Father Joseph Bui (please call Fr. Joe) arrived at Our Saviour’s Church on November 7, 2019. His journey to our church is an interesting one.
Joe was born in Vietnam to loving and caring parents of ten children who, like all parents, wanted the best for their children. When he was 12 years old, they enrolled him in a high school seminary so he could receive the best education available. He graduated in 1975 and knew his vocation was to serve God’s people as a priest.
This discernment was to become the first challenge Joe was to encounter. That same year, 1975, the Vietnamese Communists from the North invaded South Vietnam, and Catholics were suppressed in their belief. Joe stayed in the seminary praying and studying theology until 1978, when the Communists closed his seminary in Saigon. The seminarians were told to return to their families. However, some of them, like Joe, chose to stay on in groups of six directed by one priest, to continue their vocation to the priesthood. Together they prayed, studied “under table,” and labored although the Communists harassed them.
In 1983, Joe completed his studies of theology. However, he was not allowed to be ordained because the Communists blocked ordinations of priests. Through all these challenges and setbacks, Joe never lost his focus – his dream of becoming a priest. He stayed at a local monastery until 1989, and it was then that he made one of his most difficult decisions: to escape from the Communist regime and flee his homeland to search for another way to the priesthood. This was not an easy choice as he was leaving everything behind he had known for 32 years, most especially his family and traditions. Along with 91 others, he secretly sailed away from Vietnam in a tiny boat with little food and water. After two days at sea they were rescued by a German ship and taken to Singapore to a refugee camp. Joe was then sent to Bataan in the Philippines for an 8-month orientation period before being allowed to immigrate to the United States.
Joe arrived in the U.S. in 1990 and went to New Orleans where he lived alone and worked in a Chinese restaurant for three months. He was still searching for a way to be ordained a priest. Joe’s aunt, Mrs. Hoe Bui, has lived in Winter Haven, and he eventually made his way here. In 1991, the Diocese of Orlando accepted Joe to the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach to update theology. Through out his life, Joe was convinced that “Per Ipsum, cum Ipso, et in Ipso” (Through Him, with Him, and in Him) all his trials and challenges on his journey would lead to the priesthood. In May 1994, Joe was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Orlando. He was assigned to St. Joseph’s Church in Winter Haven for his deaconate internship. Deacon Joe was ordained to the priesthood in May 1995. His first assignment was at Divine Mercy Church in Merritt Island. Then he served in St. Charles Borromeo Church in Orlando from 1996 to 2003. Fr. Joe then served in Holy Name of Jesus Church in Indialantic for eleven years. In 2014, he began serving the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Candler for three years. Before coming here, Fr. Joe served St. Matthew Church in Winter Haven since 2017. Bishop Noonan assigned Fr. Joe to Our Saviour’s on November 8, 2019 to serve as Parochial Vicar with responsibility for the Vietnamese community in Brevard County.
We, the people of Our Saviour’s, are so excited to have Fr. Joe into our family of faith, love and unity in Christ Jesus.
Welcome Father Bui.
