On Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Priest Shares His Own Quest for Freedom

Story by Shelley Wolf

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the “Fall of Saigon” – April 30, 1975 – when the Communist North Vietnamese overtook the capital city of South Vietnam. While it’s celebrated today as “Reunification Day” in the now united country of Vietnam, it continues to be a sad day for many Vietnamese Catholics living here in the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Father Tuan Anh Dinh Mai, known as Father Andy Mai, says for him the day conjures up images of people oppressed by Communism, escaping by boat, and of families mourning the loss of loved ones who died trying to escape.

“In Vietnam they celebrate the victory over the United States,” he says. “But for the people who have escaped from Vietnam, that’s a sad day for us because we had to escape the country – we had to leave for freedom and for freedom of religion as well.”

Father Mai is among those who left their homeland on a quest for personal, political and religious freedom. Today he is the pastor of St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc Parish, a Vietnamese Catholic community that worships at St. Mark the Evangelist Church, part of the larger Gianna Molla Beretta Parish in West Hartford.

He says he came to the U.S. in 2009, just 11 years ago, at the age of 33 “for family and my vocation.” At that time his family was living in Omaha, Nebraska, and he wanted to join them and be free to serve as a Catholic priest in a free land.

The young “Andy” was born in Vietnam in 1977 – just two years after the Fall of Saigon – into a country fully controlled by the Communist government. His family was not held in favor, he says, since his father had served in the South Vietnamese military, his grandparents worked for a U.S. company and his family was “very, very Catholic.”

Of his Communist-run homeland he says, “They don’t let you have a job, don’t want children learning more by going to college, and they don’t want you becoming a priest. They just worry. They think we won’t really obey them, we’ll want to make freedom again for religion and for the country.”

With no opportunity to work or to practice their faith, Father Mai and his family tried to escape from Vietnam by boat. “I tried to escape three times and my parents, too, but we didn’t make it,” he recalls.

Yet his faith in God gave him hope. ‘“With God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). This is my favorite guide,” the priest says today. “I put all my intentions in God’s will and asked him: If it is your will Lord, let my family and I remain always faithful to you and protect us with your ways.”

Fortunately, Father Mai’s brother was accepted into the U.S. in 1985 as a refugee and was relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, where he obtained citizenship in 2001 and sponsored their parents. After 7 years, Father Mai’s parents sponsored his sister and his other brother.

By 2007, Father Mai was studying in a seminary in Vietnam, but when the opportunity came in 2009 for him to come to the U.S. as a refugee, he took it. His family in the U.S. sponsored him. “So that’s why I’m here,” he says. “I knew no English but the Archdiocese of Hartford supported me to learn English and to continue with my vocation.”

While his family still lives in Nebraska, Father Mai has been with the archdiocese since he arrived in this country, learning English at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell and attending Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland. He was ordained in 2014. After serving in parishes in Manchester and Windsor, he was installed February 2019 as pastor of St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc Parish in West Hartford to shepherd the local Catholic Vietnamese community.

In just one year, he has overseen the quasi-parish’s growth from 180 registered families to 250. “We have more and more new faces every week,” he says.

To accommodate that growth, he added a second Vietnamese Mass at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, which is followed by a full day of activities including Vietnamese language classes, religious education classes, children’s games and songs, another Mass at 2:30 p.m., and Vietnamese dancing and choir practice.

“They are just crazy for Sunday,” he says of his parish community. “I work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. It’s not a good day for me to do anything else besides going to church,” he adds with a laugh.

“I’m so happy to be here in the archdiocese to do my mission,” Father Mai says. “This is my home, and I have a responsibility to build my home here.”