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Origins of the Vietnamese Community at St. Adalbert Church, St. Paul

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Children inside St. Adalbert's Church in St. Paul, ca. 1996. From Wing Young Huie's Frogtown: Photographs and Conversations in an Urban Neighborhood (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1996), 117. Used with the permission of Wing Young Huie.

The Vietnamese Catholic community at St. Adalbert Church in St. Paul (265 Charles Avenue) began growing in 1990, after Father Tim Kernan sponsored two Vietnamese families. Between 1990 and 2003, that community flourished due to increased immigration, a strong sense of faith, and the desire to maintain Vietnamese heritage in the youth being born in Minnesota.

The Vietnamese families that settled in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood came at the end of the second wave and the beginning of the third wave of Vietnamese immigration to the US. Most immigrants in the first wave were Vietnamese military or government personnel who had worked closely with the US government during the Vietnam War and escaped after the Fall of Saigon (1975). The second wave (late 1970s) consisted of refugees escaping from communist rule, and the third (1980s–1990s) was made up of people reunited through family-sponsored programs. Two refugees in this last wave, Khuong Trieu and Thuat Nguyen, moved to Minnesota in 1989 to join the congregation at St. Adalbert after they were sponsored by Father Tim Kernan and Maggie Rein, a nun at the parish.

In the early 1990, St. Adalbert’s Vietnamese community was a mix of families sponsored by the church and those relocated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Orderly Departure Program (ODP), as well as the subprogram Humanitarian Operation (HO). The HO program was specifically for former reeducation camp prisoners to immigrate to the US.

In order to help Vietnamese families maintain their faith, Father Tim worked with a priest from St. Joseph Hien, a prominent Vietnamese Catholic Community in Minneapolis, to hold Vietnamese mass at St. Adalbert. At the time, St Joseph Hien Church celebrated the only Vietnamese-language mass in Minnesota. Starting in 1993, Father Matthias Chuong came every other week to St. Adalbert to host mass in Vietnamese.

As St. Paul’s Vietnamese population continued to grow between 1990 and 1994, St. Adalbert was assigned a temporary associate Vietnamese pastor: Cha Le Quang Peter (Father Peter Quang Le). Father Tim and Vietnamese leaders encouraged the intermingling of the original, primarily Polish parish with the new and growing Vietnamese parish.

In 1995, the Vietnamese community at St. Adalbert held its first annual celebration of Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), and by 1996, there were 200 Vietnamese families attending mass there. When Cha Peter left in 1997 due to differences with Father Tim, the Vietnamese community and Vietnamese leadership expressed concerns about who would take over Vietnamese mass. In response, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis assigned two temporary Vietnamese priests, Father Minh Vu and Father Son Nguyen, to hold Vietnamese mass at St. Adalbert.

St. Adalbert Church struggled financially in the 1990s. When Father Tim passed away in 2001, the Vietnamese community requested that the archdiocese install Father Minh Vu (Cha Minh) as the first Vietnamese pastor of St. Adalbert. His mission began with reviving the congregation’s finances, improving church facilities, and strengthening the Vietnamese community’s ties to their heritage.

To climb out of the debt, Cha Minh got creative with fundraising. He encouraged weekly donations and asked parishioners to bring in their recyclables to the church in order to meet operating expenses. He continued to grow the celebration of Tết, and the Vietnamese community came together to sell bánh chưng and bánh tét during the holiday. In the late summer and early fall he promoted Hội Chợ Hè—a summer festival where vendors sell Vietnamese food to fundraise and share Vietnamese culture.

In the fall of September 2002, with the support of the Vietnamese families of Cha Minh and Anh Tu from the neighboring Vietnamese churches of St. Columba and St. Joseph Hien, the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement (Thiếu Nhi Thánh Thể) began at St. Adalbert Church. The group provided a gathering time and space for Vietnamese American Catholic youth.

In 2003, workers renovated St. Adalbert’s basement to add bathrooms, another stairwell, and a new elevator. The church also added a PA system, a projector, and screens to better assist in delivering mass. In a newsletter, Cha Minh explained that the changes would make the basement a better and more accessible hosting venue for everyone in the community. The renovations were finished in October of 2003.

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Kernan, Tim. "Kernan’s Korner." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, December 15, 1991.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner, Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, September 13, 1992.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, January 31, 1993.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, July 11, 1993.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner, Christ the King." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, November 20, 1994.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner, First Sunday in Advent." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, December 1, 1996.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner, Sixth Sunday of Easter." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, May 4, 1997.

