Decades ago, the Rev. Tran Dinh had aspirations to become a priest when he attended high school in Vietnam.
“He always wanted to be a priest,” said Dinh’s eldest daughter, Crystal Lynn Dinh on Jan. 8, the day of her father’s ordination into the priesthood.
The Rev. Tran Dinh’s ordination marks a milestone in a meandering spiritual journey that began in his birth country of Vietnam. That journey has given Dinh, 65, a marriage and children, led him from war-torn Vietnam to the U.S. and allowed him the opportunity to finally fulfill a lifelong goal.
On the morning of Jan. 8, Dinh, along with the Rev. Richard Barfield, was ordained in The Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory. During the two-hour ceremony, the cathedral was filled with fragrant clouds of incense and the lofty voices of a choir roosted in the balcony.
Afterward, Dinh took a picture in the cathedral with at least several dozen of his family members who had come to pay their respects.
As a priest, Dinh will serve at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Victoria where he will care for between 500 and 600 families.
In Vietnam, Dinh was the oldest child of a family that included eight siblings. He was raised by a religious family and attended a Catholic high school that gave him a strong foundation in the faith and an inclination to one day become a priest.
“He felt like it was his duty to serve God, to serve his people, and that has always been a big part of who he is,” said Diana Dinh, his second oldest daughter.
But Tran Dinh’s hopes to one day become a priest were diverted.
After leaving Vietnam to flee conflict near the end of the Vietnam War, Dinh initially settled in Michigan before finding many of his family members had moved to Palacios. He was in his early 20s at the time and was still learning English.
“It was a tough time,” his second oldest daughter said.
In Palacios, Dinh worked in the shrimping and fishing industry, which employed many other Vietnamese people. It was also about that time that Dinh married. Dinh’s second oldest daughter said one of the reasons Dinh’s wife married her father was because of his strong faith.
In 2007, life dealt Dinh a terrible blow with the death of his wife, whom Dinh’s second-oldest daughter described as “his one true love.”
After the death of his wife and with a bit of encouragement from his family, Dinh began to think about answering his spiritual call.
As a single father of three, Dinh was faced with juggling his family responsibilities with the rigorous program that he enrolled in to first become a deacon and then a priest.
Diana Dinh said many times she and her siblings, then teens, helped her father edit some of his more advanced religious homework.
“He would roll his papers out, and I would edit his papers, and then my brother and I, we would alternate typing up his reports,” she said. “I didn’t mind because I was doing for dad and doing it for God.”
Unlike Barfield, who was given a special exemption from the Vatican because he is currently married, the Rev. Tran Dinh took the vow of celibacy.
“Now he has transformed that love to God,” she said. “He was married to his wife, and now he is married to God.”
Now that he is a priest, Dinh’s once deferred spiritual goals have become renewed.
Dinh and his children have always placed a lot of importance in their faith. For example, as a family they prayed together daily, asking God to watch over one another during their difficult times.
But now that their father is a priest, Diana Dinh said she is looking forward to a special treat that was once impossible.
Dinh is engaged and is planning to have her father walk her down the aisle before “spinning around” and officiating her marriage as a priest.
“It will be a very special moment,” she said.