Diocese of Orange
Seminarians
Quyen Truong Quyen Truong was born and grew up in the North of Vietnam. He is second youngest in a family of six children. After finishing high school, he came to Saigon for college education in 2002. He majored in English translation and interpretation. During five years in Saigon, besides studying English in college, he studied some religious classes with other seminary candidates. When he finished college, he came back to the North. At the end of 2008, Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, the then archbishop of Hanoi, sent him to the U.S. to pursue priestly formation. He studied in the Pre-theology program at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon from 2009 – 2011. From the fall of 2011, he will be studying Theology at Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. After ordination, he will return to the Church of Vietnam. Please keep him and all seminarians in your prayers so that they can firmly follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. 
Benjamin Hoang Benjamin Diep Hoang Dear Fr. Al, Fr. Thomas, and all the parishioners of Saint Cecilia parish, Greetings from St. John’s Seminary! Many of you have already known that I left the parish for Saint John’s Seminary on Tuesday, August 25, 2009. I am in the third year of theological program, which means that I still need two more years to finish my study. The week of orientation for the twenty-four new seminarians, which ended on August 30, was so hectic but productive. We are now in the second week of a new school year. This year St. John’s is so blessed to have eighty students, sixty-nine on campus and eleven off campus. The off-campus are lay men and women who are pursuing an M.A. in theology. Being a seminarian is a great privilege for me! I would like to take this opportunity, at the beginning of the new semester, to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for your great love, concern, prayer, and support of me in any way during my stay at the parish. I really had a great time! Thank you so much for having welcome me into Saint Cecilia’s family and made me feel so much at home. Being there had been a great honor, and blessing for me indeed. I will never forget your friendly hand-shakes, nice smiles, interesting and caring conversations, and loving hugs. All will remain in my mind and my heart a wonderful memory and a vivid image in my priestly vocational life. I am so glad to have had a chance to know many of you and to share your life of worship at a lovely church day in and day out. I have learned many things important and necessary there to equip me as a priest, God willing, in the near future. As my journey toward the priesthood is going on, there are many challenges waiting for me on the way. I will do my best to obtain my goal of being a good priest. At the same time, I will certainly need a lot of prayers and support from all of you. I cannot do it myself without God’s help and without you. All of you and this beloved parish will be in my daily prayers. May our good Lord continue to bless you and give you abundantly in return for all the kindness and goodness you have given to me during my stay at the parish. I look forward to seeing you again at some free weekends. Saint John’s Seminary is a very beautiful place. I would like to invite all of you to come here to see it by your own eyes and experience yourselves the hospitality, cultural richness, joy, enthusiasm, and great zeal of many young men, who are abandoning the worldly values to follow Christ. My contact information is on the top of this letter. Please feel free to contact me any time you want. I will reply to you when my schedule allows. I will certainly come back and visit you some time in the near future. May God bless you all! In Christ we remain, 
Aristotle Quan I was born in Fountain Valley, California, on December 12th, 1988. I am the youngest of three boys. In my early years I attended elementary school in Westwood Basics Plus in Irvine and later graduated high school from Northwood High School in June of 2007. Currently, I am going to school at Cal State University of Fullerton. In the fall of this year, I will be entering Blessed Miguel Pro formation house which is located in San Jose, California. I will be attending San Jose City College and hopefully entering St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park after I finish my general education credits. My vocation began after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. My life changed completely after I came back and now I have a deep calling to serve and follow God. 
Father Khoi Phan Father Khoi Phan was born in Kien Giang, Vietnam. He came to the US with his brother in 1990 and later attended Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine High School and UCI. Father received a Bachelor’s degree from UCI. From 2002 to 2004 he joined a religious community, the Society of the Divine Word, in the Midwest. In 2004, he moved back to Orange County and joined St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo for the Diocese of Orange. Father did his internship at St. Cecilia’s Church in 2007. Father Khoi was ordained a transitional deacon at Holy Family Cathedral in 2009 and continued on with his duties and assignment at St. Cecilia’s on weekends home and special occasions. Father was ordained a priest of God for the Diocese of Orange on June 6th, at St. Columban’s Church in Garden Grove. The parish joins his family and friends in wishing him many blessings and a priesthood that will bring joy to God and the Church. |
