In the early days of May 1975, the waves of refugees from the Southeast Asia were
pouring into the transition camps in the islands of Guam, Wake, and in USA waiting for
the sponsorships from the charity organizations, the churches and even individuals. Most
of the refugees were greeted by their sponsors with a warm welcome and the open arms,
but it was very hard for them to communicate with one another because of the language
barrier and different cultures.

The Most Reverend Vincent Harris, the late Bishop of the Diocese of Austin encouraged
all Catholic Churches in the whole Diocese to sponsor refugee families from the transition
camps and he foresaw that great numbers of Vietnamese Catholic refugees would come
to settle in the diocese. He decided to ask for two Vietnamese priests from the Indian
Town Gap Refugee Camp, PA, to take the responsibilities of ministering to the refugees.

Father Joseph HOAN NGUYEN who was appointed the associate pastor to St. Joseph
Church in Waco, Texas, was in charge of the northern part of the diocese, but after a year
or so the numbers of vietnamese refugee families declined steadily. The reasons were
various: Some families with grown children moved to bigger cities in hope of looking for
better jobs and the opportunities of having the higher education for their children. Others
moved to be closer to their relatives and friends in an effort of coping with loneliness and
homesickness. Realizing that his work with the refugees was no longer in dire need in the
northern part of the diocese, Father Joseph HOAN NGUYEN requested to be transferred
to another diocese.

In the meantime, Father Joseph VAN NGUYEN was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in
Austin as an associate pastor and also in charge of ministering to all Vietnamese refugees
in the central and southern part of the diocese. Back in 1975 there were less than 50
Vietnamese Catholic families living in Austin and in the neighboring counties, but the
number of the families increased to nearly 120 families in 1987 and today there are over
400 families, and the number of the Catholic families has increased rapidly.

In 1987, Father Joseph VAN NGUYEN was a pastor of Holy Trinity Church in New Corn Hill,
Tx. The Most Reverend John E. McCarthy, the emeritus Bishop, conceived that the
shepherd should be close to his flock, thus he transferred Father NGUYEN to St.
Joseph's Church in Manor, Tx. In mid August, 1987 the services and the social activities
for Vietnamese Catholics had been moved to Manor.

In the recent years, all Vietnamese Catholics yearned to have their own church in order to
worship God in their own culture and especially they did not want to depend on the
facilities of other parishes. Fortunately, in early 1990 a fore closure of a commercial
estate located on Yager Lane was put on sale with a practical price that the community
could afford to purchase.

On May 16th, 1990 the good news came when Msgr. Donald Fruge, the financial officer for the
diocese, informed us that the estate officially belonged to the Vietnamese Catholic
Community. A dream finally came true for many years we wished to have a place to
worship in our own language and to keep our own culture. We put our church under the
protection of our ancestors who died for their faith during the persecution times and were
canonized by Pope John Paul II on June 19th, 1988. HOLY VIETNAMESE MARTYRS is
our church's name.

Once again, happy news came on June 1, 1993 when Bishop John E. McCarthy signed a
paper to raise the Community to the level of a PERSONAL PARISH, allowing all
Vietnamese Catholics living in the whole diocese to join the new parish if they wish to.
Looking back all those hard working years to build up the community stronger and
stronger, we did not stop at this point. We are looking forward to make our Parish
Community steady and successful, not only in the material things, but also the spiritual
matters and, especially, in keeping our own culture for the next generations.