Parishioners bid farewell to Dominican Father Peter Do

Friday, May. 16, 2014

By Marie Mischel

Intermountain Catholic

SALT LAKE CITY — Kind. Enthusiastic. A good homilist and teacher.

These are just a few of the adjectives that Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center parishioners use to describe Dominican Father Peter Do, who has served the community for five years and now is heading to his first assignment as pastor, at Saint Thomas More Newman Center at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

“He was a baby priest when he showed up on our doorstep, so it’s been nice to see him [become a] model of a young spiritual person in this community who has inspired a lot of other young adults,” said Amee Garcia, who has been a St. Catherine of Siena parishioner for 10 years. 

St. Catherine of Siena Parish was Fr. Peter’s first assignment as a priest, and “we kind of helped him along the way, but he’s always been very helpful to everyone and we’ve appreciated him being here,” said parishioner Steve Kelly. “We love him a lot.”

Fr. Peter was the reason that Sherry Li began going to the Newman Center, she said; one day the Newman Center had a table at the University of Utah and one of Li’s college friends told her she should meet the priest. Her reaction to Fr. Peter was, “This Asian guy’s a priest?”, she said, but she appreciated his enthusiastic attitude and his willingness to talk to students. 

“He’s been supportive in developing my faith,” said Li, who now is a resident at the Newman Center.

Sean Parent, a Judge Memorial Catholic High School student for whom Fr. Peter will act as a Sacrament for Confirmation sponsor next year, has a similar story to tell.

 “I asked Father Peter to be my confirmation sponsor because he let me become one of the first youth altar servers [at St. Catherine of Siena], and has trained me to grow in my faith,” Parent said, adding that the priest also has trained him to be a thurfer (incense bearer) and is teaching him to serve other parts of the Mass. “I admire him because he is very kind and understanding and he is a very good teacher.”

Fr. Peter is extremely knowledgeable about the Catholic faith and its history, is empathetic, and is a good homilist, said Sean Parent’s father, Beau Parent. “He tells a good story in the homilies without notes. … A good homily is something that can hold my attention.” 

Garcia also appreciates Fr. Peter’s homilies, which are “always funny and inspiring, with a well-rounded message,” she said. Also, “he does little things that people just don’t see” like “just being willing to open up a door or to speak with people late at night. He truly is a servant-leader.”

Fr. Peter has displayed thoughtfulness, simplicity and humility since he was a child, said his aunt, Daughter of Charity Sister Maria Nguyen, who taught him catechism while they were living in Vietnam.

Fr. Peter and other family members escaped as refugees when he was 7, and Sr. Maria didn’t see her nephew for 10 years.

She jokes that she is responsible for his priestly vocation, because while she was at a seminary in Maryland and he was a college student in Washington, D.C. they decided to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year together. Because her nephew didn’t have a car, Sr. Maria asked a friend who had been her neighbor in Vietnam, to drive him. That friend happened to be a Dominican director of vocations.

“It was God’s providence,” Sr. Maria said.

Not too long afterward, Fr. Peter turned down a scholarship to a PhD program to enter the seminary.

“He said, ‘What can I do with a PhD if I become a priest?’” Sr. Maria said. “At that point he knew that he had a call for the priesthood.”