Utica welcomes Vietnamese Priest

By By GARY LIBERATORE

Story Created: Jun 13, 2010 at 6:06 PM EST

Story Updated: Jun 13, 2010 at 6:06 PM EST

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - Utica is known as being the home of many cultures and on Sunday a very special Thanksgiving Mass was held at St. John's Church in Utica to show evidence of the long standing cultural pillar of the community.

St. John's gave thanks Sunday afternoon to one of their own, as Quy Vo was assigned to his hometown church in which he grew up with. With Utica being home to many catholic Italians, and Polish, this transition was "kind of new for some people," says Father Thien An Tran.

Quy Vo came to Utica from Vietnam with his family in 1990 at the age of 11. Quy Vo is among only about 30% of the Vietnamese in the U.S. that are Catholics, and is only the second Vietnamese Priest in all of Upstate New York. In a city where 42 languages are spoken in city schools, Quy Vo has mastered a few of them, and Father Quy Vo says that it is important to "learn a variety of languages in order to connect everybody together.
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