~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2002]

Vietnam's deputy prime minister meets top Vatican officials

VATICAN CITY - Vietnam's deputy prime minister met Friday with top Vatican officials for talks aimed at improving relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Hanoi, the Holy See said. The Vatican and Vietnam do not have diplomatic relations.

Vatican officials have been making visits to Vietnam for the last several years in a bid to ease tensions. Earlier this week, Pope John Paul II appointed two Vietnamese bishops. On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan met here with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Holy See's secretary of state, and with Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's foreign minister.

"In addition to topics of international politics, we had an exchange of views over the economic and social developments underway in Vietnam," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, "as well as over the need to intensify cooperation between Church and state, to the benefit of the entire Vietnamese society." Vietnam's 8 million Catholics constitute a small percentage of the nation's 76 million people but they are the largest Catholic community in Asia outside of the Philippines.

The two Vietnamese bishops were appointed in the dioceses of Haiphong and Can Tho, the Vatican said. The bishop for Can Tho was given the title of coadjutor, meaning he will hold the right to succeed the current bishop in case of retirement or death. Hanoi's insistence that it have final say over religious appointments has hurt prospects for diplomatic relations.

The Associated Press - November 29, 2002.