Father Paul Hao Trinh, a priest of the Diocese of Camden for almost 30 years, died June 1 at the age of 83.
Since 2007, he had been on sick leave. In his active ministry, he served as parochial vicar at Saint Joseph Pro-Cathedral, Camden, 1990-93; and Saint Joseph, Swedesboro, 1993-2000. From 2000 until the end of his active ministry, he was chaplain at Virtua Hospital in Voorhees.
Born in Vietnam on Dec. 3, 1936, Father Trinh, who held a doctorate in adolescent psychology, studied at the Catholic University of Paris and Sorbonne in France. It was a long journey to his ordination in Saint Joseph Pro-Cathedral by Bishop James T. McHugh on Dec. 1, 1990.
He made his perpetual vows as a Christian Brother in 1962. Under communist rule, he was sent to a reeducation camp and worked on a state farm from 1975 until he escaped with 54 others in 1978 on a 30-foot boat to the Philippines. He spent nine months in a refugee camp and then made his way to the Christian Brothers Provincial House in Louisiana.
For several years he worked with Vietnamese communities in Louisiana and New York. His passion to continue that work caused him to request and receive a dispensation from his perpetual vows as a Christian Brother. Eventually he began to work with the Vietnamese in Atlantic City. In 1989 he began studies for the priesthood at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia.
Funeral arrangements were pending at press time.
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