Vietnam's top Catholic leaders to lead delegation at pope's funeral
Vietnam's top Catholic leaders have departed for the Vatican to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, church officials said Wednesday. Cardinal Pham Minh Man, the archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City; newly appointed Archbishop of Hanoi Ngo Quang Kiet; and the president of Vietnam's Episcopal Commission, Nguyen Van Hoa, left for Rome on Tuesday along with four others to attend Friday's funeral, said Nguyen Xuan Thuy of the Hanoi diocese.
Man, 71, will be among the conclave of cardinals that will vote for a new pope. The government will not send any officials from Hanoi, and instead will be represented by someone from its embassy in Rome. Vietnam, with more than 8 million Catholics, has the second largest Catholic population in Asia after the Philippines. During his quarter-century tenure, Pope John Paul II was never able to fulfill his hope of visiting communist China and Vietnam, with whom the Vatican does not have diplomatic ties. Leaders in the two countries remained wary of the church's influence, with both refusing to recognize the pope's authority over the Catholic Church.
"It was always the desire of Vietnamese Catholics to have the pope visit," Thuy said. "But such a visit was not possible because the government said the two sides have not established diplomatic relations." "Hopefully, the next pope will visit Vietnam," he said. Vietnam has always insisted that all church appointments by the Vatican be approved by the government. The strained relations have improved in recent years, with an increasing exchange of senior-level visits.
The Associated Press - April 6, 2005
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