"One day, we could have full diplomatic relations with Vietnam. This will be a great achievement," Archbishop Marek Zalewski said in an interview on Feb 8.

The Polish-born prelate was appointed by Pope Francis on Dec 23 last year as a resident pontifical representative, nearly half a century after Vietnam severed ties with the Vatican following the communist takeover in 1975.

"Now I have in Hanoi my residence and office. This gives me not only joy but also hope for a better future for my office here for working with the Catholic bishops for the good of the church in Vietnam," Archbishop Zalewski said in the interview published on the website of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam.

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"Visit Vietnam, Papa," some in the group shouted as the pope was driven in a golf cart past a crowd of about 2,000 people of various nationalities on the grounds of the Catholic cathedral in Ulaanbaatar on Saturday.

Vietnam broke off relations with the Vatican after the communists took over the reunited country at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The authorities then viewed the Catholic Church in Vietnam as having been too close to the former colonial power, France.

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The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam (CBCV) in the national capital Ho Chi Minh City, on Aug 7, Vatican News reported.

A delegation of ten government officials accompanied Văn Thưởng, while the church team was composed of nine bishops led by CBCV president Archbishop Joseph Nguyễn Năng of Ho Chi Minh City, along with five priests and two nuns.

The visit came after the Vietnamese president met with Pope Francis in the Vatican and signed a landmark agreement on July 27 that would allow a papal representative to reside in the country and open an office there for the first time since Vietnam War ended in 1975.

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They marry young. They become young parents. Mothers can be very young indeed.

Money's tight. Extended family move over to provide space. Couples commonly live apart with husbands and fathers chasing a living elsewhere in the country.

Even with family support, young couples don't always cope. Domestic violence is an issue for some.

Catholic support

People give as and where they can. Catholics seem to step up often.

In some districts, Catholic nuns help out with food and milk for the children.

In others, parishes give undernourished children healthcare services and Caritas workers help with housing repairs.

A 17-year-old mother, whose husband's in jail because of domestic violence, says she and her child receive rice and 500,000 dong (US$21) from Catholic nuns who support the child. She also grows bananas and raises goats for a living.

Sister Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan, a Daughter of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, says nuns regularly visit and offer medical check-ups and medicines to ethnic villagers in remote areas.

There's also a Church-run home for pregnant women left by their boyfriends and families. Founded in 2014, it provides free accommodation, food, and medical and other care to 12 women.

Customs and cultures

Most often the Pako - an ethnic minority community - live in remote areas, with little outside contact or access to modern life.

It's a community where child marriages are an age-old custom.

"We have a small population so we try to have more children to maintain our identity and to ensure a future labour force," one Pako parent explains.

Local government associations have asked "us to immediately abandon the child marriage custom, but it fell on deaf ears," he says.

The stats

The south-central province of Thua Thien Hue and its neighbouring Quang Tri province are home to over 50,000 Pako ethnic people.

Thua Thien Hue province recorded 350 child marriages among local ethnic groups between 2017 and 2021. (This is despite the country's law saying men have to be over 20 and women over 18 to get married.)

By tradition, boys marry at the age of 15 and girls at 13. It is considered "difficult" for a girl to find a match if she is over 15.

The problems

The problems with teen marriages are manifold.

Youngsters are not given proper training to look after children and maintain a decent family life. Because of this, couples often suffer from domestic violence. Some marriages end in divorce.

Many young women fail to look after their pregnancies, suffer miscarriages and give premature birth, Sister Lan says.

Some young mothers leave their babies at garbage dumps or in front of convents for the nuns to raise them.

Ethnic Catholics avoid child marriage

Local priest Paul Duong Quoc Minh says most local ethnic Catholics avoid child marriage. They are educated in Church regulations and are aware of the grave problems caused by the custom, he says.

They also refuse to attend wedding parties of teenage couples as a way of protest against the custom, the priest says.

Source

• UCA News

An estimated one million people, including clergy and religious, moved to the south of the country after communist forces defeated French troops and took control of the north in 1954.

Local Catholics suffered religious restrictions. They were left without priests for decades and could not afford to preserve church facilities.

