Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “A few days ago we opened the Year of the Priesthood. This year will help highlight the beauty and the greatness of the ministry of priests. I would be grateful if you would thank the diocesan and religious priests of your beloved country for their life consecrated to the Lord and for their pastoral efforts for the sanctification of the people of God. Take care of them, be full of understanding for them and help them complete their permanent formation”. This was how the Holy Father Benedict XVI expressed himself to the Bishops of Vietnam received in audience on 27 June for their ad limina visit.
The Holy Father said that “in order to be an authentic guide, according to the heart of God and the teaching of the Church" the priest should strive for ever more profound interior life and tend increasingly towards sanctity. He added that the many priestly and religious vocations registered in Vietnam today, especially of women to the consecrated life, are “a gift from God”.
Citing a pastoral letter issued by the Bishops last year, dedicated to the vocation of the laity in the family, the Pontiff said he hoped “every Catholic family, teaching children living with an upright conscience, in honesty and in truth, may become a seedbed of human values and virtues, a school of faith and love for God ”. He urged the Bishops to give special attention to good formation for lay people, “promoting their life of faith and their cultural level, to enable them to offer effective service to the Church and to society ”. Benedict XVI encouraged the Bishops to develop adequate pastoral care “for young internal migrants”, attracted from rural areas to cities for study or for work.
Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in Vietnam in 2010, will be an opportunity for the Church “to share with enthusiasm the joy of the faith with all Vietnamese and to renew missionary efforts”. The Holy Father recalled that the gift of the faith in that country has been “generously welcomed, lived and witnessed by many martyrs, who proclaimed the truth and the universality of faith in God. In this sense, witness to Christ, is a supreme service which the Church can offer Vietnam and all the peoples of Asia, since it responds to a profound human quest for the truth and values to guarantee integral human development”. To face the numerous challenges encountered by this witness, Benedict XVI stressed the necessity of “closer collaboration among dioceses, dioceses and religious congregations and among religious congregations themselves”.
Dwelling on the specific duty of the Church — to proclaim the Good News of Christ —, the Pope said that in this way the Church “promotes human and spiritual development of individuals and also of the country. Her participation in this process is a duty and an important contribution, especially today when Vietnam is progressively opening to the international community”. The Holy Father affirmed that “healthy collaboration between the Church and the political community is possible ”, therefore “the Church urges her members to work honestly to build a society of justice, solidarity and equality. In no way does the Church intend to take the place of government officials. She desires simply to participate in a spirit of dialogue and respectful collaboration in the life of the nation at the service of the people ”. In this context “the Church can never be exempt from exercising charity as the organised activity of believers, on the other hand, there will never be a situation which does not need the charity of every Christian, since man, over and above justice, needs love. Furthermore I feel it is important to emphasise that religions never represent a threat to the nation since they aim to help individuals sanctify themselves and desire to put their religious institutions generously and disinterestedly at the service of others”.
At the end of his discourse the Holy Father asked the Bishops of Vietnam to express the Pope's warmest greetings to the priests, the men and women religious, the seminarians, the catechists and all the faithful, especially the poorest ones and those experiencing physical and spiritual suffering. “I encourage them to remain strong in the faith received from the apostles of which they are generous witnesses often in difficult conditions ” the Pope concluded, entrusting all to the maternal protection of Our Lady of La-Vang and to the intercession of the holy martyrs of Viêt Nam. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 30/6/2009; righe 54, parole 779)
