Dear friends in Christ,

Happy Easter everyone! May the peace and joy of our Risen Lord be with all of us as we celebrate this Easter Season. I pray that Jesus will breath new life and new energy into each one of us so that we may live with greater zeal and appreciate how glorious life is.

Compiled and written by Tess Nguyen

 This is a brief compilation of the life of a man who had been touched deeply by God’s Love for him. It was in response to such wondrous Love that he decided to dedicate his whole life to love and serve other fellow human beings in need, in particular, the Vietnamese people.

On March 5, 1935, in a small town called Assissi (home of St. Francis of Assissi), Italy, a baby boy was born. His name was Gildo Dominici. He was the eldest child in the family of two boys and one girl. His parents were poor and simple folks. By the time Gildo was 8 years old, tragedy struck his family. His father, a manual labor worker, died from an accident on the job. Gildo’s mother was left alone to raise her 3 young children. Surrendering to God’s Providence, she worked very hard and struggled to get by. With God’s help, and his mother’s love and dedication, Gildo completed high school. At this time, Gildo realized that God was inviting him to enter religious life and to become a priest for the Diocese of Assissi. Gildo happily said "YES" to God and began his studies for the priesthood. In 1960, Father Gildo Dominici was ordained to become a priest. By this time, Father Dominici’s younger brother already had a job as a carpenter, and his younger sister worked as a seamstress to help out with their mom.

After 4 years, Father Gildo Dominici applied to the The Society of Jesus and became a Jesuit priest. He continued his studies on Canon Laws (Catholic Church Laws) and Dogmatics (Catholic Doctrines) and received his Doctorates in Rome. Although highly educated, Father Dominici always yearned to do missionary work and this was a wish very dear to his heart. In 1968, his superior sent him to Việt Nam. After a few short months of learning the Vietnamese language in Sài Gòn, Father Dominici was appointed professor of Canon Laws at the Pontifical College Piux X (Giáo Hoàng Học Viện Piô X) in Ðà Lạt. As he continued living his dream of serving God’s people in a foreign land, Father Dominici grew more and more fond of Việt Nam and its people. It is at this time that he wanted to have a Vietnamese name for himself - Cha Ðỗ Minh Trí - this name expresses his will (trí) to be one with the Vietnamese people, to live and die in Viet Nam, his second home. After the Communists took over South Viet Nam on April 30, 1975, Cha Trí was forced to leave Việt Nam. The Communists would not allow him to stay any longer.

Although being in exile from his second "homeland," Cha Trí’s love and concerns for the Vietnamese people never ceased. He found ways to volunteer as Chaplain for the Vietnamese refugees who fled Viet Nam and were detained at various refugee camps in other Southeast Asian countries. In May, 1977, from Singapore, Cha Trí applied to stay at Camp Galang in Indonesia. At this place, Cha Trí had to learn to speak the Indonesian language and in a short time, he mastered the language skillfully and he had asked to be registered under the Jesuit Community in Indonesia. At this camp, Cha Trí organized many social, cultural and religious activities to enliven the spirits of the refugees. One of his many popular writings is a the bi-weekly newsletter called Tự Do in which 31 of his essays had been compiled into a book entitled "Việtt Nam Quê Hương Tôi," which means "Viet Nam, My Homeland." In this camp, there were cases of discrimination against Vietnamese refugees by the people in charge. Cha Trí spoke out against that and worked tiredlessly to defend and protect the Vietnamese refugees. As a result of his actions, the authority at Galang forced him to leave the camp. Once again, being in exile from the people he loved, Cha Trí searched for other ways to serve the Vietnamese refugees.

In 1985, Cha Trí came to Bataan Camp in the Philippines. Conditions in the refugee camps were often unpleasant and ugly. The refugees in this camp were treated worse that those at Galang. No wonder, God, in his compassion, had sent a special "guardian angel" in the form of Cha Trí to be there with the refugees, to help and support them in their times of need. In the Bataan camp, Cha Trí witnessed injustice and corruptions from the camp officials towards the refugees.

There was one incident which involved Vietnamese girls being persuaded to take part in prostitution. Cha Trí learned that outside the camp, the Filipinos were operating prostitution. At the camp, in order to prepare for entrance into the U.S., the refugees were learning English, taught by Filipino teachers. In the evening, these teachers were persuading students to come to their house for "dirty business." Once he found out about this, Cha Trí was very upset. He protested against it and worked hard to put an end to these problems. The camp officials who were involved were angry; as a result, there were many letters and death threats made on Cha Trí’s life. In the face of death, Cha Trí remained unwavered, his eyes focussed solely on Jesus, his Idol, the One who showed compassion toward the "leasts" among us. Cha Trí had helped many Vietnamese people in so many ways. He offered not only material, physical and spiritual help to the people, but he also lived among them, be one with them and shared their joy and pain as well. Cha Trí fought hard to defend the human rights and dignity of these refugees until he was forced once again, by the authority, to leave the camp.

Toward the beginning of 1990, Cha Trí was asked to be Chaplain for the Vietnamese Young Adults of Ðồng Hành Group in the U.S. The Vietnamese Catholics in America were very blessed by his presence. Cha Trí had conducted many workshops, seminars and spiritual exercise retreats to help Vietnamese young adults understand about God’s love and to better appreciate their Catholic heritage. Those who met him fell in love right away with his softly spoken voice, his loving, gentle smile and his patient, humble manner. If one wishes to imagine what God, as a Loving Father would look like in picture, one can just look into Cha Trí’s soft, gentle eyes when Cha speaks about God’s Love and it’s there that one will see the reflection of the Loving Father. Yes, this Vietnamese-speaking Italian priest had captured the hearts of so many Vietnamese people, young and old.

In 1996, Cha Trí’s superior called him back to Rome to work at the Galloro Retreat House of his Order. In 1998, doctors told Cha Trí that he had cancer. This was very upsetting news for all those who loved him dearly. On his part, with regards to how he felt about the cancer, these were his exact words:

At 12:30 AM on Monday, March 03, 2003, Cha Trí went home to Jesus. His Funeral Mass was offered by Father Antonelli and Bishop Firenze, his classmates, along with 50 priests (20 of whom are Vietnamese priests) at 10 AM on Wednesday, March 05, 2003 in Rome.

This beautiful, kind, gentle, loving, holy, Italian priest with a Vietnamese soul had left behind a legacy of love. The kind of love that shines bright through his thoughts, his words and his concrete actions during his 40+ years something years of serving and loving God’s people. But perhaps it was during his final days of being stricken with cancer and totally helpless from the pain, that his love shone the brightest - perhaps that was also his greatest gift of love to God and to the world. Just as Jesus chose to go through pain, suffering and death in order to bring us to new life, cha Trí joined with Jesus in his Passion to pray for the salvation of all souls.

Cha Trí, you were born out of love, enkindled by love, you spent your whole life sharing God’s love to the needy, in your suffering, your heart was overflowed with love. at your death, you were surrounded by love. Cha Trí, we thank you for your love and we thank God for your life. Now that you are forever in the embrace of the Risen Lord, please pray for us so that we may learn from you, to love God and each other with all our heart.