Father Rochus Hoat Dinh Vu, a priest who served in his native Vietnam before coming to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, died Jan. 21 in Carthage, Mo. He was 86.
A funeral Mass was offered Jan. 27 at the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer Chapel in Carthage for Father Vu, who served both St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Govans and Ascension Parish in Halethorpe.
A priest for 61 years, Father Vu was born Dec. 30, 1934, in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam, and ordained to the priesthood May 31, 1960, in Saigon by Archbishop Paul Binh Van Nguyen.
After serving as chaplain to the Republic of Vietnam Army (South Vietnam at the time) from 1960 to 1975, he came to the United States. He ministered first at a Missouri parish from 1975 to 1978, until he was incarnated to the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
His first assignment as associate pastor was at Ascension, where he served 1978 to 1984, according to Father William Foley, director of Pastoral Care for Retired Priests. Father Hoat (pronounced Watt), as he preferred to be called, was associate pastor of St. Mary’s from 1984 until his retirement from active ministry in 1996. He continued to live and minister at St. Mary’s until 2011, Father Foley said.
Monsignor Thomas Tewes, who was pastor of St. Mary in the 1970s, said he invited Father Vu to come to the Govans parish, where he was a frequent celebrant of the daily noon Mass.
“He was very much liked,” Monsignor Tewes said. “He was very popular with the people.”
Father Vu was a simple, quiet man, added Monsignor Tewes, who doesn’t recall him talking about his home country or his service to Vietnam. He did continue to enjoy his native cuisine, often taking meals cooked on a hot plate in his room.
“I enjoyed our conversations, the witness of his priestly life and ministry, and his assistance in providing pastoral care by hearing confessions and offering Holy Mass at noon on Saturdays,” Father Raymond Harris, who was pastor of St. Mary from February 2010 to February 2011, said in an email to the Catholic Review.
In 2011, Father Vu moved to Mater Dei, a retirement home for Vietnamese priests in Carthage, Mo., where he was to be buried.
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