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June 15, 2018
Deacon Ahn Tuan Phan talks with Barbara Hooper of St. Patrick Church in McEwen at the Seminarian Education Dinner and Auction held last month at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville. Deacon Phan, who will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 30, previously served at St. Patrick. His first assignment as a priest is at Christ the King Church in Nashville. Tennessee Register file photo by Andy Telli Growing up in Ba Ria, near the southeastern tip of Vietnam, Deacon Ahn Tuan Phan was raised in a devoutly Catholic household that included his parents, two brothers and two sisters. In his rural village, there was only a mission church with no permanent priest and no daily Mass, but his family remained faithful.
“I grew up without the idea to be a priest,” Deacon Phan said. “It was not a clear-cut decision.”
It was his grandmother who encouraged him to take the exam required for all aspiring seminarians in his Vietnamese diocese. “I thought, ‘If I pass the exam, it’s a sign that God is calling you,’” he said.
While he didn’t think he did particularly well on the exam, he did pass and was accepted as a seminary candidate in 2006.
Just as he was settling into his seminary formation, the Phan family received a letter from the U.S. embassy that their application to emigrate to the U.S. was moving forward.
“In 2008 we came to the U.S. and my thought was that I would start a new life,” and that the seminary might not be part of it, Deacon Phan said.
The family settled in Middle Tennessee and they connected with the large Vietnamese Catholic Community at St. Martha Church in Ashland City, served by pastor Father Peter Quang Chau. Father Peter learned that Deacon Phan had started his seminary studies in Vietnam and encouraged him in his vocation. “I prayed over it and I thought I would give it another try,” Deacon Phan said.
Deacon Phan met with Bishop David Choby, who encouraged him to take some time to study English, so he took English-as-Second-Lanuage classes and studied at Nashville State Community College before re-enrolling in the seminary.
The late Bishop Choby “showed me how to be a servant and a shepherd to the people,” Deacon Phan said, noting that he will always remember “his big heart and smile.”
In 2010, Deacon Phan re-started his seminary studies at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. At first “I really missed home,” he said.
After being with his family in Tennessee during Christmas break, he was set to attend a retreat before the next semester started. “There was a lot of snow that year. I had a small car on the highway and I slid and hit the rail.” He didn’t suffer any major injuries, but he did return home, discouraged, thinking “it was a sign that God doesn’t want me to go back.”
Deacon Phan did finally make it to the retreat, and afterwards, “I felt peace,” he said. “My years in the seminary, I have really grown, and I know God is calling me.”
Deacon Phan completed his studies at Notre Dame Seminary and graduated last month with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies.
While much of Deacon Phan’s time in the seminary was dedicated to study and service, in parishes, hospitals, nursing homes, and among the homeless, he was also to able to pursue his lifelong love of soccer.
He always loved soccer and running, and “when I was very young my dream was to play soccer on real grass” in the United States, rather than the dirt-packed fields where he played in his rural Vietnamese village. That dream has come true many times over, as he played both informal pickup games and helped organize a more formal team at Notre Dame to play against other college seminaries.
Now that his time in the seminary has officially concluded, Deacon Phan is ready to step into the “real experiences” of the people he serves. “Being with people at the moments of joy, baptism and marriage, and at the end of life … to show them that God is with them, I look forward to that,” he said.
Deacon Phan has been assigned as associate pastor of Christ the King Church in Nashville. He lived there previously as a seminarian, while working in hospital ministry. As a seminarian, he also served at St. Patrick Church in McEwen and St. John Vianney Church in Gallatin.
Ahead of his own ordination on June 30, at the Cathedral of the Incarnation Deacon Phan has attended the ordinations of Notre Dame classmates. Witnessing that awesome moment for his friends, “It’s like, ‘oh wow! This is real,’” he said. “I see great responsibilities, great joy and blessings waiting for me” as a priest.
Deacon Phan has several Masses of Thanksgiving planned after his ordination:
• Saturday, June 30 at 4:30 p.m. at St. John Vianney Church in Gallatin.
• Sunday, July 1, at St. Martha Church in Ashland City, 9 a.m. Mass in English, 11 a.m. Mass in Vietnamese.
• Saturday, July 7, 5 p.m. at St. Patrick Church in McEwen.