They come to Carthage each year to pray.
And for most, the triple-digit temperatures are not a factor in their decisions on whether to make the annual pilgrimage. After all, some of the older among them endured far worse.
“We feel that as Catholics, we worship God first and, secondly, we help people with Catholic norms,” Nghi Nguyen told the Globe. “That’s what I want to do, to come here so I can pray and help people.”
Tens of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics arrived earlier this week for the annual Marian Days festival and will stay on the grounds of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.
Some 37 years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, this group of faithful still gathers. While the purpose is to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary, it’s also a family reunion.
There are some who entered America as “boat people.” They were refugees who were picked up by American cargo boats. The unused seminary in Carthage became home for a number of the Catholic priests. It now is a familiar part of the Carthage community.
Today, generations of Vietnamese Catholics — many who have only known the United States as their home — are our guests for a week.
We admire their deep convictions and the way they have managed to keep their own traditions, yet adapt to a country that took them in when they had no place else to go.
The area has an opportunity today and Saturday to visit a world that’s different, yet uniquely all ours.
We are pleased that they have continued to return year after year.
Opinion
Related Photos
-
inourview.jpg
Discussion
Our View: Welcome visitors
- Opinion
-
-
Other Views: Still inspiring
Cutbacks in the military budget and the still-recovering economy mean this Memorial Day weekend will go down as a relatively subdued affair — relative, that is, to our usual end-of-school, official-start-of-summer blowout.
-
Our View: Setting standard
The sight of hundreds of young student volunteers walking across Moore’s Fourth Street interstate overpass had to be uplifting to the city’s tornado victims.
-
Our View: Safer schools
Being able to see for ourselves what would have happened to our children had they been standing in the main hall of their schools during the May 22, 2011, tornado had a profound effect on our understanding of safe schools.
-
Marilyn Beasley, guest columnist: Claiming responsibility for abuse of power
Over the past few months we’ve witnessed the abuse of power by President Barack Obama and his administration.
-
Our View: ‘Why?’ has no answer
Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. There were pictures on the walls and memories in every room.
-
Our View: Absent from House
We can’t figure out why two Missouri legislators think they should be elected to the U.S. House when it appears they can’t seem to show up to take care of business in the Missouri House.
-
Your View: Terrible injustice
I see this Jasper County nuisance law as a terrible injustice on the rights of the residents of Jasper County.
-
Your View: Should we be outraged?
Were there effusive apologies following the lockdown of Boston as most of the continent indulged vicariously in the ongoing manhunt?
-
Your View: Terrorism is terrorism
In the May 13 issue of The Joplin Globe there was an Associated Press article concerning the New Orleans shooting.
-
Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Other Views: Still inspiring
Raw: Train Derails After Overpass Collapse
Raw: Rescues From San Antonio Flooding
Raw: French Soldier Stabbed in Throat Near Paris
Mayor: Person Killed in San Antonio Flooding
Raw: Apple 1 Computer Sells for More Than $650k
Hagel Urges Cadets to End Scourge of Sex Assault
Raw: Gay Rights Activists March in Ukraine
Bus Fire Kills 16 Children, Teacher in Pakistan
Raw: Pakistan Election Results Protested
Raw: Trucker Bumps I-5 Bridge Before Collapse
Raw: Texas Deputy Shot by Colo. Suspect Honored
Major Detours Following Wash. Bridge Collapse
American Held in Grisly Czech Murders
Raw: Jersey Shore Reopens for Summer
UK-bound Pakistan Plane Diverted, 2 Men Arrested
