In those days the Jesuits were very highly regarded. And I was naturally led to them. historically that we had a good number of good things in the Jesuits. They were tough men and they were always right out in the front, so it was a great attraction to many young boys at that time. I never had problems with that decision. It was a good organization and in those days a strong organization. Strong in the sense that it behaved courageously. I don't think they're not that tough now. I know we're not. But in those days we were regarded as tough men not fearing either man nor beast. And it was a thing you could follow very easily.
I never had a conversion experience. I'm always against anything that I can't see. If I can't see something then I don't believe in it. And I don't believe in extraordinary experiences.

I've had nothing but very hard experiences in my life. And I never had a chance to believe anything like a sudden conversion when one suddenly sees the light and then everything is clear and simple.

People who have those sorts of experiences don't convince me at all. I think things happen the hard way all the time. We live in the world.

After high school I went to Los Gatos for four years to study at a novitiate in Los Gatos. Two years in the novitiate. Two years then studying the classics in the same structure. Then we got a BA or BS from Santa Clara University. Then three more years at Gonzaga University, we got an MA from them. Then three years of teaching. I taught at Loyola and St. Ignatius at that time. Then four more years of theology, at Alma College in the Santa Cruz Mountains. After 14 years you become a priest. The Jesuits require the longest term of education before you become a priest.
I picked communism as my major field of study within the field of philosophy. I believe I got interested in it, way back, after I heard priests who had studied communism and came around and gave lectures. Some of them had lived under communist regimes they came to the novitiate and gave us talks. We came to look upon it as a serious threat to America and to freedom and we wanted to know all about it. I don't remember perceiving of it principally as a threat to the Church. We thought rather in larger terms as a threat to humanity.

I became a teacher following my college graduation. And, naturally, I became caught up in the public debate over the war in Vietnam. I supported what we were trying to do there. And I spoke out in support of our policy. But I concluded, eventually, that it was not enough simply to speak up for what you believed. One must also act. And so in 1968 I wrote to Dr. Pham Quang Dan, who happened to be head of the refugee program in Vietnam. I told him I was interested in coming to Vietnam because I wanted to fight against communism and I also wanted to help poor people who were the victims of communism. He wired me back right away. He said, "Come to Vietnam. We have war, we have refugees and we have lepers. And we need your devotion and help." Those were his exact words in the wire he sent me.
I was teaching high school in Ogden, Utah at the time. I was in Ogden Utah. And so soon thereafter. I went to Vietnam and I got there and met Dr. Pham Quang Dan. He was the head of the refugee program, and he had at least 2 million refugees under his care at that time. When the communists moved into an area the people would leave but they stayed within the country, they were just displaced. They were internal refugees rather than international refugees. So the South Vietnamese government, with American and international help, had to take care of them and feed them and house them and so on.
Previous Page    Next Page                            Page 3