1272 Year of the Eucharist in Ho Chi Minh City: public officials are grateful!
austraLasia 1272
Year of the Eucharist in Ho Chi Minh City: public
officials are grateful!
HO CHI MINH CITY: 4th OCtober 2005 -- In an unusual
twist to life in Ho Chi Minh City, some public officials are grateful
for the introduction of continuous Eucharistic adoration during the
Year of the Eucharist in as many as 50 parishes in the city. Many
citizens are to be found in the churches, and as a consequence the
notoriously dense traffic is easier, crime is down, citizens are
gentler - fewer domestic and workplace quarrels. There is even a
thought being given to police funding such initiatives!
A highly placed individual in the Church in HCM has
given an overview of the Church's life in HCM. The experience of
the Church in Eastern Europe as it gradually began to open after the
fall of the Berlin Wall has also been of value to the Church in
Vietnam, especially in HCM, though there is not the full freedom that
would be desirable. There is a long waiting list for the major
seminary, for example. The minor seminary has been closed since
1975. Every second year 20 candidates are allowed to start in the
major seminary, the only such seminary for six southern dioceses.
There are hopes that before the end of this year, with the creation of
a new diocese, there will be one more major seminary to help cater for
the 130 candidates on the waiting list.
The old minor seminary facilities were returned by
the Government in 2004 and are now being used for the training of
formators for lay formation. It will, it is hoped, be a pastoral
centre. There are at least two dozen lay organisations in HCM,
all in need of formation manuals and textbooks. An example of
such a need would be the desire for an ethics handbook for doctors or
for teachers. Lay movements are flourishing: there are 6,000
volunteers available for service as catechists, 4,000 members of parish
councils ready to be trained. The archdiocese, with Cardinal John
Baptist Pham Minh Man as its head, has priests studying in Rome, France
and the USA in an effort to 'globalise' formation resources.
One particular need in the city is that of pastoral
attention to migrant workers. The Salesians offer a sizeable
response to this need (workers flowing in from central and north
Vietnam, the majority of them women working in textile and garment
industries). The Salesian Parish of Xuan Hiep includes many
migrant workers amongst its flock. In fact the Salesian presence
in the city is very much appreciated for its 'humble evangelisation'
and simple vocational training centres. Initially, the police
were even reluctant to give a permit to the FMA to begin their work in
some of the poorest parts of the city; now they have begged the
Salesians and the Sisters to stay put, because of the obvious impact on
the social life of the areas they are involved in.
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