He was persecuted, imprisoned and tortured and is now a Catholic priest

"It is incredible that, after so long," says Father Raphael Nguyen, "God has chosen me as a priest to serve him and others, especially the suffering."

“No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too ”. (John 15:20)

Father Raphael Nguyen, 68, has served as a pastor in the Diocese of Orange, California, since his ordination in 1996. Like Father Raphael, many Southern California priests were born and raised in Vietnam and came to the United States as refugees in a series of waves after the fall of Saigon to the Communists of North Vietnam in 1975.

Father Raphael was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Orange Norman McFarland at the age of 44, after a long and often painful struggle. Like many Vietnamese Catholic immigrants, he suffered from his faith at the hands of the Communist government of Vietnam, which banned his ordination in 1978. He was delighted to be ordained a priest and was relieved to serve in a free country.

At this time when socialism / communism is viewed favorably by many young Americans, it is helpful to hear the testimony of their father and remember the suffering that would await America if a communist system came to the United States.

Father Raphael was born in North Vietnam in 1952. For nearly a century the area had been under the control of the French government (then known as "French Indochina"), but was abandoned to the Japanese during World War II. Pro-Communist nationalists prevented attempts to reassert French authority in the region, and in 1954 the Communists took control of North Vietnam.

Less than 10% of the nation is Catholic and, along with the rich, Catholics have been subjected to persecution. Father Raphael recalled, for example, how these people were buried alive up to their necks and then beheaded with agricultural tools. To escape persecution, young Raphael and his family fled to the south.

In South Vietnam they enjoyed freedom, although he recalled that the war that developed between North and South “has always made us worry. We never felt safe. “He remembered waking up at 4 am at the age of 7 to serve Mass, a practice that helped spark his vocation. In 1963 he entered the minor seminary of the diocese of Long Xuyen and in 1971 the major seminary of Saigon.

While in the seminary, his life was in constant danger, as enemy bullets exploded nearby almost daily. He often taught catechism to young children and had them dip under the desks when the explosions got too close. By 1975, American forces had withdrawn from Vietnam and the southern resistance had been defeated. North Vietnamese forces took control of Saigon.

“The country collapsed”, recalled Father Raphael.

The seminarians accelerated their studies, and the father was forced to complete three years of theology and philosophy in one year. He began what was supposed to be a two-year internship and, in 1978, was to be ordained a priest.

The Communists, however, placed strict controls on the Church and did not allow Father Raphael or his fellow seminarians to be ordained. He said: "We had no freedom of religion in Vietnam!"

In 1981, his father was arrested for illegally teaching children religion and was imprisoned for 13 months. During this time, my father was sent to a forced labor camp in a Vietnamese jungle. He was forced to work long hours with little food and was severely beaten if he did not finish his assigned work for the day, or for any minor infraction of the rules.

“Sometimes I worked standing in the swamp with the water up to my chest, and the thick trees blocked the sun above,” recalls Father Raphael. Poisonous water snakes, leeches and wild boars were a constant danger to him and the other prisoners.

Men slept on the floors of rickety shacks, severely overcrowded. The tattered roofs offered little protection from rain. Father Raphael recalled the brutal treatment of prison guards ("they were like animals"), and sadly recalled how one of their brutal beatings took the life of one of his close friends.

There were two priests who celebrated mass and secretly listened to confessions. Father Raphael helped distribute Holy Communion to Catholic prisoners by hiding the hosts in a pack of cigarettes.

Father Raphael was released and in 1986 he decided to escape from the "great prison" that had become his Vietnamese homeland. With friends he secured a small boat and headed for Thailand, but with the rough sea the engine failed. To escape drowning, they returned to the Vietnamese coast, only to be captured by the Communist police. Father Raphael was imprisoned again, this time in a big city prison for 14 months.

This time the guards presented my father with a new torture: the electric shock. The electricity sent excruciating pain through his body and made him pass out. Upon awakening, he would remain in a vegetative state for a few minutes, not knowing who or where he was.

Despite his torments, Father Raphael describes the time spent in prison as "very precious".

"I prayed all the time and developed a close relationship with God. This helped me decide on my vocation."

The suffering of the prisoners aroused compassion in the heart of Father Raphael, who decided one day to return to the seminary.

In 1987, after being released from prison, he again secured a boat to escape to freedom. It was 33 feet long and 9 feet wide and would carry him and 33 other people, including children.

They left in rough seas and headed for Thailand. Along the way, they encountered a new danger: Thai pirates. Pirates were brutal opportunists, robbing refugee boats, sometimes killing men and raping women. Once a refugee boat arrived on the Thai coast, its occupants would receive protection from the Thai police, but at sea they were at the mercy of pirates.

Twice Father Raphael and his fellow fugitives encountered the pirates after dark and were able to turn off the lights of the boat and get past them. A third and final encounter occurred on the day the boat was within sight of the Thai mainland. With the pirates swooping down on them, Father Raphael, at the helm, turned the boat and returned to the sea. With the pirates in pursuit, he rode the boat in a circle about 100 yards across three times. This tactic repelled the attackers and the small boat successfully launched towards the mainland.

Safely ashore, his group was transferred to a Thai refugee camp in Panatnikhom, near Bangkok. He lived there for almost two years. Refugees have applied for asylum in several countries and waited for answers. Meanwhile, the occupants had little food, cramped accommodation and were forbidden to leave the camp.

"The conditions were terrible," he noted. “The frustration and misery have become so severe that some people have become desperate. There were about 10 suicides during my time there “.

Father Raphael did all he could, organizing regular prayer meetings and soliciting food for the most needy. In 1989 he was transferred to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where conditions have improved.

Six months later, he came to the United States. He first lived in Santa Ana, California, and studied computer science at a community college. He went to a Vietnamese priest for spiritual direction. He observed: "I prayed a lot to know the way to go".

Confident that God was calling him to be a priest, he met the diocesan director of vocations, Msgr. Daniel Murray. Msgr. Murray commented: “I was very impressed by him and his perseverance in his vocation. Faced with the difficulties he endured; many others would have surrendered “.

Mgr Murray also noted that other Vietnamese priests and seminarians in the diocese have suffered a fate similar to that of Father Raphael at the Communist government of Vietnam. One of the Orange pastors, for example, had been Father Raphael's seminary professor in Vietnam.

Father Raphael entered the Seminary of St. John in Camarillo in 1991. Although he knew some Latin, Greek and French, English was a struggle for him to learn. In 1996 he was ordained a priest. He recalled: "I was very, very happy".

My dad likes his new home in the US, even though it took some time to adjust to the culture shock. America enjoys greater wealth and freedom than Vietnam, but it lacks traditional Vietnamese culture which shows greater respect for elders and clergy. He says older Vietnamese immigrants are troubled by America's lax morality and mercantilism and its effects on their children.

He thinks the strong Vietnamese family structure and respect for the priesthood and authority have led to a disproportionate number of Vietnamese priests. And, citing the old adage "blood of martyrs, seed of Christians", he thinks that the communist persecution in Vietnam, as in the situation of the Church in Poland under communism, has led to a stronger faith among Vietnamese Catholics.

He was happy to serve as a priest. He said, "It is amazing that, after so long, God chose me to be a priest to serve him and others, especially the suffering."