Vietnamese community celebrates a new shrine
June 21 was a very big day for Lincoln’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.
The annual summer feast day drew nearly 1,000 people to the church parking lot to worship, listen to music and socialize.
But this year’s celebration had a special meaning for the Lincoln Vietnamese Catholic community. It marked the culmination of nearly two years of work to create an imposing new shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The shrine, including a wide, raised platform and a huge statue of Mary, will become a focal point for activities for the whole community of Lincoln, said Father Jim Khoi, pastor of the church.
Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz blessed the statue of Our Lady of Vietnam, a gift from a family living in Danang, in central Vietnam.
It depicts Mary in traditional Vietnamese robe and hat, holding the Christ child, whose hand is raised in blessing.
“This statue will remind us of the close ties of Mary to Christ’s Church,” Bruskewitz said. He thanked the Vietnamese community for making it available for use by all churches in the Lincoln Diocese.
Following his blessing, the bishop joined in a procession around the newly completed parking lot and shrine. Nearly everyone present joined in the march, which included children and adults in colorful clothing.
The approximately 200 members of the church’s youth group sported uniforms with a white military-style shirt and navy blue pants or skirt, with green, blue, yellow or red scarves for different ages.
There also were little girls with white-flower halos in their hair, a dance troupe dressed in the earthen colors of Vietnamese mountain people, members of the Third Order of St. Francis (a devotional group) wearing brown shirts with rope belts, and women in flowing white and blue dresses.
The marchers carried fresh long-stemmed roses and small blue-and-white flags — the traditional colors of Mary.
Following the procession, the bishop blessed some brass tablets bearing the names of 270 of the 440 families in the church. Then all eyes turned to the shrine for the release of several dozen helium-filled balloons of many colors.
Dark clouds threatened at the beginning of the event, and there were enough raindrops that organizers had to dismantle a multi-layer cake and whisk it inside the building to keep it dry.
But before long a patch of blue appeared, and the rest of the event was blessed with a perfect summer evening.
Tim Cao, a member of the construction committee that oversaw building the shrine, said he believes Mary was protecting the event. The feast day has been held outdoors each June since the congregation moved to its present church building in 2002 and has never been rained out, he said.
A brick gateway marks the entrance to the new 300-stall parking lot. It has the message “Chao mung quan khach” on one side and the same message, “Welcome to our church,” in English on the other.
Bruskewitz led Mass, followed by dinner and entertainment featuring well-known Vietnamese singers and musicians.
The new shrine is “a place for people in the parish to express their devotion to Mary,” said Sister Rosaria Hoang, who has served the Lincoln church since 1985.
She was there when the congregation moved from a small frame building at 2013 G St. to an older brick building at 2601 P St. in 1991. But that building was cramped and had structural problems, so in 2002 the congregation moved to the present location in the former Faith Lutheran Church and School at 6345 Madison Ave., across from Lincoln Northeast High School.
Peter Nu Tran, former president of the congregation, noted that when he came to Lincoln in 1975, the church had only 32 families. The new building has lots of space for the growing congregation, which now has 440 families, or about 2,000 adults and children.
The shrine will be used not only by Lincoln Catholics, but by Vietnamese Catholics from other states. The church wants to host a festival at the site giving many ethnic groups in Lincoln parishes, and the city as a whole, a chance to show off their different cultures.
Mayor Chris Beutler spoke to the crowd, thanking the church for creating the shrine for the city of Lincoln.
“This wonderful statue is like a part of Vietnam,” he said. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to have such a beautiful statue as this in this community.”
He noted that the city of Lincoln has welcomed many immigrants from Vietnam, and “you have responded in an amazing way; you have added so much to this community,” he said.
“Because of your strong family values, you are a strength and a boon to this community. Keep producing all these beautiful children that I see tonight. That’s a great legacy to America.”
Families, youth development and preservation of Vietnamese culture are all important aspects of the church, Khoi said.
The youth group, which meets from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Saturday, draws students from across the city, said Quang Le, vice president of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Society at the church. He teaches leadership skills to boys and girls ages 5 through 18.
The participants are children of immigrants who came from Vietnam, but most were born here, he said. Many speak English better than Vietnamese and find themselves immersed in American culture, he said.
“We try to speak as much Vietnamese to them as possible and teach them about Vietnamese culture,” he said.
Le, 25, was born and raised in Lincoln, so he understands how easy it is to lose touch with traditions.
