Thousands of Houston-Galveston Area Vietnamese Catholics gather to celebrate Christmas

December 23, 2013

Thousands of Houston-Galveston Area Vietnamese Catholics gather to celebrate Christmas
By Catherine Rogan, Media Relations Specialist, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston

On Christmas Eve, several thousand Vietnamese Catholics from around the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston will join together to celebrate the birth of Christ at the annual Vietnamese Christmas Vigil Mass. The Mass will begin at 6 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

The celebration starts with Christmas Carols from 4 to 5:30 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. priests, deacons, altar servers, representatives from all Vietnamese parishes of the Archdiocese and various religious organizations will lead a procession. The Mass starts at 6 p.m. with Daniel Cardinal DiNardo presiding.

There are an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 Vietnamese Catholics in the Archdiocese, and the numbers continue to rise. This annual Mass is “the one time of the year for Vietnamese Catholics of the Archdiocese to gather as one community to celebrate,” said Rev. Thu Ngoc Nguyen, J.C.L., Archdiocesan Vicar for Vietnamese Catholics and coordinator of the Mass. “And, at the same time, this is our time to celebrate with our chief pastor, Cardinal DiNardo, and to celebrate in a special way the birth of Christ.”