Our Lady of La Vang welcomes Vietnamese faithful

Kerrie Le of Springfield, Missouri (USA) struggled to find words to describe her sole visit to the mountainous jungle of La Vang, an area in central Vietnam. She and her family left Vietnam in 1989 to settle in United States. She returned to her native land to visit the shrine to Our Lady of La Vang in 2014.

"When we got back we thought — 'Gosh! Wouldn't it be nice to have something like that here?'"

Kerrie went to the site in the jungle where, according to Catholic tradition, the Blessed Virgin and her Child appeared to persecuted Catholics who had fled to escape death in 1798. The Rev. Lewis Hejna, rector of St Agnes Cathedral in Springfield, says that an estimated 100,000 Vietnamese Catholics were killed when a new king wanted to wipe out what he viewed as too much foreign influence. According to the story, Our Lady appeared and promised that if followers continued their prayers, they would be protected and would survive.

St Agnes Cathedral has had a tradition of welcoming Vietnamese refugees since the fall of Saigon in 1975. As of May 26, 2019, it also has had its own statue of Our Lady of La Vang, with Child. The artwork was paid for by the approximately 120 Vietnamese families that make up their congregation at the church, which also has a traditional non-Vietnamese congregation. The white marble statue, made in Vietnam, came with a 10,000-pound rock from the mountainous area where the Blessed Virgin reportedly appeared.

Adapted from Springfield News-Leader, Steve Pokin, July 11, 2020