Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bui Chu (Fides Service ) – “The Church demands of Religious high quality spirituality and formation” Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, of Bui Chu, told Fides Service with regard to the first meeting of the Vietnamese Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Religious. Due to problems the Commission, founded in 1980 was able to hold its first meeting only in July this year 2003. The meeting, presided by Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, head of the Commission and attended by Bishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, Apostolic Administrator of Hanoi, Bishop Joseph Nguyen Van Yen of Phat Diem, Bishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hai Phong and thirty representatives of Vietnam’s 25 dioceses del Vietnam discussed the presence and challenges of Religious life in Vietnam. “The underlying theme of the Meeting was Pope John Paul II’s ‘Duc in altum’ exhortation which the Bishops want religious life in Vietnam to adopt and put into practice”, Bishop Van Tiem told Fides Service. He said the participants reflected on what the Church of the third Millennium demands of religious men and women and that the answer that emerged was “not quantity but above all high quality and competence of cultural, theological and spiritual formation particularly for young religious.Another important point discussed at the meeting was the urgency of evangelisation in remote areas of Vietnam, which the Word of God fails to reach due to scarcity of priests working in harmony with the Bishops: “Where the bond with the diocese is strongest there is a great flourishing of religious life” said the Bishop of Bui Chu, who voiced satisfaction for the first meeting of the Commission and the hope that other such meetings may be organised in the near future in view of enhancing the presence and activity Religious in the Church in Vietnam(PA) (Fides Service 1/9/2003 lines 28 words 336)
