Catholic Outlook Volume 18, August 2015 | Page 22

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 \