Our Lady of Lavang Vietnamese Church 314 Township Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45216

"The Vietnamese Catholic Community started after 1975 when refugees immigrated to the USA. The history of the church is that up until about twenty five years ago, the Vietnamese Catholic community of Cincinnati, OH had to travel from church-to-church without a permanent place of worship. Sometimes, people had to travel to the far west side of town to attend service, even though a majority of the congregation were from the I-75 corridor from Mason/West-Chester, Fairfield, ForestPark, Delhi along Queen City Ave., Covington-KY. For a while, mass was held at the shared space at the seminary/church. Eventually, the priest Reverend Bernard Huan Tien Nguyen held a meeting right after mass one day. He said out loud, "Everywhere in the USA that I have traveled, there was always a permanent place of worship for the local Catholic Community: Texas, California, Louisiana, etc. Why can't we commit to building a permanent place of worship in Cincinnati, OH? I challenge everyone who has the means to contribute to stand up and announce your commitment to the cause!" One by one, people started to stand up, committing to contributions from $1,000 up to as high as $15,000. It was not enough to pay for the entire cost, but it was a good amount for funding to purchase a permanent location. Over the years, the congregation continued to commit to annual donation to fund the budget to acquire, repair, improve, and maintain the current location, Our Lady of LaVang Vietnamese Church in Cincinnati, OH. The community is very close knit, just everyone knows each other. They have divided the Cincinnati area into distinct prayer groups which held weekly prayer service. The church has a youth group that is committed to learning about the faith and also about the Vietnamese culture and language. They comprise almost 20% of the seats in the Sunday masses. Almost every new person who visited the church for mass for the very first time ends up returning and joining the community. Even those who are not Catholic eventually becomes converts because they see how warm they were welcomed by the people of the church. Reverend Bernard Huan Tien Nguyen has passed away since then. He was very hard working, often times providing mass/service at the same time in Indianapolis, IN and Dayton, OH in addition to regular service in Cincinnati, OH. At this time, the community has a Pastor assigned to the church, but on a rotation of up to four years. It is father Chau Pham at the moment. In his tenure, there has been many projects to improve the property, the priest's residence, the HVAC, the community center in the basement, and an outreach for visiting priests from Vietnam who regularly visits. In the past year, of 2018, there has been many who have passed away of those who were the original members of the early days of the church. However, there is still a surge in the congregation attendance because there is always an influx of new people from Vietnam (yes, it's quite amazing). Many of those are very dedicated Catholics who grew up in Vietnam with the Church being a huge part of their lives. And, they are usually here to start a family. Almost every few weeks, there is a baptism for their newborn children, and thus, the Catholic Community of LaVang keeps growing day-by-day. There is so much to write about. My suggestion is to come for a visit on Sunday at 11AM mass. There is a social right afterwards in the community center in the basement of the church where you can often order a hot lunch and get to talk to the people. Michael Vu (Luân)"

"This place I sometime feel like people her come to show off name brand cars cloths jewel and and pray"

"Enjoying with Vietnamese community here is wonderful"