Socialist Republic of Vietnam

A Vatican Cardinal has said that his visit to Viet Nam contributes to consolidating relations between the Vatican and the country.

"While meeting and exchanging views with politicians and civilians, I realise that my visit indirectly helps strengthen and promote relations between Viet Nam and the Vatican," Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Minister of the Vatican Missionary Works, said in an interview with a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Ha Noi on Monday.

The Cardinal also said that after his arrival in Ha Noi, he and his entourage met with leaders of the Vietnamese Government, the Ha Noi People’s Committee and the Government’s Committee for Religious Affairs. The meetings were held in a cordial atmosphere and they all have left good impressions on him, the Cardinal added.

"While meeting and exchanging views with politicians and civilians, I realise that my visit indirectly helps strengthen and promote relations between Viet Nam and the Vatican," Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Minister of the Vatican Missionary Works, said.

Cardinal Sepe stressed the progress made by the Vietnamese Catholic Church (VCC), elaborating that the Vietnamese chapter plays an important role in Asia under the general system of the global Catholics church.

It can be said that the VCC is a typical model for other Catholic Churches in the region to learn from and boost co-operative ties with, he said. He also revealed that his first impressions with Viet Nam were very positive.

Also yesterday Cardinal Sepe chaired a ceremony to ordain 57 deacons from eight dioceses in northern Viet Nam as priests, including 27 deacons of the Ha Noi diocese, at the Ha Noi cathedral this morning.

Catholics from northern dioceses jubilantly gathered in Ha Noi to attend the ceremony. Hoang Thi Hanh, 80, a Catholic from Ha Noi’s outskirts, said she was glad to attend such a grand ordination ceremony. She said she hoped that there would be more similar ceremonies.

Nguyen Van Huong, a Catholic from Thanh Hoa diocese, was moved when speaking about the event. He said that the Viet Nam visit by a Cardinal from the Vatican has given Catholics great joy and confidence in the State policy on religion.

He said: "I think some people outside Viet Nam were wrong when they alleged that there was no religious freedom in Viet Nam. We are free to follow our religion and to go to church regularly without any difficulty. Just look at the ceremony held today, there are a large number of attendants."

The Viet Nam Catholic Church now has about six million followers, representing nearly 8 per cent of the country’s population.

Source: VNS
30-11-2005