The Vietnamese Catholic communities abroad are a resource for their homeland
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - There are more than half a million Vietnamese Catholics who live abroad and who, despite not depending upon the bishops of Vietnam, remain connected to their confreres, no less than to all of their other countrymen, at home and abroad. The Catholic communities also feel a special obligation, that of bringing the Good News.
Over the past 33 years, since 1975, 3 million Vietnamese have gone to live abroad, 550,000 of them Catholics. The Catholic groups are generally dynamic, supporting and helping one another. About 300,000 of them have received a university degree in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Australia, or another country. Some of them are experts, and represent a resource in that they want to contribute to the development of their country.
Many of the emigrant communities have formed spontaneously, while others have been started by the local churches. Even though, according to canon law, they do not depend upon the Vietnamese bishops, they still preserve their bond of identity with their confreres back home. And we hope that in Vietnam, or wherever else in the world, we are united with all Vietnamese, even if they are of other religions, because we have the same culture.
Since 1970, communities of priests, religious, and faithful have been established in the United States: today there are about one and a half million of them, as former president Bill Clinton said in a speech at the national university of Hanoi on November 17, 2000. And there are about 450,000 Vietnamese Catholics living in the United States.
As Catholics, we recognise that all Vietnamese are our brothers and sisters. In this spirit, the head of the U.S. bishops' conference at the time, Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, during a Mass celebrated in the cathedral of Hanoi on August 8, 1999, thanked and praised the Vietnamese Catholic communities for their contributions to the Church in the United States.
Looking to the future, we believe that the love of God has given a special mission to the Vietnamese nation in his plan of salvation. So he will certainly give us abundant blessings to carry forward our mission.
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