SAIGON, Vietnam (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest serving in the United States Air Force witnessed the rescue of an abandoned baby while visiting the religious sisters of the Missionaries of Christ’s Charity in Saigon, Vietnam, earlier this week.
The child had been left near a dumpster outside the orphanage run by the sisters when two of the orphans found the baby boy crying as they took out the trash. The child was soiled and covered with ant bites, but the sisters quickly cleaned him and brought him to the priest for a blessing.
Fr. Khoi Tran, who was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of nine, explained to ChurchPop how the sisters then called him to bless the child and then graciously named the little boy after his patron, St. Francis Xavier.
Father Khoi Tran, a Chaplain priest in the United States Air Force, was visiting the sisters of the Missionaries of Christ’s Charity in Saigon, Vietnam, when something unexpected happened.
Orphans found an abandoned baby near a dumpster outside the sisters’ orphanage. The crying… pic.twitter.com/aKleAug9m0
— ChurchPOP (@Church_POP) July 10, 2025
“Around 7:00 p.m. local time (Saigon), two of the orphans took out trash after dinner and heard a crying baby voice,” the priest said recounting the story. “One of them walked around to see what was happening and discovered a baby lying on the ground close to the dumpster.”
“The baby was found soiled and with ant bites all over him,” and the sisters “quickly tried to clean him up and contacted local authorities to begin the process of receiving him into their care,” he continued.
“The sisters called me early the next morning so I could visit and bless the baby and asked if they could name the baby after my patron saint (Saint Francis Xavier) and take my name… to which I happily obliged,” Fr. Tran said.
“The sisters have orphanages and homes to care for the elderly and destitute, and I have been supporting them for a while. It has been an honor to cooperate and work with them to care for the poorest of the poor,” he concluded.
In an Instagram post, the priest posted a photo with the child explaining the exciting event. “The sisters graciously named him after me… so now I have another child to care and pray for each day. Thank you, Lord, for an unexpected and grace-filled opportunity!”
In a 1995 speech addressing the International Union of Superiors General in Rome, St. John Paul II said, “The Church is deeply grateful to you, consecrated women, who in orphanages, hospitals, and homes for the elderly, give yourselves unreservedly to the service of the weakest and most defenseless. Your lives are a hymn to the dignity of every human person.”
