Photo: Sara Eiler for Weston Today
July 1, 2021 | by Sara Eiler
For the past two months, Father Augustine Nguyen has served as the most recent pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church, bringing the community together through faith and solidarity as we begin the process of exiting the pandemic and back to normal.
Father Augustine was only eleven years old when he and his sister fled Communist Vietnam in a fishing boat, spending nine days drifting on the high seas before heading to a Malaysian refugee camp and reuniting with their other brothers and sisters. sisters in the United States. After spending years traveling the country to graduate and pursue careers in electrical engineering and medicine, Father Augustine discovered his calling while visiting a seminary in Stamford.
“I fell in love with the place,” said Father Augustine. “I heard a voice in my heart telling me that I must serve people in another capacity, not to be a doctor of medicine, but a doctor of souls.”
Having fulfilled his vocation, Father Augustine pursued studies in theology and was subsequently ordained a priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport in 2012, becoming their first Vietnamese priest. He was quickly appointed Episcopal Vicar of Vietnamese Catholics in Bridgeport, a position he still holds to this day, and spent the next ten years preaching in regional churches before becoming the pastor of St. Francis on April 12.
Speaking of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Father Augustine said: “Being here has been an incredible experience. I love to see the way everyone comes together as a family.
Father Augustine expressed how particularly important it is to have been appointed to this position during a period of transition as the church begins to return remote services to its typical capacity, once again enabling the community to come together through Masses and events in “a family of faith.”
“I am very happy to have the opportunity to be pastor in a parish of this level”, he declared. “The people here have been so supportive, welcoming and willing to help each other, and I want to give them the best of my time and energy. The church is like family and I want to contribute all I can to maintain this positivity. “
Photo provided by Kathy Failla
