Bishop Joseph Nguyen, who served Archdiocese of Vancouver for 24 years, steps into new role
The B.C. Catholic
KAMLOOPS
This brief story about the ordination of a new bishop for Kamloops will be followed by full coverage in a special commemorative edition of The B.C. Catholic next week.
The Diocese of Kamloops has witnessed the ordination of a bishop on its own soil for the first time in its 70-year history. Bishop Joseph Nguyen was ordained in the Sandman Centre in Kamloops, a few blocks away from Sacred Heart Cathedral, Aug. 25.
“Today, I begin a whole new part of my ministry,” said Bishop Nguyen as he took the podium after the solemn ceremony. “I greet in a very special way the clergy, religious, seminarians, and lay people of this great diocese of Kamloops. I am ordained for you. I come as your shepherd.”
The rural diocese includes 65 parishes and missions, including 30 churches on First Nations lands. It was established Dec. 22, 1945, and has since welcomed five bishops, not one ordained on its own soil.
Bishop Nguyen, stepping in as the sixth to replace retired Bishop David Monroe, has broken that trend. More than 2,000 guests from Canada, the United States, and Vietnam witnessed the historic occasion.
“Thank you for accepting this appointment from the Holy Father,” said Msgr. Fermin Sosa Rodriguez, speaking on behalf of Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, the papal nuncio to Canada.
Msgr. Rodriguez praised Bishop Nguyen for his “dramatic legacy” as a faithful young man who fled Vietnam as a refugee in 1987 to pursue his dreams of becoming a priest, and then serving the Archdiocese of Vancouver for 24 years. “I am confident that your personal experiences and sacrifices which have profoundly influenced your life as a priest will help you in your episcopal ministry, to achieve the goal of bringing Christ to those who are thirsty, who are uprooted and displaced, and who are in need of love and care,” he said.
“You will accompany them and enable them to overcome upheaval so they will rely increasingly upon the grace of God.”
Among the more than 2,000 guests were about 130 priests, including two former heads of the Diocese of Kamloops: Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI (1974-1982), and Bishop Monroe, who retired after turning 75 this year.
Bishop Monroe served the diocese, which spans 120,000 square kilometers of B.C. forest, desert, lake, and mountain, for 14 years. “He has lived his vocation in service, extraordinary service, as a servant leader. I am very deeply grateful,” Bishop Nguyen thanked his predecessor.
The new bishop then addressed the members of his diocese: “As a bishop, I am your shepherd. As a Catholic, I am your brother.”
