ASIA VIETNAM - Bishop of Vinh resigns, successor appointed

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on May 13, 2010, accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the Diocese of Vinh (Vietnam), presented by Archbishop Paul-Marie Cao Dinh Thuyen, MSC, in accordance with canon 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law. The Holy Father has appointed as Bishop of Vinh (Vietnam), Fr. Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, OP, professor of Ethics and Catholic Social Teaching at the Center for Dominican Studies and in various religious institutes, as well as professor at the State University of Hochiminh Ville.
Fr. Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, OP, was born in Lang Anh, Nghe An, Vinh Diocese, on February 2, 1945. He attended the Dominican Center for Studies and the State University of Saigon, where he obtained a Licentiate in Oriental Philosophy (1970). He earned a Doctorate in Philosophy in Switzerland, from the University of Freiburg (1978), and then a Doctorate in Moral Theology at the Faculty of Theology of São Paulo (Brazil). He was ordained priest on August 8, 1972. After ordination, he held the following positions: teacher in the Faculty of Theology in Lima (Peru), in the 1980s, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (1997-2003); head of intellectual formation of the Dominican Province of Vietnam (2003-2007); Director of the Dominican Province (2003-2007). Since 2000, he has taught Ethics and Social Doctrine of the Church at the Center for Dominican Studies and in various religious institutes, as well as Religious Studies at the State University of Hochiminh Ville.
The Diocese of Vinh (1960), suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ha Noi, has an area of 30,594 sq.km. and a population of 6,090,000 inhabitants, of whom 486,234 are Catholic. There are 177 parishes, 167 diocesan priests, 610 nuns, and 88 major seminarians. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/05/2010)