Richard Gallagher, the Holy See's foreign minister, met his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son and expressed the Vatican's "gratitude" for the progress that has been made to improve ties. The visit occurred after Archbishop Marek Zalewski became the first Vatican representative to live and open an office in the Southeast Asian country.

"The visit is of great importance," said Son.

Gallagher will also meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and visit a children's hospital in the capital, Hanoi, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported. He will hold Mass in Hanoi, Hue in central Vietnam, and the financial hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

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The development will likely be announced during the visit of President Vo Van Thuong to the Holy See by the end of July, Reuters reported on June 16, citing a senior Vatican official and a Hanoi-based diplomat with knowledge of the matter.

Thuong and his wife will pay an official visit to Austria, Italy and the Vatican on July 23-28, Vietnamese state media reported.

Relations between Hanoi and the Vatican dissolved when communist leaders took over Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

After the country's reunification, they placed restrictions on the Catholic Church and jailed several Catholic leaders who opposed the new government.

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Both sources, a senior Vatican official and a Hanoi-based diplomat, say they think the deal's formal announcement will take place later this month when President Võ Văn Thưởng visits the Vatican.

"We are hoping that this will mark a turning point," the Vatican official says.

It's been a decade since the Holy See asked Hanoi to permit a papal representative to live in Vietnam. An agreement in principle was reached last year.

Both the Vatican official and the Hanoi diplomat say they expect that Pope Francis will receive Võ. The last time Pope Francis received a Vietnamese president was when Tran Đại Quang visited in 2016.

There are nearly seven million Catholics in Vietnam. They make up just 6.6 percent of the 95 million population.

Vietnam's relations with the Vatican broke off after the communists took over at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The communist authorities considered the Catholic Church had been too close to Vietnam's former colonial power, France.

Today, Vietnam's papal nuncio Archbishop Marek Zalewski is based in Singapore. He makes occasional working visits to Vietnam with government approval.

UCA, an independent Catholic news agency, says Vietnam's government places controls on some Catholic activities, such as the number of parishes.

Future focus

Vietnam's constitution allows for freedom of religion.

Government media have rejected criticisms about this from groups such as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. The Commission has added Vietnam to its list of "countries of particular concern".

The establishment of a resident representative from the Holy See with Hanoi's approval could lead to full diplomatic relations developing between the Vatican and Vietnam. Exactly when to expect that is unknown - though the current deal has been in the making since 2009.

At present the Vatican has diplomatic relations with about 180 countries.

Source

• US News

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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Cardinal Roger Marie Elie Etchegaray, president emeritus of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, died on Sept. 4 in Cambo-les-Bains in the Diocese of Bayonne in France. He was 96.

His death is a great loss not only for his relatives and the French Church but also for the College of Cardinals and the universal Church, said Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam.

"Cardinal Etchegaray is a great benefactor for the history of the Church in Vietnam," Archbishop Linh said in a special message to Catholics on Sept. 5. Read more

The WikiLeaks release of State Department cables revealed that American Cardinal Bernard Law is actively working in Vatican-Vietnam relations. His "personal involvement" helped confirm the December 2009 meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.

"It took a visit to Vietnam last week by American Cardinal Bernard Law to finalize arrangements to allow the visit to go forward, according to a person close to the cardinal," reports a secret December 4, 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

The cable, signed by U.S. Ambassador Miguel Diaz, says that Cardinal Law told the embassy's deputy mission chief that he discussed bilateral relations and the president's visit directly with the Vietnamese.

"In these discussions, the Vietnamese expressed little interest in formal diplomatic relations but considerable interest in ensuring the already-announced visit would go forward," the State Department cable says. "The Cardinal did not reveal whether he obtained any concessions from the Vietnamese in order to confirm the visit, but that seems likely."

A notation in the December 2009 cable advises to "strictly protect" Cardinal Law's identity.

The cardinal's interactions with U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi are also noted in a confidential cable from the Hanoi embassy, dated November 25, 2009.

During Cardinal Law's visit for the 350th anniversary of Catholicism in the country, he discussed with U.S. officials the proposed visit of the Vietnamese president to the Vatican. He also discussed the possible resignation of Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi, which the Pope later accepted in May 2010.

The archbishop faced health issues and became a controversial figure because of his efforts to recover church property confiscated by the communist government.

Full Article: CNA