Visit to Mary Queen of Vietnam Church

            On April 8^th, we had a field trip to Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, a historic church located in East New Orleans, in a community with the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside Vietnam in the world. Consequently, many aspects of the church service reflected Vietnamese tradition and culture not typically found in other Catholic churches. Also, there was a notable difference between the Catholic rituals surrounding Transubstantiation and what happened at Mary Queen of Vietnam.

First and foremost, I will discuss the culture aspects of the church service.

Arch outside Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in
New Orleans East

Upon entering the area where Mary Queen of Vietnam church is located you are hit with hints of Eastern/Asian culture. Most notably, there is the Asian arch across the street from the church with a cross on top, and the shrine behind the church gives the impression of a strong Asian culture in the neighbourhood. When you enter the church, you will see various Asian symbols blended with traditional Christian symbols like the cross.

Besides visual differences in the area and the church that contrast a normal Catholic church in an average American neighbourhood, there are also differences among the congregation. Firstly, the congregation was split into multiple sections. Mainly, there was a split between the young and the old. All the kids sat in their own section of the church while the parents and grandparents (and so on), sat in another section completely divided from their kids. Secondly, several people wore strange cloth bandanas. There was a fairly large variety of these bandanas as well. Some were red, some were yellow, etc. Perhaps this shows a hierarchy within the congregation?

Besides visual differences, the most important difference was audible. Simply put, the entire service was in Vietnamese. This is definitely cultural. I was very surprised by this. I thought that either the service would be in English (because we are in an English speaking country) or Latin (which is the traditional language of the church). Although surprised, it was pleasant seeing such devotion to heritage via refusal to preach in English, which obviously is not the common language of the congregation!

Now, as I mentioned before, I noticed one main difference regarding the sacraments during Holy Communion. Only bread (the body of Christ) was given to the congregation. Only the priest received the blood of Christ. To my understanding, this is a common practice in the Catholic Church and almost as often, the congregation does not get any of the sacraments, they are reserved only for the priest. However, I have also been to Catholic masses where the congregation received both the body AND blood of Christ (as is tradition among the Jesuits and the Franciscans). This made me wonder what denomination of Catholicism Mary Queen of Vietnam Church fell under. Unfortunately, since the service was all in Vietnamese, I was unable to figure that out for myself.

Anyway, this trip largely reminded me of my trip to Japan. Becoming a minority, being unable to understand the language being used, exploring someplace completely foreign. I thought it was a great experience overall. Besides that, it is very refreshing to see communities retaining their cultural roots and heritage despite the demand to assimilate into the culture of the land in which they live. Mary Queen of Vietnam Church seems to serve as a fortress of resilience and rallying point for the community. Their service on Sunday very clearly portrayed that as being its role among it also serving as a common Catholic church. This experience has given me a better understanding of Nguyens post-Katrina attitude as well. “Return and Reclaim” indeed, but prosper as well.