Dominic Mai Thanh Lương

Dominic Mai Thanh Luong (20 December 1940 – 6 December 2017) was a Vietnamese American Catholic prelate who served as an auxiliary bishop of Orange in California from 2003 to 2015. He was the first Vietnamese bishop in the United States.

Early life and education Luong was born in Trực Ninh of the province and near the city of Nam Định on 20 December 1940, the youngest of nine children. His father worked as a real estate notary.

In 1954, he left home against his father's wishes to enter a seminary in Saigon.

In 1956, he was sent to continue his studies in the United States, where he enrolled at a diocesan seminary in Buffalo, New York two years later. Although ordained for the Diocese of Đà Nẵng, the increasing violence of the Vietnam War prevented him from returning to his native country. Luong contacted Hannan, and the archbishop later found a proper location for the chapel, which was later formally established as Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans, with Luong becoming the founding pastor in 1983. He became the first Vietnamese American Bishop.

Luong has been an outspoken proponent for the rights of the Catholics in Vietnam. In an interview, he stated that these restrictions on religious freedom caused the laity of the Church in Vietnam to be stuck in a "pre-Vatican II" era, where the lay faithful are not as involved in the life of the Church as they should be in the "post-Vatican II era".

The Vatican announced that his resignation was accepted on 20 December 2015, his 75th birthday.

Death Luong died on 6 December 2017, at age 77, at Saint Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California.