Vatican City, Nov 24, 2016 / 02:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis met Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang at the Vatican for a meeting largely focused on collaboration between the Church and State, as well as how to move forward in cementing better relations.
In the course of the “cordial talks,” specific mention was made of the “good relations existing between the Holy See and Vietnam,” which are supported by “a common spirit of dialogue and of the constant search for the most appropriate tools so they can further advance,” a Nov. 23 communique from the Vatican read.
Collaboration between the Church and the State “in various levels of local society” was also emphasized.
President Dai Quang arrived to the Vatican around 5p.m. local time, and was accompanied by a delegation of 10 people.
After their private discussion, Dai Quang gifted the Pope a small drum with a bronze base, while Francis, for his part, gave the Vietnamese president a medal of his pontificate as well as a copy of his environmental encyclical Laudato Si, his Apostolic Exhortations Amoris Laetitia and Evangelii Gaudium.
Following his meeting with the Pope, President Dai Quang met briefly with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with the States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
While the Vietnamese president’s visit to the Vatican is significant, it is not the first time a head of state has made such a gesture. In 2009, former president Nguyen Minh Triet traveled to the Vatican to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, marking the first such visit by a Vietnamese head of state to the Vatican.
Vietnam is currently one of 15 States in which the Holy See does not yet have full diplomatic relations.
Diplomatic relations between the two states were dissolved in 1975 when the communist north overran South Vietnam. However, since then, the visits of more than 20 Vatican delegations eventually led to the 2007 visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Benedict XVI.
After the 2007 meeting, the Holy See and Vietnam began talks to re-establish diplomatic ties, and to this end a joint working group was established in 2009. In 2008, after decades, the Holy See was finally able to appoint seven new bishops in Vietnam, and the bishops ordained hundreds of priests.
Talks eventually led to the appointment of Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli as non-resident special envoy to Vietnam in 2011. A year later, Nguyen Phu Trong, secretary of the Vietnamese communist party, visited Benedict, showing the desire on the part of Vietnamese authorities to normalize diplomatic ties.
The sixth and most recent meeting of the working group took place Oct. 24-26 at the Vatican, where talks centered on the recent reform of the religious freedom bill in Vietnam, which has been under discussion since 2013, when the Vietnamese constitution was revised.
The law guaranteed freedom of belief to people, and formally guarantees religious freedom. However, Catholic communities have experienced several limitations under the communist regime that took power in 1976.
In the October working group meeting, Vietnam’s representatives underscored the efforts made to improve a religious freedom bill, while the Holy See showed appreciation for these efforts and reiterated the Church’s freedom to carry forward its mission.
With 6 million adherents to the faith – nearly 7 percent of its entire population – the Church has a notable impact on Vietnamese society, a fact acknowledged by the government's desire to dialogue with the Holy See.
Article Archive
Advancing relations core of meeting between Pope, Vietnam president
Related Articles • More Articles
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...
Members of the Provincial Episcopal Assembly of Bukavu (ASSEPB). / Credit: Radio MotoACI Africa, Apr 28, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Catholic bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have denounced the insecurity and violence in their dioceses.In their collective statement issued Sunday, April 14, the members of the Provincial Episcopal Assembly of Bukavu (ASSEPB) said: "Insecurity has become endemic, with its trail of killings even in the middle of the day, massacres and kidnappings of peaceful citizens in our towns and villages."ASSEPB members decried "the opening up of most of our territorial entities; the [rebel group] M23s surrounding of the town of Goma supported by Rwanda; and the strategy of paralyzing the economy by isolating and suffocating large and small towns.""Despite the holding of elections, the Congolese state remains weak and ineffective," they further lamented. The Catholic Church leaders faulted the President ...
Father Leo Riley, age 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice in Florida. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's OfficeCNA Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 19:18 pm (CNA).A Florida priest who was recently arrested on sex abuse charges was permitted to continue in active ministry for nearly three years after a civil sex abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the diocese in which he serves.Father Leo Riley, age 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice in Florida. The matter came to the forefront this week after Riley was arrested on several sex abuse charges dating back to his time serving as a priest in Iowa decades ago. The Charlotte County, Florida Sheriff's Office said in a press release that deputies arrested Riley in Port Charlotte on April 24 "on multiple counts of capital sexual battery stemmin...