ASIA/VIETNAM - 50 deacons ordained priests in northern Vietnam diocese of Bui Chu

Bui Chu (Agenzia Fides) - Good news continues to arrive from the Catholic Church in Vietnam. Recently 50 deacons were ordained priests in the diocese of Bui Chu (suffragan of the archdiocese of Hanoi), in Nam Dinh Province, northern Vietnam. Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tien ordained 50 priests, 45 of Bui Chu diocese and five from the diocese of Bac Ninh, the diocese of Phat Diem and a local community of Dominicans.
The new priests, aged 31 to 60, are part of a group of seminarians who encountered obstacles to their formation for the priesthood partly because of difficult relations with the civil authorities. However these relations have now improved and these ordinations are a motive of great joy for the Catholic Church in Vietnam. The improved relations with the civil authorities are also due to patient work by the auxiliary bishop of Bui Chu 59 year old Salesian Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van De, appointed auxiliary by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Since the year 2000 he had taught at Hanoi major seminary, and this experience is of great help in his pastoral ministry in Bui Chu.
In 2005 the Church in Vietnam rejoiced for the ordination of 57 performed by the then prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, on a pastoral visit to the country. Vocations to the priesthood are growing in Vietnam also in the north, for many years without priests or seminaries: a sign of hope for Catholics in Vietnam (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/7/2007 righe 25 parole 255)