Remember My Church

When many Vietnamese and other South Asian immigrants came into the country in the latter half of the 20th century, many settled in the neighborhood around St. Thomas of Canterbury, sometimes dubbed Little Vietnam. They would become the largest demographic for the church and the reason it offers mass in Vietnamese and Laotian, as well as English and Spanish. The construction of the church, blending Catholic aesthetics with colonial American theming and later South Asian decoration on the inside, is welcoming for recent immigrants and their families, continuing the message of combining one’s national and religious identity.