{"id":8533,"date":"2025-01-12T07:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T22:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=8533"},"modified":"2025-01-22T18:10:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T09:10:33","slug":"how-vietnam-advances-regional-church-unity-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/how-vietnam-advances-regional-church-unity-in-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"How Vietnam Advances Regional Church Unity in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANALYSIS: The faith of local Catholic religious is frequently enriched by formational periods in other countries, providing them with a Christian outlook that is both cosmopolitan and humble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Victor Gaetan<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of three articles from Vietnam: <\/em>Read Part 1 here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam \u2014 While traveling in Vietnam for three weeks, immersing myself in Catholic communities and sacred spaces, I met many impressive young men and women who have dedicated their lives to Christ.\u00a0\uff5cJAPANESE<\/a>\uff5c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So frequently, a day\u2019s highpoint included exchanges in English or French with a young priest or member of a religious order. A pattern emerged as I chatted with these young religious in Vietnam: Most had significant experience in other Asian countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These pilgrims had lived within the universal Church, as a world with fewer barriers than the secular reality of borders and national tensions. As a result, their Christian outlook is both cosmopolitan and humble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could this fluidity between Catholic communities in Asia be a source of regional integration? Are emerging Catholic leaders serving as a force for harmony across extraordinarily diverse cultures? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education and Mission<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Examples support the point, including Brother Peter Nguyen Viet Bao, age 32, who took final vows with the Marist Brothers last year.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brother Peter grew up in a Catholic family living in a poor region of central Vietnam. Missionaries came to his parish in 2009, and he decided to join them a year later, at age 18, because \u201cI was impressed by their spirit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of his formation, Brother Peter spent two years in the Philippines, two years in Sri Lanka, then back to Philippines for another two years. In Sri Lanka, he was mentored by Archbishop Pierre Nguy\u00ean Van Tot, who served in the Vatican Diplomatic Corps and recently retired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brother
Brother Peter Nguyen Viet Bao, age 32, on right, who took final vows with the Marist Brothers last year, talking to Bishop Emeritus Cosmas Hoang Van Dat (2008-2023) of Bac Ninh diocese in Northern Vietnam. Bishop Cosmas was the first Jesuit bishop in the country’s history. (Photo: Victor Gaetan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brother Peter speaks excellent English, perfected in the Philippines. As a result, he is a great fixer\/translator for delegations that come to Vietnam, such as a group I traveled with: Japanese humanitarians led by Jesuit Father Ando Isamu, who founded a \u201cJapan-Vietnam\u201d initiative to raise money and support micro-finance programs, scholarships and individuals in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another member of the \u201cJapan-Vietnam\u201d group was Nguyen Thanh An, age 33, a Jesuit in formation (he called himself a \u201cscholastic\u201d) born in a coastal province in southern Vietnam who now lives in Tokyo and expects to be ordained next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three years of study within the Jesuit Vietnam Province, he was sent to Japan in 2018. An describes himself as a \u201cmissionary to Japan.\u201d His brother is also a Jesuit priest who spent several years as a missionary in neighboring Laos, where the Catholic population of 100,000 has grown 100%<\/a> since 2015. Catholics now comprise 1.3% of the Laotian population.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some observers explained to the Registerthat Vietnam is a poor country, and the Church struggles financially so local vocations often receive scholarships to study abroad. Upon their return to Vietnam, they bring experiences that enrich the life of the local Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhilippines is well known for its majority-Catholic population,\u201d said Brother Peter. \u201cMany Vietnamese religious men and women go there for theology since there are so many Catholic institutions for religious studies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one sense, this movement is a \u201cnatural thing,\u201d observed Father John Worthley, a legendary China expert<\/a> and priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. \u201cIn one country, [like Japan] bishops need priests, and in another [like Vietnam], there are many vocations but not the finance to support them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut fundamentally,\u201d he continued, what\u2019s happening in Asia \u201cis primarily the Holy Spirit guiding the universal Church.