“We learn a lot about God” but also study Vietnamese language, history and geography, said Thien Chu, 16. “We’re kind of like the Boy Scouts,”except the group is for both boys and girls, he said. They learn skills such as Morse code, semaphore flag communication, compass and map reading and go on camping trips.
His friend Simon Nguyen, 16, came from Vietnam three years ago to join other family members here. His English is perfect; he teaches Vietnamese to other youth group members.
Simon belonged to a Catholic church in Vietnam that had a youth group similar to the one in Lincoln, “but this one is better,” he said.
Ngoc Mai, 16, and Toan Chu, 17 (Thien’s brother), said that Vietnamese culture puts a high value on family, respect for elders and helping one another.
The youth members volunteer to help take care of the church and grounds and do some outreach to the community, such as Christmas caroling at a senior citizens’ home last winter.
Huy Tran has been a member of the church for 15 years, then about seven years ago he returned to Vietnam to get married. He and his wife have two children, ages 6½ and 5. Tran sings in the choir and enjoys worshipping and socializing with others of Vietnamese background.
Their daughters are learning English in their Catholic school but will benefit from having contact with other Vietnamese children at church, he said.
Creating the shrine involved the work of a lot of volunteers, as well as the help of God, Tim Cao said.
The marble statue, weighing nearly 3,200 pounds, was created at a sculpture factory in Vietnam. It arrived in Lincoln last November in a crate and lay outside all winter while the parking lot, platform and pedestal were completed.
The statue, more than 10 feet tall, was mounted on the pedestal on June 6. Since then, church members have been busy adding railings to the shrine, planting flowers and readying the site for Saturday’s big event.
Father Jim Khoi was born in northern Vietnam but lived several years in Saigon in a Catholic religious community. He and other members of the community left the country before the fall of Saigon in 1975.
He studied for the priesthood in the United States and was ordained in 1991 at the headquarters of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, an order of Vietnamese priests based in Carthage, Mo.
He served churches in California and Minnesota before coming to Lincoln in 2005.
Besides the youth group, the church has several other groups that meet monthly for mothers, older adults, men and women, he said.
The church has a gift shop with a wide assortment of gifts from Vietnam and a library with books for all ages, in both English and Vietnamese, focusing on Vietnamese culture and history.
Mass times at the church are at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sundays. To visit the gift shop or library, call the church at 464-0111.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
The annual summer feast day drew nearly 1,000 people to the church parking lot to worship, listen to music and socialize.
But this year’s celebration had a special meaning for the Lincoln Vietnamese Catholic community. It marked the culmination of nearly two years of work to create an imposing new shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The shrine, including a wide, raised platform and a huge statue of Mary, will become a focal point for activities for the whole community of Lincoln, said Father Jim Khoi, pastor of the church.
Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz blessed the statue of Our Lady of Vietnam, a gift from a family living in Danang, in central Vietnam.
It depicts Mary in traditional Vietnamese robe and hat, holding the Christ child, whose hand is raised in blessing.
“This statue will remind us of the close ties of Mary to Christ’s Church,” Bruskewitz said. He thanked the Vietnamese community for making it available for use by all churches in the Lincoln Diocese.
Following his blessing, the bishop joined in a procession around the newly completed parking lot and shrine. Nearly everyone present joined in the march, which included children and adults in colorful clothing.
The approximately 200 members of the church’s youth group sported uniforms with a white military-style shirt and navy blue pants or skirt, with green, blue, yellow or red scarves for different ages.
There also were little girls with white-flower halos in their hair, a dance troupe dressed in the earthen colors of Vietnamese mountain people, members of the Third Order of St. Francis (a devotional group) wearing brown shirts with rope belts, and women in flowing white and blue dresses.
The marchers carried fresh long-stemmed roses and small blue-and-white flags — the traditional colors of Mary.
Following the procession, the bishop blessed some brass tablets bearing the names of 270 of the 440 families in the church. Then all eyes turned to the shrine for the release of several dozen helium-filled balloons of many colors.
Dark clouds threatened at the beginning of the event, and there were enough raindrops that organizers had to dismantle a multi-layer cake and whisk it inside the building to keep it dry.
But before long a patch of blue appeared, and the rest of the event was blessed with a perfect summer evening.
Tim Cao, a member of the construction committee that oversaw building the shrine, said he believes Mary was protecting the event. The feast day has been held outdoors each June since the congregation moved to its present church building in 2002 and has never been rained out, he said.
A brick gateway marks the entrance to the new 300-stall parking lot. It has the message “Chao mung quan khach” on one side and the same message, “Welcome to our church,” in English on the other.
