Vietnam says no immediate plan for Papal visit
HANOI - Vietnam has no
immediate plan to invite Pope John Paul to visit the
communist country, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung said on Thursday.
``We do not have any intention yet to invite the Pope,''
Dung said in response to a question at a briefing for
foreign correspondents.
Fides, news agency of the Vatican's missionary arm,
reported on Tuesday that the Pope was willing to make
the historic trip if invited by Hanoi.
The agency has said Vietnam's Catholic bishops had
asked the government to invite the Pope to visit next
August.
Such a trip would conclude celebrations marking the
200th anniversary of an apparition of the Virgin Mary at
La Vang in central Vietnam.
Dung, who is also a member of the elite 19-member
Communist Party Politburo, said the government had
recently received a letter from Vietnam's bishops but he
did not disclose its contents.
Vietnam has previously said the country's Catholic
bishops had not asked the government to issue a formal
invitation, although a senior member of the clergy has
told Reuters a request concerning the Pope had been
submitted.
Vietnam's Catholic community numbers around eight
million and is Southeast Asia's largest outside the
Philippines.
While the atmosphere for worship in Vietnam has eased
in recent years, the state retains strict controls over
religious groups and related activities.
Reuters - November 12, 1998.
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