The situation has improved in recent decades, with local catholics donating land and volunteering to work at the construction sites.

This year Hanoi Archdiocese has inaugurated seven new churches, four pastoral houses and one convent, and started the construction of two new churches.

Churches are also appearing in remote areas and at old parishes abandoned by catholics decades ago.

On May 31, Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hanoi inaugurated the Visitation of the Virgin Mary Church in Thuy Xuyen Sub-parish in Thuong Tin district of the capital Hanoi.

In his homily, Archbishop Thien said: "This church is as important as the heart, so each catholic is like blood flowing to the heart to receive life, freshness and vitality. Then, after being refined, we return to fill our homes and communities with joy, zing and hope."

According to church history, two sub-parishes of Xam Thi and Xam Xuyen were established in 1939, and local catholics built chapels. But many faithful left to avoid the war while others suffered religious restrictions. The chapels were ruined by the weather.

Father Joseph Van Dinh Khanh started to provide pastoral care in the nineties by combining the two sub-parishes into Thuy Xuyen Subparish. He bought a house for local people to use as a chapel.

Joseph Uong Duc Tuyen, a local catholic, offered a plot of land to the sub-parish. With donations from benefactors, including followers of other faiths, the church costing 4 billion dong (US$174,000) was built.

In May, Archbishop Thien opened another new church at Dong Nhan Subparish in Hoai Duc district.

He thanked Father Joseph Do Huu Thoa and his predecessor Father Anthony Pham Van Giang for making efforts to build the church to preserve the local faith heritage.

"All people, regardless of their backgrounds, have good hearts and work for the good. That is the beauty of the Catholic Church and the nation," he said in gratitude to followers of other faiths who attended the inauguration.

Sources

UCA News

UCA News

Bishop Dominic Hoang Minh Tien of Hung Hoa Diocese visited Bui Chu Major Seminary in neighbouring Bui Chu Diocese in northern Vietnam and had exchanges with teachers and students on May 11, reports the official website of Bui Chu Diocese.

This was the 53-year-old bishop's first visit to the formation house following his ordination as bishop of Hung Hoa on Feb 14.

Hung Hoa Diocese, bordering China and Laos, is Vietnam's largest Catholic diocese in terms of area. It covers about 48,072 square kilometres.

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Cardinal Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, emeritus archbishop of Hanoi, formally blessed the new church - in Vinh Lai Subparish in Vu Ban district of Nam Dinh province - on May 9.

Some 20 priests joined the special thanksgiving Mass attended by hundreds of people, with many wearing traditional costumes.

Cardinal Nhon said the new church, with an area of 300 square meters and a bell tower 25 meters in height, is the fourth church built by local people since the early 20th century.

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A joint working group agreed at its latest meeting in Hanoi that in the near future relations would be upgraded to the level of residential representatives in both Hanoi and Rome, a Vatican statement said on Friday.

This would be one step short of full diplomatic relations with ambassadors, which have been the stated aim of the talks since they began in 2009.

Vietnam broke relations with the Vatican after the communists took over the reunified country at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. At the time, the authorities viewed the Catholic Church in Vietnam as having been too close historically to the former colonial power, France.

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Father Alfonse Pham Hung, head of the Office of Hanoi Archbishop House, said two government officials from Vu Ban town in Hoa Binh province stormed into the sanctuary in Vu Ban Church on Feb. 20. They took the microphone on the lectern, demanding those who were attending Sunday Mass to disperse.

Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hanoi and nine priests concelebrated the special Mass as part of his pastoral visit to local Catholic communities.

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The incident took place on February 20 in the parish of Vu Ban, Fides reported. The church there can accommodate more than 100 worshipers.

"It was rather unpleasant and worrying to see the liturgy interrupted by the presence of several state officials", said a note from the Archdiocese of Hanoi, one of oldest dioceses and seen as the mother of many northern dioceses.

Security officers interrupted the liturgical service and, led by the head of the local branch of the Communist Party, marched to the altar, ordering the archbishop to immediately stop the mass and disperse the congregation.

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