Meet the deacon candidates: Alan Vu
While kneeling, permanent deacon candidate Alan Vu professes Oath of Fidelity in front of Bishop Michael F. Olson on June 3, 2024. (NTC/Annette Mendoza-Smith)
FORT WORTH — With praise and thanksgiving to almighty God, Bishop Michael Olson will ordain three men to the permanent diaconate on June 21. The men have undergone five years of discernment and formation as they prepare to serve Christ's Church more deeply.
In advance of the Mass of Diaconate Ordination at 7 p.m. on June 21 at Vietnamese Martyrs Parish in Arlington, we would like to introduce the deacon candidates one at a time. Please join us in prayer for these men.
Alan Hung Quoc Vu
“O Lord, keep me in You, continue to use me as Your instrument, and help me continue to glorify You with my life. Amen.”
Alan Vu recalls hearing an announcement about diaconate formation while he sat in the cry room with his children during Mass. Two years later, he began actively discerning God’s call by talking with Deacon John Nguyen at Vietnamese Martyrs Parish in Arlington.
One day, Vu met Bishop Michael Olson at the Fort Worth courthouse when both were serving as jurors. He expressed his desire to enter diaconate formation. “The conversation lasted only a few minutes, but that meeting changed my life and marked the beginning of my diaconate journey when I got an invitation to an inquiry session for diaconate formation the following week. I am grateful to Bishop Olson for allowing me to enter diaconate formation.”
Vu was born in Vietnam and served as an altar boy. He came to the US in the early 1990s and graduated with a BS in electrical engineering at Texas A&M University. He works as an engineer in the defense industry.
He and his wife Chinh Hoang have been married for 26 years and have three children. “It has been a blessing to witness them growing up in the Catholic Church.”
He is a long-time parishioner at Vietnamese Martyrs Parish and has been a children’s catechist, usher, lector, Mass coordinator, and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
Vu said, “Diaconate formation truly formed and changed my life. The formation taught me to see God’s presence in everything, in everyone that I have encountered. I really enjoyed the theology studies, especially studying liturgy and the theology behind it.”
Through pastoral assignments at Saint Joseph Parish and Saint Vincent de Paul Parish for the last four years, Vu said he has “learned so much about the life of the local church and how to be a humble servant minister when serving with pastors, deacons, and parishioners.”
He served as a hospital chaplain, “which allowed me to be close with the patients and their families, to share God’s love and to be with them, and most importantly, to be God’s instrument to bring God’s consolation to them when they need it the most.
“Throughout the diaconate journey, I discerned that with all the graces that God bestows on me, it is not for me to keep, but for me to use the graces to glory God, to share, and to serve God’s people. God willing, I am looking forward to serving God and His people as a future deacon.”