Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Hanoi (Agenzia Fides) - There is great joy and exultance in the Church in Vietnam for the imminent opening of the Beatification cause for Cardinal Francois Nguyen Van Thuan, dearly loved apostle and bishop who died on 16 September 2002. Argentinean lawyer Silvia Correale, named postulator of the cause, will now collect documentation and listen to witnesses and then send her findings to Rome to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Cardinal Van Thuan was called to Rome by Pope John Paul II. He had spent 13 years in prison under the Communist regime for his faith in Christ. That difficult and suffered experience gave him a deep sense of Christian forgiveness and in successive year this influenced Church state relations in Vietnam.
Cardinal Van Thuan, was born in Heu in central Vietnam, ordained a priest in 1953 and in 1967 Bishop of Nha Trang, south of Hanoi. In 1975, when he had been appointed coadjutor Bishop of Ho Chi Minh City, he was arrested then released in 1988 and sent into exile.
For the local Church he was always a point of reference. Mgr Joseph Marie Tran Phuong, vicar general of Nah Trang diocese said the Cardinal deserves the honour of the altars "because he was a humble and faithful servant and witness of the Good News. A man of great heart and deep faith”. He is recalled with esteem and love by all Vietnamese Catholics especially those of his diocese and remembered for his efforts to increase the faith of the community and clergy, seminarians, catechists and families.
The Cardinal was a man who “lived of hope”. Hope was the “spiritual strength” which made him. “This is the testimony of faith left by this heroic Bishop ”, Pope Benedict XVI said in a recent audience to the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the council of which the Cardinal was called to oversee by Pope John Paul II in 1998. The Osservatorio for the promotion of Catholic Social Doctrine at the international level has been named after the deceased Cardinal. This was a field in which he was particularly active, Pope Benedict XVI recalled. Cardinal Van Thuan, “longed for the evangelisation of his Continent, Asia”, although this did not affect “his ability for co-ordinating works of charity and human promotion in the most remote corners of the earth”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 21/9/2007 righe 28 parole 289)
