Vatican Cardinal to visit Vietnam
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Minister of Vatican Missionary Works, will pay a visit to Vietnam next week to further promote mutual understanding between Vatican and Vietnam, a Vietnamese diplomat said Friday.
He will be present at the coming ceremony to ordain 57 seminarians to the transitional diaconate at the Hanoi Cathedral, which “will be an honour to the priests, their families, and local parishioners,” said spokesman Le Dzung of the Foreign Ministry.
During his visit from November 28 to December 5, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe and the Vatican delegation will visit Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City, and the provinces of Quang Tri, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai.
The cardinal will chair a ceremony to set up a new diocese in Ba Ria, meet with Buddhisy Most Venerable Thich Tri Quang and Protestant Parson Huynh Thien Buu, and take part in religious activities at the above-mentioned localities.
The new diocese, Vietnam’s 26th, includes an estimated 224,000 Catholics out of a population of just over 900,000 people. It is headed by Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tram, 63; 56 diocesan priests, 35 religious-order priests and 406 women religious work in the diocese.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan is scheduled to receive Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe and his delegation.
The visit is made at the invitation of the Vietnam Episcopal Council, according to the Vietnamese Government’s Committee for Religious Affairs.
Vietnam News Agency - November 25, 2005.
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