Divine Word Missionaries

Fr. Thang Cao Hoang, SVD, Chicago

Fr. Thang is the youngest of seven children. He was born in Vietnam in 1972 and escaped from his home country with his father in 1986. Fr. Thang lived in Thailand and the Philippines before arriving in California in 1989. He completed high school and two years of college before entering Divine Word College Seminary in 1993. Following his college graduation, Fr. Thang entered his one-year novitiate with the Divine Word Missionaries in Techny, Illinois. He professed his first vows as an SVD in 1997, entered theology studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, participated in his missionary training in Argentina from 1999 – 2001, and professed his final vows as an SVD on September 27, 2003. He was ordained a priest in June of 2004. His first assignment is to the Tri-Province Vocation Office in the United States to help invite young men to consider a vocation to the SVD and walk with them on their discernment journey.

One of the ministry experiences that remain close to my heart is an encounter with a patient during my Pastoral Care Education internship in St. Joseph Hospital, Orange County, California. The patient, whom I will call Mr. Johnson, was about fifty years old and seriously ill. He began by talking about his life and what had happened in the past. Then, suddenly he broke down, and with tears in his eyes he said, “I feel very sad and heavy. I feel as if there is a big stone pressing down within my heart. All I want now is a sense of peace, but I can’t have it. All the injustice that I have committed against others keeps coming back to haunt me. I am very troubled and disturbed. I wish I had never done those things.”

Tears kept rolling down his bony cheeks. He continued in a softer voice, “All I want now is peace. I would give everything I own to have a sense of peace in my heart.”

I was tempted to take away his regret by assuring him that God had already forgiven him because he had repented, but somehow I was able to hold back. I continued to listen to his pain. At the end of my hour-long visit, Mr. Johnson felt more at peace with himself because some of his pain had been expressed and someone had listened to him. As we prayed, joy and deep gratitude filled his voice. After this visit, I didn’t have a chance to see Mr. Johnson again, but I had the feeling he was on the way toward peace and reconciliation with God.

Many times being God’s messenger is not about proving God’s power or proclaiming God’s presence by talking about it. It is about listening with empathy so that the Holy Spirit can transform others and move them toward God’s healing power and unconditional love. Indeed, I have learned that listening is one of the most essential requirements in witnessing to the love of God for all people, especially those who need God’s forgiveness and healing.

As I am assigned to the ministry of promoting vocations for our Society, I will try to use my listening skills to help the prospective candidates discern God’s will for their lives. I hope that my willingness to listen with care and compassion will be God’s instrument not only for the process of vocation discernment, but also to help troubled people to regain the inner peace and sense of God’s love in their lives.

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