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February
5, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 3Oakland,
CA
Meeting signals
improved
Vatican-Vietnamese relations
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| Pope Benedict XVI with Vietnamese Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung. CNS /REUTERS |
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| Parishioners pray in the courtyard at Ham Long Church,
also known as St. Anthony’s, after morning Mass in Hanoi, Vietnam,
Dec. 7. CNS PHOTO |
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| A prayer intention is seen as a priest celebrates
Mass at Ham Long Church in Hanoi. Catholics make up about 8 percent
of the population. CNS PHOTO |
VATICAN
CITY (CNS) -- Signaling continued improvement in Vatican-Vietnamese relations,
Pope Benedict XVI hosted the first ever visit of a prime minister from
Vietnam’s communist government.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and a nine-member government delegation,
including the head of the government Commission for Religious Affairs,
arrived at the Vatican Jan. 25.
The Vatican said the meeting marked “a new and important step toward
the normalization of bilateral relations,” which have improved in
recent years along with “greater spaces of religious freedom for
the Catholic Church in Vietnam.”
The pope, prime minister and religious affairs director, Ngo Yen Thi,
spent more than 25 minutes speaking privately before the entire Vietnamese
delegation was introduced to the pope.
The Vietnamese delegation also spent about half an hour meeting with Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, and foreign minister Archbishop
Dominique Mamberti.
During the meetings, a Vatican statement said, the Vatican and Vietnamese
officials discussed problems remaining in church-state relations, which
should be “faced and resolved through the existing channels of dialogue
and should lead to a fruitful cooperation between church and state.”
The Vatican and Vietnam do not have diplomatic relations, but Vatican
diplomats make annual visits to Vietnam to discuss church-state relations
and specific questions related to the appointment of bishops, seminary
enrollment and the functioning of Catholic institutions.
The communist government of Vietnam continues to insist on approving the
Vatican’s candidates for bishop before their nominations are announced,
and it sets limits on the number of new seminarians allowed each year.
The Vatican statement said Jan. 25 marked “the first time that a
prime minister from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has met the Holy
Father and the highest authorities of the Secretariat of State.”
