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.
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