Rev Fr. Truc Nguyen was born in Saigon, South Vietnam on 16 January 1967. He is the fourth from a family of eight children.
In 1989, Fr Truc escaped from the Vietnamese communist regime and religious freedom persecution. He arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia in October 1989, and was granted refugee status by the UN. In 1994, he was accepted by the Australian government, and was granted entry into Perth under the Humanitarian Visa Program.
During his time in the refugee camp, Fr Truc received his vocation to become a priest. After arriving in Australia, he attended an Intensive English Language course while working at the same time to establish himself into a new country. He entered St Charles’ Seminary in Guilford to study for the priesthood in 1999. He studied Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle and at St. Charles’ Seminary, Guildford.
In 2001 Fr Truc decided to transfer to a seminary in Houston, Texas as he wished to be closer to his sister and relatives in America. He was ordained as a Deacon of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas in 2011.
After serving the diaconate with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston for over a year, Father Truc was invited to return to Australia to serve with the Archdiocese of Perth in 2013. He was ordained to the priesthood by His Grace Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB on 4 March 2016.
His first appointment as a priest was with the Bayswater Parish and he stayed there for about 8 months. He was appointed as Assistant Parish Priest at City Beach Parish in 2017 and subsequently served at Whitford Parish for 1.5 years. Fr Truc was then appointed as Assistant Parish Priest of Kwinana Parish in April 2019.