In the name of church diversity.(The Orange County Register)

SANTA ANA, Calif._Latino parishioners expected to hear ``Juan Diego" or ``Guadalupe" announced as the name of their planned new church during Spanish Masses.

Instead they learned that the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes will become Our Lady of La Vang, a Vietnamese name foreign in both sound and meaning to the congregation, which is 99 percent Latino. She is an image of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to have appeared in Vietnam more than 200 years ago.

``We were hoping it would be a Latino name," said Alicia Torres, 50. ``People had never heard of La Vang."

The Vietnamese name is a first for the Diocese of Orange and an adjustment for the congregation of 2,000 in west Santa Ana, which will move into a new church building with the new name by 2003. They will be joined by Vietnamese Catholics from throughout the area who are expected to start attending. The church's pastor, the Rev. Bill Barman, is overseeing construction plans and trying to create connections between Vietnamese and Latinos before the church opens.

Jeanne Pieper, a Los Angeles consultant who has helped various churches improve communication among cultures, said that just because diverse groups share the same church building, doesn't mean they're getting to know each other.

``People might be nice enough to smile at each other on the way out, but there's a lot of fear over who is taking over whose church," she said.

To calm those fears, Barman has invited Vietnamese Catholics from other churches to join his parishioners in designing a $6.5 million church to meet everyone's needs, from the kitchen to the classrooms. He has organized art projects, visits to other churches and other social events that he hopes will create friendship and community.