{"id":7369,"date":"2026-09-01T18:58:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=7369"},"modified":"2026-09-04T19:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:05:25","slug":"the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Catholic Faith Was His Mother\u2019s Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Maryknoll Father Lo Xuan Dam speaks about his family, especially his mother, he recalls how his parents struggled to raise nine children in Vietnam during partition and war, and the role the Catholic faith played in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not from a generational Catholic family,\u201d says Father Dam, who grew up in the historically Buddhist country<\/a>. \u201cIn my family, the first one who became Catholic was my mother.\u201d At that time in his homeland, he says, \u201camong many Vietnamese, there was still a biased belief that Catholicism was the religion of the West, and that meant the religion of colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1951, amid the French Indochina War, with hunger and displacement under French rule, his mother embraced the Catholic faith. The missioner says she found comfort and support in the Church, which led to the baptism of her then-six children. After the country\u2019s division the family moved to South Vietnam, where his father also converted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Dam, the youngest of nine siblings, was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City<\/a>). When he reached sixth grade, his mother sent him to a Salesian minor seminary. \u201cShe wanted me to become a priest,\u201d Father Dam says. He recalls that \u201cin 1975, when the communists won over the whole country, they disbanded all the Catholic schools,\u201d forcing him to finish his high school and college studies in communist-run public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three
Three decades after first arriving as a seminarian in Japan for overseas training, Father Dam ministers to migrant workers from his home country, Vietnam. (Adam Mitchell\/Japan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the seed of the vocation was already there,\u201d the missioner says. \u201cThe years when I grew up in Vietnam under the strict communist rule, it was very difficult in many aspects of life, so maybe, part of that led me back to the idea of a vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1980s, Vietnam has undergone economic and social opening while remaining under one-party rule. The missioner notes, \u201cWe are freer than before but we still do not have full religious freedom, because the government still tries to manipulate and control the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Saigon fell, two of Father Dam<\/a>\u2019s brothers fled and resettled in the United States. His mother died in 1983, and he, his father and two other brothers migrated to the United States in 1991, under the sponsorship of his brothers already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I came to the U.S., I immediately wanted to find some place that could help me pursue my vocation, and I came into contact with Maryknoll,\u201d Father Dam says. Many people suggested that he simply join a diocese, he says, but after living for 16 years under communist rule<\/a>, he felt that the United States was \u201ctoo rich, too comfortable\u201d for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was admitted to Maryknoll in 1993 and ordained a priest seven years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
Young parishioners, mostly migrants and immigrants, attend Mass celebrated by Maryknoll Father Lo Xuan Dam at the Catholic church in Toyama, a city in Japan. (Adam Mitchell\/Japan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to go to somewhere where people need me more,\u201d says Father Dam, now 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his Overseas Training Program, which gives Maryknoll priest and brother candidates experience in overseas mission, he spent more than a year in Japan learning the language and then six months serving in parishes in the Diocese of Kyoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJapan is very interesting because in some respects, it feels familiar, because Vietnam and Japan are both East Asian, and we share the \u2018chopstick culture,\u2019 so to speak,\u201d he says. Both countries are influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryknoll missioners<\/a> in Japan focus primarily on parish work, he says, although some have also developed social service programs, such as caring for the homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, Japan\u2019s aging population has prompted the country to open up more to migration, even though many Japanese are not culturally accustomed to it, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tourist areas such as Tokyo\u2019s Roppongi district, known for its nightlife, many visitors attend Mass, while in the provinces most attendees are migrant workers who often do not speak Japanese or English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Dam explains that Japan does not officially recognize immigrant workers. Instead, they are labeled \u201capprentices\u201d who train in a trade during a three-year stay before supposedly returning to their home countries to use their skills. He disputes official figures of how many actually return home, adding, \u201cThey come here to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most immigrants do jobs that are known as the three Ds \u2014 dirty, difficult and dangerous<\/a> \u2014 work that most Japanese are not willing to do themselves, he says. The country \u201cneeds millions\u201d of low-skilled workers, he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Vietnamese are the biggest group,\u201d says Father Dam of the newcomers. Other large groups of immigrant workers come from China and the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lo
Lo Xuan Dam is ordained at Our Lady Queen of Apostles Chapel, at the Maryknoll Society\u2019s headquarters in Ossining, New York, on June 10, 2000, by Archbishop Francis Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska. (John Argauer\/U.S.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Father Dam\u2019s pastoral work focuses mainly on the Vietnamese in Japan<\/a>, whom he estimates to be about 10% Catholic, though official statistics are unavailable. It is not easy for Catholics to find a parish in Japan, where less than one half of one percent of the population is Catholic. With so few churches, Catholic Vietnamese immigrants form communities that welcome newcomers, celebrate Mass, receive sacraments and participate in special events. The missioner travels regularly to visit such communities and other parishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Dam notes that not speaking Japanese is a major obstacle to integration for Vietnamese workers \u2014 but many prefer to focus on working and saving money to return to Vietnam rather than fully adapting to Japanese society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Japanese population often sees migrants as problematic, he says. Yet the missioner agrees with what Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi<\/a>, the archbishop of Tokyo, said in a 2024 interview: \u201cI firmly believe that immigrants are not a problem, but a hope for the Church. They offer the Catholic community a unique opportunity to grow, especially with young people, and to proclaim the Gospel in areas where there is no active presence of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes time for people to change their attitudes, Father Dam says. He hopes the situation for immigrants in Japan will improve in the coming years and emphasizes that migrants are not just the future of the Church in Japan, but the present. He points out that the vitality of many parishes is due to immigrants, as young Japanese people rarely attend Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigrants in Japan are primarily seeking faith and companionship, he says. As his own mother once found refuge in her faith<\/a>, he hopes they, too, feel at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey come to church also because they want to find compatriots, to find activities in their mother language, and they find companions,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a great chance for us to do outreach, and we have a steady stream of people learning about the Church and becoming Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is based on reporting by Adam Mitchell<\/a> in Toyama, Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: Maryknoll Father Lo Xuan Dam serves in Toyama Catholic Church in the city of Toyama, Japan, where he offers others the same refuge of faith that his family found in the Church. (Adam Mitchell\/Japan)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in Vietnam, Maryknoll Father Lo Xuan Dam accompanies Vietnamese migrants as they build faith and community in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":7370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3419,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-departments","category-fall-2026","category-featured-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Catholic Faith Was His Mother\u2019s Refuge - Maryknoll Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Catholic Faith Was His Mother\u2019s Refuge - Maryknoll Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Born in Vietnam, Maryknoll Father Lo Xuan Dam accompanies Vietnamese migrants as they build faith and community in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maryknoll Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-01T18:58:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-04T19:05:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/F26-LO-XUAN_FEATURE.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"798\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"447\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marietha G\u00f3ngora V.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marietha G\u00f3ngora V.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marietha G\u00f3ngora V.\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/187c75e09a565be2aa6bca4b183625e3\"},\"headline\":\"The Catholic Faith Was His Mother\u2019s Refuge\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-01T18:58:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-04T19:05:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1209,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/F26-LO-XUAN_FEATURE.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Departments\",\"Fall 2026\",\"Featured Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\\\/magazine\\\/the-catholic-faith-was-his-mothers-refuge\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Catholic Faith Was His Mother\u2019s Refuge - 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