Bishop Dominic Mary Hồ Ngọc Cẩn

Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can (1876- 1948) was the 1st Vietnamese Bishop of the Bui Chu Diocese and the 2nd Vietnamese Bishop of the Vietnamese Catholic Church. In addition, he was a moral and cultural educator and a religious leader of Vietnam in the first half of the 20th century. Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can was the founder of the Congregation of The Daughters of Our Lady of The Holy Rosary in Vietnam.
Biography
Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can was not Colonel Ho Ngoc Can.
Early life
Ho Ngoc Can's birth name was Ho Ngoc Ca. He was born on December 3, 1876 in the Ba Chau Community, Vinh Luu Village, Huong Tra Town, Thua Thien-Hue Province. Joseph Ho Ngoc Tri and Anna Nguyen Thi Dao were his parents.
In 1886, Ho Ngoc Can's father died when Can was 10 years old. His mother took him and his younger brother to live in their mother's hometown in Truong An Village.
Seminarian
In 1888, Ho Ngoc Can was adopted by the priest Franics Truong Van Thuong, and he took and failed the exam for the An Ninh Minor Seminary in Quang Tri Province.
By 1889, Ho Ngoc Can passed his exam and entered An Ninh Minor Seminary at Cua Tung Town, Quang Tri Province. Two years after entering the Seminary, Seminarian Ho Ngoc Can was adopted by the priest Eugene Marie Joseph Allys. During the next seven years, Ho Ngoc Can studied at An Ninh Minor Seminary. On May 5,1896, Ho Ngoc Can entered and studied at the Major Seminary of Phu Xuan for four years.
On December 22, 1900, Ho Ngoc Can was appointed as Sub-Deacon. At this time, Ho Ngoc Can changed his birth name from Ho Ngoc Ca to Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can. On February 2, 1902, Seminarian Ho Ngoc Can was awarded the position of Deacon.
Priest
On February 20, 1902, Ho Ngoc Can was ordained a priest at the age of 26. By February 1903, Father Ho Ngoc Can was appointed deputy priest of Ke Van Parish in Quang Tri Province. At Ke Van, Father Ho Ngoc Can established literacy classes and Biblical study to improve education for the children and adults. From 1907 to 1910, he became the pastor of the Ke Hac Parish in Quang Binh Province.
On September 17, 1910, Father Ho Ngoc Can was appointed professor at the An Ninh Sub Seminary in Quang Tri Province. He taught Latin, French, Math, and Vietnamese.
In 1923, Father Ho Ngoc Can was appointed as the pastor of the Truong An Community. By 1924, Father Ho Ngoc Can was appointed as the director of the seminary in Truong An and was the first Vietnamese professor to teach at the Catholic Seminary.
Bishop
On May 19, 1935, Father Ho Ngoc Can was appointed by the Holy See as Deputy Bishop of the Bui Chu Diocese. He was the first Vietnamese Bishop to be ordained in Vietnam.
On June 29, 1935, Father Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can was ordained as a Bishop in the Catholic Church at Phu Cam Main Cathedral. His Coat-of-arms bore the motto: "In Omni Patientia et Doctrina" which means "In everything Patience and Teaching." He was the second Vietnamese priest to be named of Bishop following the Bishop Jean-Baptiste Nguyen Ba Tong. After one year as Deputy Bishop, Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can succeeded Bishop Pedro Munagorri Trung as the Diocesan Bishop of Bui Chu.
End of Life
On November 27, 1948, Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can died from complications from asthma at the Bui Chu Bishop's House at the age of 72. Three days later, Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can was buried in the Bui Chu Cathedral.
Career
Cultural
Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can established the Sacred Heart Hospital in Bui Chu and assigned the Sisters of St. Paul to manage the hospital in 1945. He assisted the Department of Orphanages and the Common House Fund to rescue many victims of the famine at Bui Chu in At Dau (1945). He was also appointed as a supreme adviser as requested by the government of President Ho Chi Minh in 1945.
Educational
Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can opened four primary schools in Bui Chu. He set up a primary school in Saigon.
Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can built an additional four primary schools in Hue, he assigned the administration and teaching to the monks of the Order of the Sacred Heart. He established the printing house "Truong An" which specialized in printing books and documents containing the Catechism and the teachings of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Hue.
In addition to being a teacher, Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can was also a writer and a journalist.
Religion
In 1923, Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can supervised the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Hue. After one year, he became the first superior of this Order.
Previously, the Bui Chu Diocese had a Major Seminary, but after 1931, students of the Seminary were under the leadership of the Grand Seminary in Nam Dinh. Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can re-established the Quan Phuong Seminary in 1940.
On September 8, 1946, the founder Bishop Dominic Mary Ho Ngoc Can officially announced the establishment of the Congregation of The Daughters of Our Lady of The Holy Rosary in Bui Chu, Vietnam or Vietnamese name was Hoi Dong Chi Em Con Duc Me Man Coi Bui Chu, Viet Nam . The symbol for this congregation is FMSR, it is taken from French, which means, "Filliarum Maria sacrosancto Rosario". Since that time, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary have continued to flourish.
References
Bibliography
Diocese of Bui Chu. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2020, from https://www.ucanews.com/directory/dioceses/vietnam-bui-chu/515.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/where-is-saigon-1458405
Keith, Journal of Vietnamese Studies: JVS. (n.d.). Berkeley (Calif.): University of California Press.
Keith, C. (2008). Annam Uplifted: The First Vietnamese Catholic Bishops and the Birth of a National Church, 1919--1945. Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 3(2), 128-171. doi:10.1525/vs.2008.3.2.128.
Mancoi. (2017, April 23). Our Founder. Retrieved October 15, 2020, from http://mancoichihoa.com/en/our-founder/.
Truong Trung-Hoc HO-NGOC-CAN. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2020, from http://hongoccan.pacificdreamhome.com/.
1876 births
1948 deaths
Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishops