In the world of church communities in Dorchester, most of the news is about closings, lower attendance, and contraction, but the story coming out of St. Ambrose Church in Fields Corner is much different. Parishioners are bursting at the seams and riding a unique wave of momentum.

Parishioners new and old say the growth comes from an open-mindedness and an accepting of everyone throughout the parish — embracing faith ahead of differences. The once-dwindling Irish and Italian congregation has found a resurgence in blending well with a massive, multi-generational Vietnamese population uncompromising in their faith spurred by the religious persecution they faced before coming to Boston.

Father Linh Nguyen, pastor of St. Ambrose, said the parish has more than 300 kids attending religious education classes (CCD). It also has eight Legion of Mary groups, a youth dance group with 50 members, a choir of 70 that can barely fit into the sanctuary, and sometimes as many 1,000 people at a Mass – particularly on special occasions like last weekend’s special Tet (Lunar) New Year Mass.

“The Masses are all standing-room-only,” said Rev. Linh. “Space is such a challenge for us. We’ve contemplated expanding or coming up with other ways to create more space in the church…On a big day, like the New Year right now, we have to have a livestream downstairs in the hall. On Christmas this year, it was packed in both spaces. It can be more than 1,000 people at a Mass.”

That last is not a problem many parishes are facing in Greater Boston, particularly in Dorchester as many Catholic parishes and other Christian congregations strain to attract regular members. The Vietnamese resurgence started in 1985 when the first community was established at St. Peter’s Church on Bowdoin Street. Later, St. William’s Church became the place many Vietnamese attended. When it closed in 2006, many Vietnamese migrated down to St. Ambrose, which the archdiocese of Boston has designated as a place of worship for the Vietnamese.

Father Linh came to Dorchester from Vietnam when he was 14 and settled at St. Peter’s. He says he always wanted to be a priest. Catholicism was a way of life for him before he immigrated here, with the faith being introduced to the Vietnamese around 1530 by Jesuit missionaries. However, during the troublesome times in the 1970s and 1980s, Christians were persecuted. That, more than economics, is what landed the faithful at St. Ambrose, he said.

“We are very family oriented,” he said. “That keeps us together and we’re able to preserve the values that we treasure. That comes with faith. Faith is of utmost importance for the Vietnamese community. That’s one of the main reasons the Vietnamese came here was for religious freedom. It’s not economics…It was a pilgrimage here for religious freedom.”

Father Linh Nguyen has been the pastor of the St. Ambrose congregation for about six years and was recently renewed for another six years. Seth Daniel photo

Nowadays, Fr. Linh said, the parish is nearly 85 percent Vietnamese, and it runs in collaboration with St. Mark’s Parish due to lack of available space for the Vietnamese, English, and Spanish communities. Despite the large numbers of Vietnamese, Father Linh said, there is not a sense of “taking over,” but of appreciation for those who came before.
“We’re not looking to replace, but to build up what the people before us built – the foundation they left us,” he said. “We are the caretakers and we’re here to keep the church for them. That’s all.”

Bridging Past And Present
At her life-long home on Dorchester Avenue, Mary Whalen can still remember getting a call from her late brother who worked for the Boston Fire Department on a cold evening in 1984 while she was at the kitchen table grading papers for her teaching job. He told her to go out on the Avenue and look at the church because it was on fire.

One step out the door, Whalen said she could see the fire taking her beloved church up in flames. She grew up at St. Ambrose Church, went to the school there and “basically have spent all of my sacramental life at that church.”

She was on the committee to re-build after the fire, and her late mother was honored at the groundbreaking in 1986. They had salvaged the massive stained-glass windows depicting The Last Supper, but all else was new.

It wasn’t long after that when the church numbers got lower, and her neighbors kept moving to the suburbs, causing a generation to be lost at the parish grammar school – eventually leading to its closing. “They were consolidating and closing churches and we were just holding our breath that we would be next,” she said.

Then came the Vietnamese.

“Initially St. Ambrose was a refuge for Irish immigration,” she said, noting that she still serves on the Parish Council. “Now in this period of time we have welcomed the Vietnamese people who also came for an opportunity, but they also came for different reasons. The Irish and Italians could always worship and weren’t persecuted. The Vietnamese are from a culture where they suffered religious persecution. They want to improve economically and educationally, but their true desire is to practice their faith openly. They do not take that for granted.

“I’ve been so enriched in my life by the Vietnamese community and their faith,” she continued.

Whalen is part of a group of long-time parishioners who stayed on and welcomed the Vietnamese to St. Ambrose, and now they are welcomed into the vibrant church life that fellowship has brought on. Sometimes, she said, she even attends the packed daily Vietnamese Masses.

“I can tell from the cadence of the voices and looking at my prayer book what they’re saying,” she remarked.

She said that she and those remaining followed the call of Pope Francis to be open and accepting and create a “cultural synthesis” in churches around the world. “Was there pushback? Yes, and that’s because what’s left of the old Irish and Italians who stayed here felt they would lose their identity,” she said. “They have their perceptions of new people instead of having an open mind and reaching out…St. Ambrose is an example of what is going on throughout Boston with its growth and diversification of people…I think it’s wonderful – faith imbued.”

Nowadays, Whalen delights in Tet New Year festivals, the English Masses, and some of the special societies. She said that after she embraced the Vietnamese at first, they have come to embrace her. In fact, she said, if there’s a snowstorm, community members from the church will have shoveled her driveway before she can even think to ask.

Young parishioners at St. Ambrose Church in Fields Corner participated in a celebration of the Tet Lunar New Year observances at the Dorchester parish last weekend. Dzung Nguyen photo

“Because of the persecution in Vietnam, they all embrace their faith here, and it’s been great for St. Ambrose,” she said.

Keeping church life alive
Long-time parishioner Hiep Chu came to Boston when he was 11 and has been part of the St. Ambrose community for decades – he says he is part of the “bridge” generation trying to keep the church, and the culture, alive.

The key to that is the youth, he said. He said the Vietnamese stress CCD classes, with parents being the teachers, but also feature Vietnamese language classes and fun social and cultural events – such as the dance group.

“Kids don’t necessarily like going to Sunday program, but when they are there, they do like it,” he said. “That’s why we have at least 300 kids in the program. It’s an opportunity for us to hold on to what we have…I have accepted that we’re going to lose the language, but our hope in teaching the language in church is to hold onto it a little longer…It’s part of holding on to the second and third generation – and the kids are happy when they’re here.”

Fr. Linh added that it is a point of pride in the parish to have such a vibrant youth and young adult ministry. “We have to work in tandem to accomplish this,” he said. “If we lose the kids, we lose the parents…It’s not only religious stuff or serious classes, but also social activities and fun things with their friends and that’s how we keep them together with their parents too.”

Chu said he has also been very inspired by parishioners like Whalen, and how they’ve embraced parish life amid change.

“I am stunned and inspired by the older generation at St. Ambrose,” he said.

Meanwhile, both said they see what happened in the past at St. Ambrose with dwindling numbers, and maybe there are glimpses now of going down that path.

“We are at the point where we can keep these values of that new tradition alive, but we see glimpses of the same path that our Irish brothers have gone through; maybe 10 to 20 years from now that will be something we have to face as well,” Father Linh said.

Added Chu, “The role of the church is to find out how to make people go to church and Mass. When you don’t have a direct relationship between family, kids, and the church, people don’t see that it’s worth their time to associate themselves and their kids with church.”

At this point, that prayer is being answered weekly at St. Ambrose Church.