An Interview on the Origins of Christ's Vieteen
-by Lana Nguyen
LANA: How did Christ Vieteen come about?
BERNIE: My first dream about this was in 1998, when I did my summer parish ministry in MO. There was an American worship band traveling from parish to parish. That's when I had a vision that we could make a team, the CMC brothers, that is. I shared this vision with Vincent, and he said, "I like the idea." I kept dreaming about it, but it was a very liberal idea according to the views of CMC. Well, I met up with a group in Kansas City, MO, a youth group, and they suggested that I should start a youth group of my own. They said I would have their support. From then, I wrote down the plan, or outline, and presented it to father superior, who was Father Diep at the time, and he gave his consent. Although, this was a tremendous endeavor, it was mainly sticky because of the collaborative ministry.
LANA: What is collaborative ministry?
BERNIE: The gist of it is teamwork. We believe each person has a particular gift to contribute to the whole. It's not a one-man band. (laughs)
LANA: Who were the contributing members, the original collaborators?
BERNIE: (more laughing) Everyone that showed up! That's a lot of people to name. The Academy Awards only gives you a couple of minutes to thank everyone before they give you the cane. I would probably be caned off ten times if I had to mention everyone.
LANA: Father Vincent, what was your reaction when you first heard of the idea for Christ's Vieteen?
VINCENT: I was thinking about how to bring faith to the Vietnamese teens, and the founder of Lifeteen, Monsignor Dale, gave me an insight of how to do that. Specifically he said that good liturgy demands good music, and good preaching. And Vieteen focuses on many ways to bring out the good news. And of course we have music, because music is it. Music is life for teens.
LANA: Vieteen sounds awfully a lot like Lifeteen, is there by any chance a coincidence?
VINCENT: Yes, the idea came from is Lifeteen. We didn't want to use their format completely because we are serving a different group--the Vietnamese youth.
BERNIE: And actually the "Vie" in Vieteen is French for life, so in this case it does emulate Lifeteen.
LANA: What obstacles did Vieteen face at the beginning?
VINCENT: The biggest obstacle was actually carrying out our plan of collaborative ministry. If you can pull it off its beautiful, but at the same time it's also very demanding and complex. At the time of our first two rallies, the head of Vieteen, Father Bernie, wasn't in Carthage! He was in school at Notre Dame Seminary, in New Orleans--he wasn't a priest at the time though, and all contact was done through e-mail and phone. This made it difficult for the planning and execution.
LANA: I heard there was plenty of opposition from the older generation towards Christ's Vieteen. Is this true?
BERNIE: They said we were too noisy. The older generation isn't used to all the music, and dancing we have in a Vieteen event. It's nothing negative because we are talking about a different cultural upbringing. The idea is to start from where you are at, the youth, using skits and songs from your culture.
LANA: Christ's Vieteen has been around for five years, is there still that opposition you guys met at the beginning?
VINCENT: No, because for the last two years we've had many requests for Christ's Vieteen to help out with Advent and Lenten retreats in many Vietnamese parishes.
LANA: Do you guys have anything else planned for the future?
BERNIE: We're planning on making a CD sung by Vieteen members. We want to add more members, and invite all leaders from across the country to join us.
LANA: How can I become a member of Christ's Vieteen.
BERNIE: Easy, give me your social security number, your gold card number, and the keys to your car. (laughs) No, I'm joking if you couldn't tell. Just log on to the Vieteen website, or email Vieteen2@vieteen.com and ask to join.
LANA: Thank you Father Bernie, and Father Vincent. May God bless the Vieteen ministry. |