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supportive Bishops<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Besides the Holy Spirit, an explanation lies in the extraordinary unity one finds among the bishops of Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 130 bishops from 27 member counties spent close to three weeks with each other two years ago in Bangkok. Under the banner \u201cJourneying Together as Peoples of Asia,\u201d the Federation of Asian Bishops\u2019 Conferences (FABC) convened its first general assembly<\/a> in 52 years. Many sessions were devoted to learning more about the diverse realities faced by the Church, from poverty in Pakistan to climate disasters in Myanmar to the newness of faith in Mongolia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FABC was founded when Pope Paul VI visited Manila, Philippines, in 1970, and 180 Asian bishops came to meet the Holy Father. From the start, the federation dedicated itself to evangelization, which became \u201cNew Evangelization\u201d in 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, FABC called \u201cfor the Church in Asia to greater participation, integration and transformation by promoting a culture of encounter\u201d \u2014 a commitment one sees clearly in Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evangelization was often mentioned by young priests I met. \u201cMany young Vietnamese priests and women religious are devoting themselves to serving in other countries, especially countries with few vocations,\u201d observed An, the young Jesuit who is doing exactly that. \u201cI think it shows the commitment of the Church to evangelization, an important mission and nature of the Church,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since evangelization and regional collaboration are central to the bishops\u2019 federation, it\u2019s natural to find them encouraging cross-fertilization of local Churches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Anton Quan Ganh studied in Korea, where the Catholic Church is well established and influential. About 11%<\/a> of the Korean people are Catholic faithful, while in the nation\u2019s National Assembly, 27% of representatives currently are Catholic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in Korea, Father Ganh joined the Clerical Congregation of Blessed Korean Martyrs<\/a>, founded in 1953 as the country\u2019s first Indigenous religious order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bishops and priests here in Vietnam have been very welcoming when I came home as a member of this new [for Vietnam] order,\u201d said Father Ganh, adding that the bishop of B\u1eafc Ninh helped incorporate him into the life of the diocese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just priests but lay Catholics benefit from the encouragement of regional exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Japan, earlier this year, I met groups of Korean pilgrims visiting Catholic sites in Nagasaki despite historical tension between the two countries stemming from the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Cardinal-elect Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, who spoke to the Register<\/a> last April, Korean and Japanese bishops explicitly decided to encourage pilgrimages and exchanges as a way to advance harmony between the nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese Catholics in Vietnam<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But it would be a mistake \u2014 and historically superficial \u2014 to portray Asian Catholic communities as only recently interacting with each other and moving between countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one thing, the very story of founding Church missionaries such as St. Francis Xavier is an account of cross-cultural transit. The saint traveled in the 16th century to India, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia and died in 1552 on an island off the Chinese mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Ho Chi Minh City, in a neighborhood known as Cholon, I met an extraordinary Church community and group of priests at St. Francis Xavier Church. It was built in 1900 for the local Chinese Catholic community. To this day, the 5:30 p.m. weekday Mass and two Masses on Sundays are offered in Cantonese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church itself is being entirely renovated, so closed for worship (parishioners and priests pay for repairs and renovation, not the state), and a large outdoor pavilion is used for Mass. But Father Vincent Co Dien Thanh brought me into the nave to see a tragic, historic site: the pew where President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic daily communicant, elected in 1955, prayed before being murdered<\/a>, with his brother, Nhu, on All Souls\u2019 Day in 1963. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"St.
St. Francis Xavier Church was built in 1900 for Catholic Chinese working in Saigon. Today it still has at least one Mass in Cantonese each day.(Photo: Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shockingly, books such as The Lost Mandate of Heaven: The American Betrayal of President Ngo Dinh Diem<\/em><\/a>(Ignatius Press, 2015) by Catholic military historian Geoffrey Shaw, demonstrate that Diem\u2019s assassination was a macabre upshot of a coup approved by the U.S. government. Diem\u2019s ancestors were among the country\u2019s earliest converts to Catholicism in the 17th century. Before his election, he visited Rome during the Holy Year of 1950 and had an audience with Pope Pius XII. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, President Diem came to St. Francis Xavier on his last day, as he often did. He was friendly with the French pastor here, Father Gabriel Lajeune,\u201d Father Stephen Huyuh Tru, age 82, told the Register while we sat in his kitchen, just 20 feet from the church. \u201cWe have a procession to President Diem\u2019s gravesite<\/a> each Nov. 2.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Tru grew up in the church\u2019s neighborhood and served as an altar boy there. Ordained in 1974, he still lives on church grounds with his sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Tru, who is ethnically Chinese, had been a priest at St. Francis Xavier for just a year when South Vietnam fell in 1975 to Ho Chi Minh\u2019s army from the North. \u201cEverything was on fire. Many houses near the church burned but the church was untouched.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conquering communist government also closed neighboring Catholic schools and Church newspapers and forbid public processions, but priests continued to say Mass. \u201cIt was a very difficult time,\u201d the priest told the Register in French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, we are thriving: 1,000 people attend Mass each week, although more Vietnamese than Chinese come,\u201d Father Tru reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Father Lajeune fits the Asian transnational Church pattern: He remained in Saigon until 1976, but pressure on him was intense. He moved to Hong Kong<\/a>, where his ministry continued for over 40 years, until his death in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n