March 7, 2024 — Fr. Chu Ngo, SJ, pronounced final vows in the Society of Jesus in the Rossi Chapel at the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos in California on February 21. Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ, provincial of Jesuits West, received Fr. Ngo’s final vows in place of Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus.
Fr. Ngo is a retreat director and a supervisor of various remodeling projects at the Jesuit Retreat Center. Fr. Ngo’s journey to the Jesuits began in Vietnam, where he was the seventh of 11 children, including a younger brother who is also a Jesuit, Fr. Chi Ngo, SJ, executive director at the Jesuit Retreat Center.
In Vietnam, Fr. Ngo was forced to work in a jungle encampment after the war and escaped the country with family members in 1979. After making it to Malaysia, he was eventually able to join other family members who were already in the U.S.
Fr. Ngo entered the Society in 1993 and was ordained in 2007. As a priest, he has served as a retreat director in a suburb of Saigon; at Most Holy Trinity Church in San Jose, California; and at Sacramento’s Loaves and Fishes, which offers food and a host of services to the unhoused. He joined his brother Chi in working at the Jesuit Retreat Center in 2020.
All Jesuits take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience after serving as novices for two years. Then, following many additional years of training and ministerial work, a Jesuit is invited to the final stage of formation, called “tertianship.” The Superior General of the Society of Jesus then decides whether to invite a Jesuit to pronounce final vows, which signifies his full incorporation into the Jesuits.
