Rome-ordained Fr. Qui served archdiocese for 46 years

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Father Vincent Qui, retired priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans who served as a chaplain and a major in the South Vietnamese Army before coming to the U.S. in 1975, died on March 23 at the age of 90.

Father Qui’s Funeral Mass was celebrated April 5 at St. Bonaventure Church in Avondale, the parish where he had lived in his retirement and was cared for by his niece, Theresa Tran.

Father Qui, the fourth of eight children in his family, was ordained as a Salesian priest in Rome in 1968. One of his brothers is a priest in Vietnam.

He studied theology in Rome and, after serving as a priest in Vietnam, left his country after the fall of Saigon and eventually served in the archdiocese until his retirement.

Father Qui was classmates in Rome with Father Francis Carabello, who also was ordained as a Salesian before becoming a diocesan priest.

“We were both ordained in 1968 – I got ordained in January of 1968, and he was in the class behind me,” Father Carabello said. “He got ordained at the end of the year. He was an officer in the Vietnamese military.”

Father Carabello said Father Qui thought he might be able to minister in Vietnam after the war if a governmental structure had been set up similar to the one that exists in Taiwan, which has a relationship with communist China.

“He was supposed to be part of that, but it never materialized,” Father Carabello said.

Father Qui first went to Dallas, where he served the Vietnamese Catholic community in 1975.

“On Sunday, he would go from house to house to have a Vietnamese Mass,” his niece Theresa said. “I know he was very strict, and I had to be on time and on schedule. I think that was because of his upbringing in the priesthood.”

In the summer of 1976, he moved to New Orleans.

Father Carabello said he was assigned to serve for a year at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero and later asked Archbishop Philip Hannan if he could join the archdiocese.

“Father Qui finished the race and kept the faith,” said Father Peter Hoai Thanh, who delivered the homily. “My brother priests, as we pray for our brother Vincent, we can see our own journey as priests. Pray that we, too, may be humble and faithful.”

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