On May 31, Archbishop José H. Gomez will ordain eight new priests for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
In the days leading up to their ordination, we’ll be introducing them all.
Age: 40
Hometown: Vietnam
Home parish: Our Lady of Loretto Church, Los Angeles
Parish assignment: St. Joseph the Worker Church, Winnetka
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When Quoc Vo was a kid, his mother would take him to daily Mass.
At 4 a.m. Every day.
He began noticing the priest, and his mother asked if he’d like to be one someday.
“I said, ‘No, no. I don’t want to wake up every day at 4 a.m.,’ ” Vo said.
A few years later, his mother got sick, but no one could figure out what was causing it. They went on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of La Vang shrine in Vietnam, and shortly after, they discovered the source of her sickness: a tumor.
His mother went into surgery and his grandmother came over to watch Vo and his older brother. As his father’s side of the family was Buddhist, his grandmother was not Catholic.
But seeing the shrine in their home to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, his grandmother prayed to save her daughter-in-law, not even knowing their names, simply addressing them as “sir” and “lady.”
Seeing this example, Vo too made a promise: If God would save his mother, he would become a priest.
His mother was healed.
But as they say: Promises made, promises broken.
Vo grew up and instead went to college, studying to become a teacher. “I forgot my promise,” he said.
While attending a wedding, Vo brought some friends who were not Catholic. They remarked how beautiful the Mass was, but Vo was struck by a sense of beauty in the priest’s role in connecting these two people as one in the sacrament.
He remembered his promise.
His uncle suggested becoming a priest in the United States, but at age 25, Vo knew it was going to be incredibly difficult to obtain a visa.
But he and his mother took a bus to Saigon, where he was dropped off in the early-morning hours in front of the cathedral. They decided to go to Mass before the visa interview.
On his first try, he got his visa. No one could believe it.
He started at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, and from the get-go, it was tough. The food was terrible — he couldn’t stand burgers and pizza. The weather was terrible — rainy or cloudy all the time. He found it hard to make friends.
After a couple of years at the seminary, he decided to take two years off, where he took some college classes and tried to improve his English skills.
He was demoralized and considered returning to Vietnam. Then God sent him more help.
“I was confused, I was hopeless, for sure,” Vo said. “But the good thing is, I found some priests as friends, and they said, ‘OK, we talk, we go out, hang out together,’ and they gave me hope.”
One of the priests suggested applying to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Vo was accepted to the Queen of Angels Center for Priestly Formation, and from there went to St. John’s Seminary.
The change of scenery worked. He loves the weather. He enjoys burgers and pizza. And he’s looking forward to serving those in the archdiocese. But there’s two particular groups he has a heart for.
One is the homebound and sick, which he knows from the episode with his mother.
“When I go to them, I bring them holy Communion, I see their happiness,” Vo said. “We are not doctors. We cannot help them physically. But many of them are happy to see the priest coming.”
He also wants to encourage young people, both to return to the Church and to consider religious vocations.
“We usually think that it’s boring to become a priest,” Vo said. “But it’s different. It’s the opposite … so I encourage young people to go, if they heard the voice of God, if they want to become a priest, just give it a try. God will guide you with hope.”
Vo said he discovered a valuable lesson that day his priest friends encouraged him to give the seminary another shot.
“God will send to you the people you need. Sometimes the hope doesn’t come from your heart, but it comes from people around you.”
