John-Nhan Tran

John Nhan Van Tran (born February 6, 1966) is a Vietnamese American Catholic prelate serving as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in Georgia since 2023.

Biography

Early life Trần Văn Nhàn was born in the Bình Giã district of South Vietnam on February 6, 1966, to John Trần Văn Dũng and Anna Nguyễn Thị Lài. As a young man, Tran's father was sentenced to 18 years in a Communist concentration camp because he was a member of a Catholic youth group. He eventually escaped after three years, and restarted his life from there after fleeing to South Vietnam. When Tran was two years old, his mother was shot and killed during the Vietnam War due to "friendly fire". Tran's older brother was also killed by a land mine.

Emigration and education At the age of nine, Tran and his family fled from Bạch Đằng Quay in Saigon on a small boat. They were warned by his uncle, who had left the seminary and joined the military, that South Vietnam would fall soon. Tran later said, "I truly believe, if my uncle hadn't been a military officer, we wouldn't have made it out."

After primary school, Tran first attended Edna Karr Junior High School in Algiers.

Tran then transferred to a boarding high school in Goshen, New York, operated by the Salesians of Don Bosco. Additionally, Tran served on the priest personnel board and as chair of the archdiocesan presbyteral council. He was also dean of the St. John-St. Charles Deanery.

Episcopacy Tran was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Atlanta and titular bishop of Tullia by Pope Francis on October 25, 2022.

His episcopal motto comes from his time at Notre Dame Seminary, where the inscription appears above the entrance to the seminary. The main color scheme of red and yellow on his personal coat of arms is derived from the Flag of South Vietnam.