by Bernardo Cervellera
He dedicated 48 years of his life to pastoral care of the poor, lepers, Montagnards, abandoned children, single mothers, students. He had become the country's most famous priest, known to all the dispossessed. He also spent 10 years in the Vietnamese camps. Since 2006, he was director of Caritas Saigon. His most recent invention: the food market, soup kitchens for the poor marked by the economic crisis.
Rome (AsiaNews) - Yesterday morning, Fr. Joseph Đinh Huy Huong, perhaps the best known priest in Vietnam, passed away. Fr. Joseph, "Ut" to his friends, devoted his life to support the pastoral work of the Church and its social commitment and charity work, supporting the poor, lepers, single mothers, orphans, AIDS patients, Montagnards without any distinction between Christian or non- Christian: his witness of the Christ’s charity made him to a country marked by the hatred of war, a whirling and unbalanced development, corruption, and neglect of the poor.For decades this commitment saw him travel by bike and then - because of heart disease - by car in the South and North of the country, bringing aid, comforting the bishops and priests, organizing loving responses into an often ruthless society.
"Ut" was born May 6, 1940 in the Diocese of Phát Diệm, but became a priest of the diocese of Saigon (later Ho Chi Minh City), working for about 48 years in the parish of Đức Tin, on the outskirts.
Before 1975 he was also chaplain to the American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. Because of this, at the advent of the communist government, he received the offer to leave the country to travel to the U.S., but declined to accept it. His decision to remain cost him 10 years of hard labour (1975-85), where – he often recalled – in the midst of abject suffering, his only comfort was to repeat a few pages of the Gospel of St. John learned by heart.
In 1986, Vietnam opened its doors to economic development and to international markets (doi moi). But these reforms created economic imbalances, migration from the countryside bringing many social problems with great impact on families and parishes. To save single mothers involved in prostitution rings, Fr. Joseph strove to build a "small hearth" to host girls, especially pregnant women and help them not to abort their babies. "It is a small effort - he told AsiaNews - to help girls who are pregnant. If you do not help them, they will be forced to kill their children. "
Now that "small hearth" has become a safe haven for 40 children, with the help and support of the Sisters of Mother Teresa (09/03/2006 Home in Saigon to save the innocent).
Another important commitment of Fr Joseph was to help the Montagnards have schools, work, chapels, in a society that marginalizes them and a government increasingly suspicious of them.
Even the lepers were major recipients of aid from Fr. Joseph. While the government planned exclusion and death, pushing them far from cities and into the uninhabited wilderness, the priest was able to create organizations to instruct them in agriculture, the distribution of medicines and sulfones, catechesis and prayer.
In reality, all of these projects were banned by the Communist government, which aims to block the social impact of the Church at all costs. But the pressure to respond to these needs, of which the country’s leaders do not care, led local police and governments to turn a blind eye. And Fr. Joseph did not stop, creating kindergartens, primary schools, technical institutes, clinics. Even party members begged him to take their children into his little district schools to ensure a better "moral education" than that of state schools.
With the increased distension between the government and the Vatican, his projects and commitment became official, from 2006 to 2009 he was appointed Director of Caritas in Saigon. Thanks to his dedication, every parish set up social and charitable activities to help poor people and groups.
Sister Mary, who was once his co-worker, tells AsiaNews about the way in which "Fr. Joseph helped at least 200 families, Catholic and non-Catholic in the district of Can Gio. In 2008, a typhoon destroyed their homes and crops. Fr. Joseph distributed rice, a small capital for the recovery, financing the families of the northern parishes, supporting studies for young people all over Vietnam. "
In 2009, due to heart disease, he had to live in a nursing home in Phat Diem. But poor health did not stop him: he launched a charity fund Du Sinh (Quĩ Bác Ái Du Sinh), to support the poor and abandoned in Vietnam.
And most of all created he groups of motivated people who are engaged in helping lonely people, disabled, elderly, orphans, lepers, Aids victims, Montagnards in all parts of the country. The staff that supports each of these projects come from the young people of the parishes of Đức Tin, Hoàng Mai, Hạnh Thông Tây, and Vĩnh Hiệp, from congregations of nuns, seminarians, social workers, doctors who offer their commitment for free.
One of his last projects - born of the current economic crisis - are "food markets", similar to soup kitchens, where poor people can feed themselves.
Visiting him in Phát Diệm, Mgr. Joseph Đặng Đức Ngân di Lang Son, has stressed the value of the testimony of Fr Joseph, whose "generosity, commitment, wealth of faith manifest the love and compassion of Jesus himself."
For his part, "Ut" always loved to say: "All these efforts begun always and only by praying to St. Joseph. He is said to have a powerful intercession and to support our needs".
(with the collaboration of J. B. Vu)