Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ has appointed Fr Dominic Quyen Vu SJ as the next Provincial of the Australian Province. Fr Quyen entered the Society of Jesus in 1994, was ordained in 2004 and took his Final Vows in 2014.
Born in Saigon, Fr Quyen was 10 years old when his family escaped on a fishing boat bound for Malaysia during the rise of communism in Vietnam. He and his brother lived by themselves in a refugee camp in Malaysia for a year before gaining passage to Australia and reuniting with their family.
“I was a refugee. I was one of those Boat People so I know how difficult it is. We were in the middle of the ocean, faced with a life-and-death situation,” relates Fr Quyen during an interview with Australian Jesuits Fr Robin Koning SJ and Scholastic Julian Butler SJ. That experience, he says, fired his passion to give back. “That’s why I chose to become a Jesuit and the Jesuits gave me the means to be a servant of God’s mission.”
Fr Quyen is currently Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education of the Jesuit Mission in Cambodia and Director of Xavier Jesuit School in Sisophon, one of the poorest areas in the country. He previously served in Timor-Leste, helping establish the Jesuit secondary school, Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola.
As a missionary, Fr Quyen has been away from Australia for 16 years. In fact, he has lived in many places. Where is home for him? The next Provincial doesn’t think he needs to choose only one. His family is still in Australia and his Province is Australia, so Australia is still home. At the same time, he spent six and half years in Timor-Leste, and has been in Cambodia since 2015, so both countries feel like home to him, too. Ultimately, though, home for Fr Quyen is the wider Society of Jesus.
“Fr General Arturo Sosa mentioned that we join the Society not a Province. We are part of this international Society,” he says. “I felt everywhere I’ve been to, in Timor-Leste, in Boston for two years [of studies], in the Philippines [for tertianship], and now in Cambodia, I feel like I’m part of the Society. We, Jesuits, have this unique charism and spirituality, examen and sense of apostolic vocation serving brothers and sisters wherever we are needed.”
Current Australian Provincial Fr Brian McCoy SJ affirms this. In a video reflection posted on the Australian Jesuits’ website, Fr McCoy says: “[Fr Quyen] reminds us that we are an international Society, called to share the gifts we have with those who also seek further resources and support, not just in Asia Pacific but other parts of the world.”
Fr McCoy also notes: “Fr Quyen reminds us, as a refugee from Vietnam, of the great blessing of the Vietnamese people to the Australian Church and to our Province, reminding us once again that we are part of this larger international family that seeks peace and justice and safe homes throughout the world.”
Fr Quyen will begin his duties as Australian Provincial on 1 January 2021.