NATIONAL VOCATIONS AWARENESS WEEK
Sunday 2 August – Sunday 9 August 2015
Couple joined in a ministry of service
For Joseph Ledang the support of
his wife, Trish, and their daughters
is integral to his ministry as a
permanent deacon. “Without Trish
beside me, I would not have been
able to walk this path,” he said.
Born in the village of Ke Van
in central Vietnam in 1958,
Joseph’s first vocation was to the
priesthood. However, five years of
seminarian studies ended abruptly
with the end of the Vietnam War
and the fall of Saigon in 1975.
He fled to Cambodia where
he was held captive by the
Khmer Rouge for seven months
until he was freed through the
intervention of the Red Cross.
From a camp in Thailand, he
applied to the UN refugee
program for asylum in Australia
and settled in Western Sydney.
It was at the suggestion of
priests who were family friends
that Joseph first considered
the ordained ministry of the
permanent deacon.
Permanent deacons are ordained
ministers of the Catholic Church.
In a ministry that extends well
beyond the walls of the church,
the deacon serves as the eyes and
ears of the bishop and in practical
ways as the heart and hands. He is
a ‘go-between’ as it were between
the secular and the Ch \