Bruskewitz led Mass, followed by dinner and entertainment featuring well-known Vietnamese singers and musicians.
The new shrine is “a place for people in the parish to express their devotion to Mary,” said Sister Rosaria Hoang, who has served the Lincoln church since 1985.
She was there when the congregation moved from a small frame building at 2013 G St. to an older brick building at 2601 P St. in 1991. But that building was cramped and had structural problems, so in 2002 the congregation moved to the present location in the former Faith Lutheran Church and School at 6345 Madison Ave., across from Lincoln Northeast High School.
Peter Nu Tran, former president of the congregation, noted that when he came to Lincoln in 1975, the church had only 32 families. The new building has lots of space for the growing congregation, which now has 440 families, or about 2,000 adults and children.
The shrine will be used not only by Lincoln Catholics, but by Vietnamese Catholics from other states. The church wants to host a festival at the site giving many ethnic groups in Lincoln parishes, and the city as a whole, a chance to show off their different cultures.
Mayor Chris Beutler spoke to the crowd, thanking the church for creating the shrine for the city of Lincoln.
“This wonderful statue is like a part of Vietnam,” he said. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to have such a beautiful statue as this in this community.”
He noted that the city of Lincoln has welcomed many immigrants from Vietnam, and “you have responded in an amazing way; you have added so much to this community,” he said.
“Because of your strong family values, you are a strength and a boon to this community. Keep producing all these beautiful children that I see tonight. That’s a great legacy to America.”
Families, youth development and preservation of Vietnamese culture are all important aspects of the church, Khoi said.
The youth group, which meets from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Saturday, draws students from across the city, said Quang Le, vice president of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Society at the church. He teaches leadership skills to boys and girls ages 5 through 18.
The participants are children of immigrants who came from Vietnam, but most were born here, he said. Many speak English better than Vietnamese and find themselves immersed in American culture, he said.
“We try to speak as much Vietnamese to them as possible and teach them about Vietnamese culture,” he said.
Le, 25, was born and raised in Lincoln, so he understands how easy it is to lose touch with traditions.
“We learn a lot about God” but also study Vietnamese language, history and geography, said Thien Chu, 16. “We’re kind of like the Boy Scouts,”except the group is for both boys and girls, he said. They learn skills such as Morse code, semaphore flag communication, compass and map reading and go on camping trips.
His friend Simon Nguyen, 16, came from Vietnam three years ago to join other family members here. His English is perfect; he teaches Vietnamese to other youth group members.
Simon belonged to a Catholic church in Vietnam that had a youth group similar to the one in Lincoln, “but this one is better,” he said.
Ngoc Mai, 16, and Toan Chu, 17 (Thien’s brother), said that Vietnamese culture puts a high value on family, respect for elders and helping one another.
The youth members volunteer to help take care of the church and grounds and do some outreach to the community, such as Christmas caroling at a senior citizens’ home last winter.
Huy Tran has been a member of the church for 15 years, then about seven years ago he returned to Vietnam to get married. He and his wife have two children, ages 6½ and 5. Tran sings in the choir and enjoys worshipping and socializing with others of Vietnamese background.
Their daughters are learning English in their Catholic school but will benefit from having contact with other Vietnamese children at church, he said.
Creating the shrine involved the work of a lot of volunteers, as well as the help of God, Tim Cao said.
The marble statue, weighing nearly 3,200 pounds, was created at a sculpture factory in Vietnam. It arrived in Lincoln last November in a crate and lay outside all winter while the parking lot, platform and pedestal were completed.
The statue, more than 10 feet tall, was mounted on the pedestal on June 6. Since then, church members have been busy adding railings to the shrine, planting flowers and readying the site for Saturday’s big event.
Father Jim Khoi was born in northern Vietnam but lived several years in Saigon in a Catholic religious community. He and other members of the community left the country before the fall of Saigon in 1975.
He studied for the priesthood in the United States and was ordained in 1991 at the headquarters of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, an order of Vietnamese priests based in Carthage, Mo.
He served churches in California and Minnesota before coming to Lincoln in 2005.
Besides the youth group, the church has several other groups that meet monthly for mothers, older adults, men and women, he said.
The church has a gift shop with a wide assortment of gifts from Vietnam and a library with books for all ages, in both English and Vietnamese, focusing on Vietnamese culture and history.
Mass times at the church are at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sundays. To visit the gift shop or library, call the church at 464-0111.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
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