Washington will soon be welcoming a former Jesuit seminarian to Congress — and CNS has a first look at his remarkable story:

The first Vietnamese-American member of Congress is a former Jesuit seminarian who served for four years on the National Advisory Council to the U.S. bishops.

Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao, a 41-year-old Republican, defeated Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson in a Dec. 6 runoff election to represent Louisiana’s 2nd District. Jefferson had held the seat since 1991, and no Republican has represented the congressional district that includes New Orleans since 1890.

Cao, pronounced Gow, was named in January 2003 to a four-year term on the advisory council, a 63-member group of laymen and laywomen, religious men and women, diocesan priests and bishops that meets twice a year to review documentation and offer recommendations on matters before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A member of Mary Queen of Vietnam Parish in New Orleans, Cao told The Associated Press that his run for political office was motivated by his Catholic faith.

“It was something that I was called to do, literally, in the religion sense,” he said.

Check out the link for the rest.

And you can read the AP’s report right here.