Bui Chu and Vinh Long Catholics mourn the passing of their bishops
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews / EDA) - Vietnamese Catholics are mourning the death of two bishops, who both died on August 17 last from natural causes. They are Msgr. Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, of the diocese of Bui Chu, in northern Vietnam, and Msgr. Thomas Nguyen Van Tân, the bishop of the diocese of Vinh Long, in the south of the country. Bishop Joseph, 74, died at 4 am for a myocardial infarction, Bishop Thomas, aged 73, died suddenly in the evening, without warning. Only two days before, on August 15, he had celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption.
The two sudden deaths have shocked
and saddened the faithful of the diocese of Bui Chu and Vinh Long, and provoked
expressions of closeness from the entire Vietnamese Catholic community that is
united in prayer. On behalf of the
Vietnamese bishops' conference, Msgr. Pierre
Nguyen Van Nhon has sent a letter of condolence.
Bishop
Joseph Hoang Van Tiêm was born September 12, 1938 in the
province of Nam Dinh. After
studying at the minor seminary of Bui Chu, in 1960 he began his novitiate at the
Salesians. In
Italy first, later in the Holy Land in Bethlehem he deepened his studies of
philosophy and theology. Ordained
a priest in 1973, for several years he served in a parish priest before being
transferred (in 1995) to the major seminary of Hanoi, where he taught moral
theology.
In
2000 he was appointed Bishop of Bui Chu, a diocese battered by war and
characterized by the massive exodus of Christians towards the south in 1954,
with the rise to power of the Hanoi Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City. He
carried out great work in the diocese especially in the formation of priests
and lay people, and now the pastoral care is entrusted to the Coadjutor Bishop Thomas
Vu Dinh Hieu.
Bishop
Thomas Nguyên Van Tân, whose death leaves a vacant see in his
diocese, on August 15 the thirteenth anniversary of his Episcopal ordination. The
community mourns a "gifted, good, humble bishop and a friend to all",
who was born 27 December 1940 in the province of Tra Vinh. He
entered the minor seminary of Vinh Long in 1953, after he completed his studies
in philosophy and theology before being ordained a priest in 1969. A long-time teacher, holds a doctorate in theology
from Rome's Gregorian University.
In
1977, two years after the fall of Saigon with the reunification of the country
under the auspices of the communist North, he experienced one of the hardest periods
of his life. On
September 7, 1977 the Cathedral, religious institutes and seminaries of Vinh
Long were occupied by the communist authorities; events that he would evoke and
write about in his letter to the faithful in October 2009. On
August 15, 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop of the
diocese, which he to pastoral leadership of in 2001 with the resignation of his
predecessor. His
faithful remember him as a person with a strong charisma, able to build a
"new Church" who gave a new impulse to priestly vocations.
24/10/2019 15:36