temporary profession of two Vietnamese sisters – Swiss Catholic portal

“We have not lived this for 40 years!”, Says, Sister Marie Gabrielle, superior mother of the Sainte-Ursule house in Sion. The temporary profession of Marie-Paule and Marie-Pierre, two sisters of Vietnamese origin, was experienced as a party in the chapel of the community, on July 31, 2025.

Father Philippe Aymon opened the celebration with a few words in Vietnamese. He did not fail to greet the present Vietnamese community and the family of the two sisters who followed mass from Vietnam via YouTube. God has given double mercy to the community, he noted. “First of all the appeal that Marie-Paule and Marie-Pierre received and the response they gave to this call.” Sisters in the community, they are first of all sisters of the same blood.

“Here I am Lord”

“Here I am Lord, I come to do your will. Let me be done according to your word, ”sang Marie-Pierre Nguyen Thi Thao, 31, and Marie-Paule Nguyen Thi Hien, 29, slowly advancing towards the altar. They meant their desire to commit by answering, according to the ritual, to the questions of Father Philippe Aymon who presided over the celebration.

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The two sisters first received the gray religious habit that they went to take. Back to the altar where they received the cross, which unites them to Jesus, the constitutions of the sisters of Saint-Ursule of Anne de Xainctonge and the candle, the light of Christ, the three symbols of their commitment.

Multi ethnic assistance

The chapel of the Maison de Sion was just large enough to welcome the 150 people present for the occasion: the friends of the community, the sisters of the houses of Brig and Friborg as well as the Vietnamese monks of the community of Orsonnens, in the Friborg Glâne. In the audience were also African sisters, novices of the community of sisters of Saint-Augustin and African loan. A dozen priests have concealed mass.

The assistance exulted when the nuns of the community came to greet their new sisters. It was decided that the two sisters will stay in Sion to complete their training. In the meantime, they will be able to return to Vietnam to visit their family.

Despite the emotion of the moment, Marie-Paule and Marie-Pierre wanted to keep inner peace. “We want to arouse hope, especially in this jubilee year,” confide the two sisters who feel joy, but also the great expectation that the community of 22 sisters, of which is found on them aged 79 to 99, founded on them.

“An unexpected God’s gift”

“It is an unexpected God’s gift!”, Said a little earlier to Cath.ch Sister Marie-Gabrielle. Nothing predestined the two sisters, last of a siblings of five children, to engage in Sion. They grew up and followed their schooling in the province of Nambinh (whose name has changed in the meantime), in northern Vietnam, 150 km east of Hanoi.

Coming from a very practicing family, they go to mass twice a day. “In the morning, early before going to school and in the evening, if we had nothing special to do, with the parents.”

In this region of Vietnam, religious practice posed less problem than in other provinces. Indeed, specifies Marie-Paule, “we were born in the region where the first missionaries arrived and the authorities are more tolerant of religion, there are fewer tensions”. An attitude that can vary from one province to another, even if the relationships between the country and the Holy See have improved significantly in recent years.

“I felt the vocation around 8 or 9 years old,” says Marie-Pierre “. His sister indicates the same moment. The way of life of the nuns who help the parish inspires the two sisters. Curiously, they haven’t really talked about it, “you know in Asia, people are modest and do not speak their feelings”, but they participated together in meetings on the vocation organized by their diocese. “We have followed our way.”

Spiritual pensions

A path that led them, from the age of 11 and 13, to make pensions of three to five days every summer among the Dominicans and the sisters of the Visitation. The vocation is present, but “there was a little ‘something’.” Pensions continue in parallel with their studies at university in Hanoi. Six years of studies in traditional Vietnamese medicine for Marie-Pierre and four years in psychology for Marie-Paule.

“At the end of our studies, we were not clear for our vocation with the charisma of religious communities,” says Marie-Paule. Until the moment when, in 2018, a friend talks to them about the Ursulines of Sion. Through a monk, they come into contact, via Facebook, with a community sister – who has since left the house. The latter presents the house and charisma of the nuns. The two sisters, affected, start administrative procedures. Two years are necessary to obtain a visa which is issued to them … in March 2020, when the COVVI-19 pandemic spread around the world.

The parents who see it as a ‘sign’ try to dissuade their daughters from leaving. Nothing helps, Marie-Pierre and Marie-Paule finally arrived in Switzerland in July 2021. The first year is devoted to the intensive learning of French, which they master well today. The year of postulate and two years of novitiate follow, where they received theological training, in particular through the Théodule route of which they have just terrminated the second year. There were also courses at the chaplaincy of the Sion hospital. In three years, they will have to renew their wishes and then continue their journey to perpetual wishes two years later.

We thought of the climate, but learning French was the most difficult phase of adaptation in Switzerland, rather successful, of the two sisters. “We love the snow and we appreciate Swiss culture and cuisine!”

“They went from home ‘to the’ with us’ from the first year, confirms Sister Marie-Gabrielle. They are radiant! Wherever they go, they make us a terrible advertisement! ” (cath.ch/bh)