Cooperation and interfaith dialogue at the Christmas dinner in Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) – With only a few days to go to Christmas, the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City organized a dinner - vegetarian, to meet the needs of all participants - to promote cooperation and interfaith dialogue. The event, sponsored by Cardinal Jb Pham Minh Man and auxiliary bishop Msgr. Peter Nguyen Van Kham, was attended by leading Protestants, Buddhists, Muslims, Cao Dai faithful, along with priests and religious of the archdiocese committee for relations between different faiths.
Stressing the right of everyone to live their faith freely, respecting the beliefs of others, the cardinal wanted to introduce the theme: "Honour your father and mother." A source of misunderstanding among missionaries– who considered the practice of offerings to the memory of ancestors "idolatry" - and the local population in past centuries, the cardinal explained that it "is not only a sacred principle in all religions", but also a "source of cultural nobility of Eastern societies."
Cardinal Jb Pham Minh Man made a public apology on behalf of the Vietnamese church for the suspicions and misunderstandings of the past and called for the start of a new era of "knowledge and understanding."
Finally, there is the issue connected to various religious associations formed or controlled by the government. The dinner was only attended by delegates of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam (VBC), official and recognized by the government. A decision that could generate resentment among the faithful of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (Ubvc), not recognized by the government, which claims membership of about 80% of Buddhists of the country.
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