Joseph Trần Văn Toản

Joseph Trần Văn Toản (born 7 April 1955) is a Vietnamese Catholic bishop, currently serving as the Bishop of Long Xuyên since 2019.

Joseph Trần Văn Toản was born on 7 April 1955 in Tam Kỳ, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.

He began his religious studies at the minor seminary of Long Xuyên in 1966, continuing until 1974, and then at the major seminary until 1980.

He served voluntarily in parishes in Môi Khôi and Thạnh Quới in the diocese of Long Xuyên for over ten years while awaiting government authorization for his ordination to the priesthood.

He was ordained a priest on 16 January 1992 by Bishop Jean Baptiste Bùi Tuần and served as a parish vicar in Môi Khôi until 1999.

He then went to Manila to study at De La Salle University, obtaining a doctorate in education in 2005.

Upon returning to Vietnam, he was appointed director of the pastoral center and coordinator of pastoral and missionary activities in the diocese of Long Xuyên, as well as rector of the minor seminary of Santa Teresa.

He also served as a professor of missiology at the interdiocesan major seminary of Cần Thơ.

On 5 April 2014, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of Long Xuyên and assigned him the titular see of Acalissus.

He was consecrated a bishop on 29 May of the same year by Bishop Joseph Trần Xuân Tiếu.

At the Vietnamese Bishops' Conference, he was elected president of the commission for laypeople for three consecutive terms since 2016.

The episcopal lineage is:

Three years later, on 25 August 2017, he was appointed coadjutor bishop of the same diocese.

He succeeded to the governance of the diocese on 23 February 2019, upon the retirement of his predecessor.