Finding peace

How one priest found his calling through many of God’s trials

Fr. Anton Ba Phan is a silent, uplifting presence on the grounds of St. Mark Catholic Church in Ama. The smiling Vietnamese priest went through a lot before finally finding his place in the church, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from his light and happy demeanor.

“The Lord put me down a special design to find peace in my heart,” he said. “Every time I searched and tried a different direction…I would get almost to the end and the Lord would cut it down somehow.”

Throughout his life, Fr. Anton began many different programs of study that he left incomplete. First he wanted to be an engineer, then he tried aviation maintenance. Every time he would complete most of a program, he could not finish.

“I would get almost to the end and the Lord would make it so that in my heart I couldn’t feel peace at all,” he said. “I couldn’t find any meaning.”

After many tries, he decided to go to medical school and to complete it no matter what his heart felt. He worked and studied full-time and saved about $13,000 for tuition.

“This time, I said, I will focus four years without worrying about the Lord or anything,” he said, laughing. “But the Lord didn’t want that. A very nice friend came to me and asked me a big favor – to borrow the money…That person promised everything, but after a week I found out he gambled away all my money.

“I said, ‘Lord, you give but you also take away.’”

After that, Fr. Anton tried his hand at tax preparation, real estate and machinery, but he said the Lord cut down those efforts as well.

“After six months, I lost more money than I gained,” he said.

When a friend asked him to come to Hawaii, Fr. Anton agreed. But first he had to escape from the Communist government in Vietnam.

“Our future as Catholic people in Vietnam was very dark,” he said.

His brother had left the country years earlier for America, but other family members were hesitant to leave – they later regretted that decision.

In 1982, he boarded a small canoe with his sister and some other travelers. The canoe was shallow, about 30 feet long and 6 feet wide, with a single engine. After one day, the engine broke down.

“I was floating in the ocean for about 15 days with little food and no water,” he said. The travelers survived by boiling sea water with their remaining gasoline and collecting the steam to drink. On top of the lack of food and water, they had to constantly bail water out of the shallow vessel. But that one holey boat brought this man of God closer to his destiny.

“I was the one who bailed the water day and night – the Lord gave me the strength to do that,” he said. He said praying the rosary and prayers to the Holy Mother got him through the ordeal.

A boat finally rescued the group and Fr. Anton went to Hong Kong until his brother could sponsor him to the United States later that year.

Once in Hawaii, Fr. Anton finally felt like his life was taking off. He found work with a friend helping to repair diesel engines and business was good. But after about a year, the Lord put emptiness in his heart again.

“I asked the Lord, what was I missing?” he said. “I pursued many majors and directions, I even had girlfriends but I didn’t have peace at all.”

At one point, he thought that the one thing he had not tried was joining the seminary and becoming a priest.

“Before, I would never have thought to become a priest – I wanted to be a millionaire and have a beautiful wife and a lot of kids,” he said.

In the early 1990s, he returned to school yet again to pursue a major that would help him if he wanted to become a priest – he chose counseling. While studying, he stayed with a priest and helped teach children of his parish how to speak Vietnamese. After a year, the priest suggested Fr. Anton go to New Orleans to pursue joining the church.

“I packed up right then and went,” he said. “I thought ‘Now it’s your will, Lord, not mine.’”

He arrived in the Big Easy in 1993 and met with more friends who showed him the path to priesthood. He applied to many dioceses nationwide and decided to go wherever called him first.

“Luckily, New Orleans called me first,” he said.

While waiting to attend school at Notre Dame Seminary of New Orleans, Fr. Anton worked at a restaurant and took classes at Delgado Community College.

He completed his training at Notre Dame Seminary in 2001 and was ordained as a priest. Finally, his heart was at peace.

He chose the name Anton because he said “An” means “peace” and “ton” means “forever” – a concept that he has been searching for his entire life. Anton, or Anthony, was also his baptism name.

Since being ordained, he has worked in parishes across the state, most recently on a special mission to St. Charles. The mission included helping four parishes in St. Charles: St. Anthony in Luling, St. Mark in Ama, St. John the Baptist in Paradis and St. Gertrude in Des Allemands. When he was allowed to choose, he wanted to stay with St. Mark because he fell in love with the Adoration Chapel.

“I like the environment there and they have the little chapel – I love it,” he said. He also likes that the church is near St. Charles Parish Hospital so that he can do chaplain work. “I love the environment at St. Mark; the people here are very wonderful.”