——— . "Kernan’s Korner, Seventh Sunday of Easter." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, May 11, 1997.

Le, Peter Quang. "Address from Father Peter Quang Le." St. Adalbert Church directory, 1996.

Metropolitan Design Center. “Discovering Frogtown: A Contextual Evaluation of the Wilder Foundation Site,” 2011.
https://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/View2/67510.pdf

Pham, Helen. Conversation with the author, September 15, 2024.

Pham, Sarah. Conversation with the author, April 20, 2024.

Rein, Maggie. "Thoughts From Maggie, Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, July 12, 1992.

Rice, Noah Hải Lâm. “Có Chí Thì Nên: Vietnamese Immigrants Explore a New Home in Minnesota after the Fall of Saigon: International Journal of Naval History.” International Journal of Naval History 13, no. 2 (November 18, 2016).
https://www.ijnhonline.org/co-chi-thi-nen-vietnamese-immigrants-explore-a-new-home-in-minnesota-after-the-fall-of-saigon

Tran, Di. “The Waves of Vietnamese Immigration to the United States: Characteristics and Settlement Patterns (1975–Present).” Việt Báo (Louisville, KY), February 10, 2023.
https://vietbaolouisville.com/2023/02/the-waves-of-vietnamese-immigration-to-the-united-states-characteristics-and-settlement-patterns-1975-present

Vietnamese Americans Subject Guide. Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, October 23, 2013.
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/resources/vietnamese-american.php

Vu, Cha (Father) Minh. Conversation with the author, June 12, 2024.

Vu, Minh. "From Our Pastor, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, January 27, 2002.

——— . "From Our Pastor, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, July 28, 2002.

——— . "From Our Pastor, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, January 19, 2003.

——— . "From Our Pastor, Sixth Sunday of Easter." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, May 25, 2003.

——— . "From Our Pastor, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time." Catholic Community of St. Adalbert Newsletter, October 26, 2003.

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Turning Point

Father Tim Kernan sponsors two Vietnamese families coming to the US in 1990, opening the door for St. Adalbert Church in St. Paul to become a gathering space for Vietnamese families immigrating to Minnesota in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Chronology

December 1990

Father Tim Kernan and Maggie Rein of St. Adalbert help the families of Khuong Trieu and Thuat Nguyen come to Minnesota. They move them into the Frogtown neighborhood and the St. Adalbert Catholic community.

August/ September 1992

Father Tim Kernan begins to hold scripture readings in both Vietnamese and English during Sunday mass.

December 1992

Cha Bau from the St. Joseph Hien community comes to St. Adalbert to hold mass in Vietnamese.

September 1994

Father Peter Quang Le becomes an associate pastor at St. Adalbert, co-working with Father Tim Kernan to foster the Vietnamese Catholic community.

January 1995

Father Tim Kernan addresses the international/multi-cultural aspect of St. Adalbert. He sees it as cause for celebration that the church can integrate communities rather than separate them..

1995

St. Adalbert hosts its first annual Vietnamese New Year celebration.

1996

The St. Adalbert Church Directory is published for community members. It is the first version to include Vietnamese families.

April 1997

Father Peter Quang Le leaves, surprising St. Adalbert members. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis assigns temporary Vietnamese priests to the church to serve the Vietnamese community’s needs.

May 1997

The archdiocese assigns Cha Son Nguyen to St. Adalbert.

April 1999

Cha Son leaves St. Adalbert to return to California.

July 2001

Cha Minh Vu becomes the first Vietnamese priest to be installed as the pastor of St. Adalbert.

July 2001

Cha Minh Vu becomes the first Vietnamese priest to be installed as the pastor of St. Adalbert.

Summer 2002

Cha Minh and the community rally together to hold a Hội Chợ Hè (summer festival) for fundraising for St. Adalbert Church.

September 2002

With the help of Cha Minh and Anh Tu from St. Columba as well as the support of Vietnamese parishioners, St. Adalbert starts a youth group tied to the national Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement (Thiếu Nhi Thánh Thể) to support the community’s youth.

January 2003

Congregants sell traditional bánh chưng and bánh tét during celebrations of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The sale raises money to support daily operations, and to add bathrooms to the church’s basement.

October 2003

Renovations to the church are completed.