In the spirit of the Jubilee Year, a special time of grace and renewal in the Catholic Church, the Hmong community at Presentation of the Virgin Mary in Maplewood is giving $100,000 to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
The idea grew out of a desire to tithe from funds that were gifted to the Hmong Catholic Community of St. Vincent de Paul, a Cathedral community, following their transfer to Presentation of Mary last year, said Father Toulee Peter Ly, pastor of Presentation.
When the St. Vincent de Paul campus was sold by the Cathedral of St. Paul to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Community from India (Eparchy of Chicago), 90% of the proceeds from the sale was gifted to the Hmong Catholic Community at Presentation of Mary to support Hmong Catholic Ministry. The Hmong Catholic Community is gifting a portion back to the Cathedral of St. Paul through the Cathedral Heritage Foundation (CHF) in gratitude for all the Church has done for them, said Father Ly, so that the Cathedral will continue to be a beacon of faith and hope for future generations and people of all nations.
“There’s a beauty in how both St. Vincent’s and the Cathedral were originally built by immigrants,” said Father Joseph Johnson, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul and former pastor of St. Vincent de Paul. “The Cathedral’s Shrine of the Nations testifies to those original immigrant groups who sacrificed to build it. This gift from the Hmong community is just the latest chapter in the story.”
Mary Schaffner, chair of the Cathedral Heritage Foundation’s board, said the foundation is grateful for and humbled by the gift to support restoration of the Cathedral.
“The Cathedral parish, thanks to Father Johnson’s ministry to the Hmong parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul, has had a long relationship with the Hmong Catholic community,” Schaffner said. “We at CHF want to continue to honor that ministry and the generosity of Father Ly and the Hmong community at Presentation of Mary through CHF’s support for the Cathedral’s restoration needs.”
Father Johnson said that just as everyone’s sacrifices helped originally build the Cathedral, the Hmong community’s generous gift is a reminder that the whole Catholic community’s support is needed to maintain and preserve the Cathedral.
Father Johnson said it will eventually take more than $70 million to repair damage inside the Cathedral from decades of water intrusion before the restoration of the dome and exterior. The fundraising effort will also include replacing the century-old boiler system and adding restrooms. Officials with the Cathedral Heritage Foundation, which helps preserve the Cathedral, hope that a better understanding of the pressing restoration needs will lead to broader support.
Since the transfer of the Hmong community from St. Vincent de Paul to Presentation last summer, a Hmong and English bilingual Mass was added at Presentation on Sundays at 11:45 a.m. It typically draws more than 100 people, numbers consistent with St. Vincent de Paul attendance before the transition, Father Ly said.
Father Ly said he hopes that strong faith formation programs and community-building activities such as group pilgrimages and “Sunday Funday” socials will help grow and unite the parish community.
“I want to make sure everyone here feels that we are one community and one family,” said Father Ly, “Not two communities living (in) one house.”
Like St. Vincent de Paul, Presentation is a destination parish for many Hmong Catholics in the diocese seeking to worship in community, said parishioner Eric Ly of Lake Elmo, who is active in the parish school and youth ministry.
When Father Ly first came to Presentation in 2019, there was one Hmong family in the parish. Several more joined, but, with the addition of congregation members from St. Vincent de Paul, the Hmong community at Presentation grew to about 50 families, many traveling long distances to participate.
Parishioner Houa Her travels from Coon Rapids to Sunday Mass at Presentation. He supports Father Ly’s efforts at Presentation and supports the gift to the Cathedral. Her was a member of the original Hmong Cathedral congregation established at St. Vincent de Paul when he moved to Minnesota from Fresno, California, in 1995. Before he came to Fresno, he was living in the Chiang Kham U.N. refugee camp in Thailand after escaping from war in Laos in 1984.
In Laos, Her’s father was a traditional Hmong shaman, engaging in spiritual bargaining via animal sacrifice on behalf of someone who was sick or suffering. Yet even in the sacrificial traditions of Hmong shamanism, there is belief in a higher spiritual power, Her said. Now a Hmong Catholic, he believes that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of all.
“In some ways, I think the shaman tradition is like the time before Jesus, when the pagan tradition offered animal sacrifice,” Her said. Hmong Catholic ministry, he feels, has worked hard to help him and many others in the Hmong community overcome the mindset that you only need religion when you are sick — an aspect of the shaman tradition.
As the Hmong Catholic community settles in at Presentation, Father Ly said, he hopes it continues to grow in faith.
“It’s easy to bring others to Christ when you look at what Jesus did for us,” Father Ly said.
Editor’s note: This updates an earlier version of the story to include comment from the Cathedral Heritage Foundation.
