The entire community works for the golden Jubilee of the Catholic Vietnamese
by JB. VU
The Cardinal Pham Minh Man asks for the “opinions and corrections” from bishops, priests and lay people regarding the project that is to be celebrated in 2010. Participation of lay people elaborating pastoral programmes is a novelty in the spirit of Vatican II.
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) – Suggestions for the preparation and the best development of the celebrations in 2010 - golden jubilee for the development of Catholicism in Vietnam - have been requested by the Cardinal of Saigon, JB. Pham Minh Man, to bishops, priests, faithful, and lay people in the country.
The Cardinal elaborated a plan for the year of the jubilee and asks for “opinions and corrections” to the programme, that he wants also to prepare for the 500 years of the evangelisation of Vietnam, since 1533. “The preparation of the programme”, writes the Cardinal “aims at helping faithful Catholics to believe that the strings of events, the ideas of all the Churches are prayer. The Bishops Conference of Vietnam asks all the faithful to pray to God for the Congress, and its large assistance to the Catholic communities in Vietnam today”.
The objective is to give support to the Bishops Conference, gathering from 26 dioceses, and to the brothers and sisters that are basing themselves on methods that have been adapted to the current social circumstances. In the spirit of harmony, the Catholic Vietnamese work together for the Mission of the Gospel, serving and loving the people. And like that we must listen to all the members of the Catholic community and their opinions for the life of the local Church.
It is good that the Bishops Conference and the Jubilee’s organizers create opportune conditions so that the people of the dioceses, congregations, orders and parishes can express their ideas, expectations, necessities and suggest methods to develop the pastoral programmes.
“The fact that the local Church listens to the lay people”, said a social worker to AsiaNews, “is truly an innovation by those responsible. According to the Spirit of the II Vatican Council, it is the work of the lay people to take care of the social matters; since the citizens are the ones that really know what is happening at the moment. I am capable of developing my mission through my work with the poor and the disadvantaged children in the underdeveloped communities in my area.”
Huy, expert of a private company in Ho Chi Minh City is part of a small prayer group. “I feel”, he says, “that today my friends, myself and people in general have lost faith in each other. Why? Maybe because we live in times of consumerism; maybe because they are thrown towards the power of economics and ‘good positions’ as leaders in the social structures. I think we need to pray together that God bless our lives”.
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