Fr. Paul Phong Hoang, SCJ (pictured above), was one of the closing presenters at the 7th Annual Preaching Conference at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology which took place January 7-8. Fr. Mark Mastin, SCJ, was the opening speaker; he is pictured below with Fra. Michael Wodarczyk, SCJ.
This year’s conference theme: “Know Your Audience: Who’s in the Your Pews?”
Ordained last June, Fr. Paul was paired with another newly ordained priest – Fr. Craig Richter (ordained last May) of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – to share their experiences of preaching in multilingual settings. Both Frs. Paul and Craig serve on pastoral teams that minister to a mix of English and Spanish-speaking Catholics. Fr. Paul is on the Dehonian pastoral team in northern Mississippi and Fr. Craig is an associate to a cluster of eight parishes in Racine, WI.
Serving in a multilingual environment is familiar territory to Fr. Paul, who was born in Vietnam. His family immigrated to the United States when he was a teen, and he learned English while going to high school in Texas. As a seminarian at SHSST, he had several cross-cultural experiences, including ministry in Ecuador.
“I am not an expert,” emphasized Fr. Paul, “but I hope that by sharing some of my experiences you might find something helpful to take back to your own ministries.”
Preaching at a bilingual Mass is something that requires practice. Initially, Fr. Paul said that he would try to move back and forth between the two languages in his homily, but that he sometimes lost people.
“By the time that I got back to the listener’s language he often forgot what I said before I switched,” he said.
Fr. Paul said that for him, doing a homily in English – about 7 minutes long – followed by a shorter one in Spanish – seems to work best in a multilingual Mass.
Frs. Paul and Craig both noted differences in their preaching styles in Spanish and English, but Fr. Paul emphasized that what is most important is “to preach the truth,” he said. “If the Church is not preaching the truth, it is like the salt that has lost its taste. Speak the truth, and always ask yourself, ‘What does this mean to me?’”
If the preacher can answer that question – in any language – he can share the truth of the gospel and the impact of that truth in daily living.
