. The children in the village followed me and stared at these packages. They seemed yearning for it but they did dare to say anything. I ask them: “do you want it?”. They bowed their head. I stopped my car and gave them all these last packages of dried fish.  They stared at me, keeping the packet of fish tighly with hands and asked me continually:

  -Bab, is it really for mẻ

  -Yes, Bab give it to yoụ

  -Bab give it reallỷ Is it true that Bab give it to mẻ?

Dear Sisters and Brothers, you should come in these regions to see the inhabitants’s extreme povertỵ I wonder if I give you as a gift these packets of dried fish, you would say that this priest is crazy!

Yes, dear Sisters and Brothers, we help the poor people as we could, not much, just each of you give a little bit. Only a little bit: with a piece of nylon, a kilo of dried fish, you’ll help them much in their poor life and they will be full of joy

Dear Sisters and Brothers, I hope  we’ll live better in this Lent season and we are worthy of God’s sacrificẹ

Amen

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s an emotion for me to be able to preach the Holy Gospel of this Lent in this Cathedral. I…I acknowledge that before the magnificence and splendor of this chuch in comparison with the poor aspect of the parish assigned to me on the High Lands, I see an immense and incomparable differencẹ So, I am really quite “frightened” (laughs). When speaking about the Kontum Diocese could you guess how I am proud to say that my parish is in the first place in everything: it’s the biggest parish with largest number of the montagnards (mountain dwellers) and people coming from all parts of our countrỵ It’s has the most forests and mountains and finally, it’s… the poorest (laughs)

  

I have been ordained 30 years ago, I would like to introduce myself to yoụ As your pastor has just said: I am among the youngest of the Kontum Diocese priests. And I am just about 61 this year(laughs). From the Liberation Day to today, the Kontum Diocese has 4 new priests and the sum of priests in the whole Diocese is 30, but when these 4 priests were joining us, 7 others died. Most of them are very old, so, dear brothers and sisters, we are going severely short of priests…(quiet)

In sum, I am among the youngest, though rather old and I was never hospitalized nor had to take any drugs yet. Therefore I must pink on me evrerything. At my parish Sa Thay, there are 4 priests: the pastor, 77 years old, is very weak. We still have 2 priests but one stays in bed and the other has a cancer in the last phasẹ  So, there is only me left(laughs)

  

The priests are old and weak, with all kinds of deseases: lumbago; paralysis; cancer; diabetes … Therefore the works are numerous, yes, numerous but it’s interesting, very interesting. On a radius of 70 km from the Kontum Province center is our parish and I can walk to my liking until being tired.  We are very pleased because we can make ourselves useful to many peoplẹ You certainly know that Kontum has the largest number of lepers in Vietnam and since I am the youngest priest, I was then assigned to take care of them. Therefore I see them frequentlỵ As I have just told you: the Kontum Diocese has 180 thousand Catholics and 70% of them are the Montagnards, living here and therẹ  Walking only from parish to parish could make you tired, all the more reason going seing the ill people while there is only me to do it.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the people living there are very poor, maybe the poorest in our countrỵ I remember once I visited a villagẹ  The old Chief of the village said to me: “Hey, Bab, You say that I am poor? No, you, “Koâ, Baa”, are the poorman, because Ba are unhappỵ We are too poor.  We used to be poor and when we are always poor, we don’t feel any longer poor.  Unhappy are we, let’s be poor!!!” (the montagnards call catholic priests Bab)(quiet). Once I had to walk 12 km to reach a Montagnard villagẹ With the tradition they make a cottage in the jungle for the lepers because these victims have not the right to live together with the other villagers. What can they do more than a poor hut for the lepers while their own house are not well built at all? It’s looks like a nest rather than a house because it can not withstand a rain season.

Each time I come in the hut, I must bend down. Seeing me coming with them, they are very joyful. Dear Sisters and Brothers, they look at me and laugh. They say: “it’s precious, you come to see us. We are very pleased”. They laugh but, dear Sisters and Brothers, I am in tears (tears) (so did all the people in the Cathedral). They are so poor and leprous, therefore when I give them something that my parishioners have brought to me, they keep it tightly against their brest, in fear that anyone will take it away (tears. Once I heard a leper talk to me when I came in his “house”: Bab, give me a sheet, no, a piece of nylon. Give it to me if you have got some, just a little piece so that I could cover my sleeping placẹ Bab, it rains well in these days and the roof of my hut is leaking everywherẹ I was so wet, so cold that I could not sleep, Bab” (tears)

 

They’re very pitiful, dear Sisters and Brothers, poor and no education at the same time, they can not be rich. They can only count until 100, not morẹ Could you imagine, dear Sisters and Brothers, that, having in hand a 100 DONG bill. They don’t know how much left after having spent 37,000 DONG to buy a bottle of nuoc-mam (fish sauce). They receive what people give them back without any questions.  Poor and no education at the same time, how could they be rich?  They survive depending on what brought to them by their land.  Every time I went from the city to see them, I tried to find where I could buy some food at the lowest price for them. For example, I see a kilo of ruoc (small and salted shrimp) costs here 20000 DONG but it costs only 7000 at Phan Thiet.

I have some experience because I am one of those poor inhabitants of Binh-Dinh Province who wander to Kontum in search for living. Many people from all parts of our country: Northern, Southern or Central,came to Kontum. They were all together poor but very kind. When I need their help, they came at once to my assistance though they were poor.  I wander around the country in begging fish, dried cooked rice, salt or I bought them when they were at the cheapest pricẹ Many friends of mine said: “we saved some money for yoụ Buy something for your poor people”. 

Then, I bought many inexpensive things and divided them into the little packages. For example, there is one kilo the dried fish in each packagẹ I brought them to  the poor people and they were overjoyced. When coming to a village and having given out gifts, I packed again some fish left over in the transparent paper. The children in the village followed me and stared at these packages. They seemed yearning for it but they did dare to say anything. I ask them: “do you want it?”. They bowed their head. I stopped my car and gave them all these last packages of dried fish.  They stared at me, keeping the packet of fish tighly with hands and asked me continually:

  -Bab, is it really for mẻ

  -Yes, Bab give it to yoụ

  -Bab give it reallỷ Is it true that Bab give it to mẻ?

Dear Sisters and Brothers, you should come in these regions to see the inhabitants’s extreme povertỵ I wonder if I give you as a gift these packets of dried fish, you would say that this priest is crazy!

Yes, dear Sisters and Brothers, we help the poor people as we could, not much, just each of you give a little bit. Only a little bit: with a piece of nylon, a kilo of dried fish, you’ll help them much in their poor life and they will be full of joy

Dear Sisters and Brothers, I hope  we’ll live better in this Lent season and we are worthy of God’s sacrificẹ

Amen