Aid to the Church in Need: Vietnam: Vietnamese Bishops stress the importance of Catechesis Aid

Vietnam: Vietnamese Bishops stress the importance of Catechesis Aid

Posted by ACN News on 16/7/2009, 2:29 pm
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Vietnamese Bishops stress the importance of Catechesis Aid

Last week, on their return from their ad Limina visit to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, six Vietnamese bishops visited the headquarters of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Germany. The bishops, from various different regions in Vietnam, spoke to representatives of ACN about the many facets of life and the particular needs of the Catholic Church in their country. All were united in speaking of the strong faith of their Catholic countrymen.

Bishop Pierre Nguyên Van Nhon of the diocese of Dalat, who is also chairman of the Vietnamese bishops’ conference, stressed to ACN among other things the importance of church buildings for the Catholic Church in Vietnam. Without these, he said, not only could there be no proper pastoral and spiritual work, but in fact the entire social life and involvement of the parishes revolved around the local church building. Unfortunately, however, not every parish had a church of its own, he said.

Bishop Paul Bui Van Doc of the diocese of My Tho, who is also chairman of the faith commission of the Vietnamese bishops’ conference, described the work of evangelisation as one of the priorities for the Church. He felt that it was particularly helpful for religious sisters to be made mobile by equipping them with motor scooters, so that they could gain easier access to the faithful. This is an area where ACN has already been helping for many years.

Bishop Joseph Dang Duc Ngan of the diocese of Lang Son addressed the question of evangelisation and spoke in particular of the need for a solid basic and ongoing formation for priests, religious and laity. 82-year-old Bishop Paul Marie Cao Dinh Thuyen of Vinh spoke of the good experience his diocese had had with the use of volunteer catechists – 6,000 of them by now – who were trained by the priests and religious sisters when they visited the villages. His diocese now has over half a million Catholic faithful.

Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan of Vinh Long spoke of the particular importance he attaches to strengthening families and encouraging the parents to send their children to catechism classes and to Holy Mass, since children and young people were the generation most severely affected by the changes in society. He explained that many young people were now leaving the villages and migrating to the towns in search of work, and in the cities many of them were then losing their roots and their inner stability and falling into "bad ways". In order to counter this it was essential to lay solid foundations, he said.

(Visit of Vietnamese bishops to the headquarters of Aid to the
Church in Need: guests an staff.)

His words were endorsed by Bishop Cosma Hoang Van Dat, SJ, of the diocese of Bac Ninh, who declared that his diocese too had had good experiences of pastoral work with children, to the extent that many children were now happy to tell their families and friends about the life of Jesus.

All the bishops were agreed on the fact that the number of vocations in Vietnam continues to remain high.

Vietnam, one of the countries of South-East Asia that is still under communist rule, is and remains one of the foremost priorities for Aid to the Church in Need in Asia. As a a Catholic charity which supports pastoral projects in some 138 countries around the world, ACN during 2008 gave over $1.8 million in aid to the Catholic Church in Vietnam and its approximately 6 million faithful.

To help the work of Aid to the Church in Need in Vietnam please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org