Call him the Holy Trinh-ity

WHEN MONSIGNOR Joseph Trinh got in trouble as a child growing up in Ho Chi Minh City, the former capital of South Vietnam once known as Saigon, the priest from the Catholic church across the street would pay his family a visit.

"I used to get into trouble a lot and every time I was in trouble, the priest would come to visit my family and I would get out of the trouble," he said. "So my parents really paid a special respect to that vocation."

Although his family were devout Catholics who attended Mass every morning, Trinh never planned to become a priest at age 18, when he moved to Philadelphia in 1981.

After attending Olney High School for two years, Trinh was accepted to La Salle University's pre-med program. But when a Vietnamese friend asked if he'd ever thought about becoming a priest, Trinh thought back to his days in Saigon.

"I thought my family would approve because of the way they treated the nuns and priests with so high respect," he said. "So I said to myself, 'I don't think my parents would mind.' "

After Trinh was accepted into the seminary, his friend who had asked him to join the priesthood "chickened out," he said. That man ended up in Boston and years later, Trinh performed his marriage ceremony.

Trinh, 52, couldn't be happier with his choice. Now, he's serving as an unofficial ambassador for the hundreds of people from Vietnam attending the World Meeting of Families in September.

Lizanne Pando, director of marketing and communications for WMOF, said when the organization made an informational video about the event and asked for people to interpret it, "Monsignor Trinh, if he could have flown through the door to volunteer, he would have."

"He said, 'We as a Vietnamese community want to come to the World Meeting of Families,' " Pando said. "I got a sense from his enthusiasm that the Vietnamese community is thrilled and excited and we're thrilled and excited to have them."

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