WASHINGTON—Pope
Francis has appointed Father Thanh Thai Nguyen as a new auxiliary bishop in the
Diocese of Orange, California. Father Nguyen is a priest of the Diocese of St.
Augustine where he currently serves as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Jacksonville,
Florida.

The appointment was publicized in Washington on October 6 by Msgr. Walter
Erbi, Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature in the United States.

Father
Nguyen was born April 7, 1953 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. In 1979, he escaped
Vietnam by boat with his family and spent 10 months in a refugee camp in the
Philippines before arriving in the United States in 1980.

He holds
a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Merrimack College, North Andover,
Massachusetts and a master of divinity degree from Weston School of Theology,
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Father Nguyen entered the Missionaries of
Our Lady of La Salette in 1984 and served as a priest of that congregation for
eight years. He was ordained a priest on May 11, 1991. He was
incardinated in the Diocese of St. Augustine, June 29,1999.

Assignments
after ordination include: parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish,
Smyrna, Georgia, 1991-1994; parochial vicar, St. Ann Parish, Marietta, Georgia,
1994-1996; parochial vicar, Christ the King Parish, Jacksonville, Florida,
1996-2001; pastor, Christ the King Parish, Jacksonville, 2001-2014; pastor, St.
Joseph Parish, Jacksonville, 2014-present.

The
Diocese of Orange, California comprises 782 square miles. It has a total
population of 3,145,515 people of which 1,346,540, or 42 percent, are
Catholic.

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Keywords: Pope Francis, Reverent Thanh Thai Nguyen, Msgr. Walter Erbi, Apostolic Nunciature, Diocese of Orange, Diocese of St. Augustine.

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Media Contact
Judy
Keane
202-541-3200

Source:: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops