Vietnamese Brothers Complete Study of Possibilities in Australia

Two Vietnamese Brothers, Dominic Pham Thanh Hoai and Joseph Trinh Xuan Tai, recently returned to Vietnam after spending more than two months in Australia, exploring the possibilities for the Vietnamese Province to establish a Community and to carry out a work of Hospitality, initially among Vietnamese-Australians but, ultimately, in the general Australian society.  While investigating possibilities in Melbourne the Brothers lived at a Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor at Northcote—a suburb of Melbourne where a member of the Order is chaplain. The Brothers made fruitful contact with the Parish of East Preston where a large Vietnamese community gathers every Sunday afternoon.  On those occasions there are meetings of various groups and an evening Mass in the Vietnamese language. The liturgy is followed by a meal which of course, features Vietnamese cuisine. The Australian Brothers who were supporting them in Melbourne reported that “the Vietnamese people really took the two Brothers ‘under their wings’.” Back in Vietnam the Brothers will now report to the Provincial and his Council.