Fr. Vincent Thao Ngoc Dinh: Three calls and a calling

Fr. Vincent was born in Vietnam and fled his home country in 1979. He had planned to escape to Malaysia along with his cousin, but the boat they were in was picked up by a Norwegian ship that was transporting cars to Japan. So, he ended up in a refugee camp near Nagasaki where he lived for 14 months.
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In this camp, Vincent met his good friend Linh Cao who had been in a Dominican minor seminary in Vietnam. He explained to Vincent all about what he had done in the boarding school—Mass every day, spiritual direction, etc. They both made a promise together to become priests. Later, his friend became a Franciscan and stayed in Japan.

​Eventually, Vincent’s cousin in Oregon sponsored him to come to the USA. He finished college in Portland and taught the Vietnamese language and catechism in the Sunday School at the parish church. 

At the same time, he discerned a call to the priesthood while working as a computer engineer. He was able to sponsor his parents, two sisters, and a brother to the USA.

While in Oregon, he discerned with the Jesuits there. He also discerned with the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Wisconsin through a friend. The third community he discerned with was the Dominicans, situated in Calgary, Canada. One of Vincent’s cousins was in the Vietnamese Dominicans in Houston, Texas. 

One Sunday, after he got home from teaching Sunday School, the phone rang, and the Vocation Director from the Priests of the Sacred Heart asked when he was going to visit them. He said, “Okay, let me look at my schedule and arrange vacation time.” This was his way of being non-committal. After he hung up the phone, it rang again, and it was the Vocation Director from the Dominicans in Canada asking the same question. He gave the priest the same answer as he had for the other community. He hung up, and it rang a third time; this time the call was from the Jesuits. They asked the same question, and he gave the same response.

After such a succession of phone calls on the same day, asking the same question, he thought, “Someone is trying to give me a message.”

He chose to follow his heart into the Dominicans. At that time, the motherhouse was in Calgary, and he arranged to visit them. Driving to Calgary from Portland in March of 1993 was very cold, requiring extra layers of clothing, and meeting no other vehicles on the road. Happily, he arrived safely in Calgary. Although he had planned to stay only one month, he ended up staying six months. He was attracted to their community life and study and experienced peace under the guidance of a Dominican Brother. In the summer of 1993, he entered the novitiate and was sent to Cincinnati for formation.

In 1994, he made his first vows and was sent to Ottawa to begin his priestly formation. While the philosophy classes were offered in English, Vincent had to learn French because his Dominican community was French speaking and the theology classes were given in French. He remained in Ottawa for seven years, up to 2001, when he was ordained to the priesthood in his Order. He had felt very peaceful throughout his formation years with the students in Ottawa who came from various countries: Croatia, Mexico, Haiti, and Vietnam; the Student Master spoke three languages.

After ordination, he returned to Calgary, where he was assigned as editor of the Vietnamese magazine. It was a difficult transition back into the Vietnamese language. Expressing his willingness to live his vow of obedience with a peaceful heart, he said, “The community trusted me and assigned me to this. In each of the assignments that I was given, patience is the key.” Not knowing the written form of Vietnamese, he asked his brother for a Vietnamese dictionary so that he could learn. From his experiences, Fr. Vincent advises, “You will never be ready, but God will help you.”
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Many assignments followed, sometimes overlapping. From 2001 to 2006, Fr. Vincent was also associate pastor at Holy Trinity parish in Calgary. Then he switched roles with Fr. Liem Tran to become a chaplain at the University of Calgary. Fr. Vincent recalls, “Six years as chaplain, which I really enjoyed! I liked meeting the other chaplains and the many students.”

A new challenge came when he was sent to Houston, Texas. He said of this, “I had never worked with the Vietnamese community. I didn’t think that I would be good there, but Fr. Liem said that we had no one else. It was difficult for me to be in that mission, but I stayed for five years, and I learned a lot. God did wonderful things. I was able to restructure the parish community.”

Then Fr. Vincent experienced a few more placements: pastor at St. Joseph’s parish in Vancouver for two years; back to Calgary for a brief time; parochial vicar in Arlington, Virginia, to look after the Our Lady of Lavang Mission; Calgary again in August of 2025 as pastor of St. Vincent Liem parish.
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Fr. Vincent’s advice for discerning one’s vocation: “Give yourself a chance and go from there. I have no regrets. You should experience peace. That is what kept me going. There is no perfect community, only in heaven. We are called to help build up the community. That is my experience with all my assignments.”

Fr. Vincent with Bishop McGrattan, and other Jubilarian priests at the Jubilarian Mass | Photo courtesy of Fr. Iqbal Kurshid

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Written by Sr. Dianne Turner after an interview wtih Fr. Vincent. We thank Sr. Dianne Turner and Solomon Ip for coordinating this jubilarian feature and helping collect stories and materials.​