Vietnamese bishops to focus on Holy Year to evangelise society
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) – The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam issued on 17 September a pastoral letter to all the faithful informing them that topic chosen for the Holy Year that begins on 8 December will be "the evangelisation of social life".
The letter is part of the preparatory work for the upcoming Congress on missionary activity that the Commission for evangelisation has organised every year since 2010.
"Modern society today excludes religion from social life,” said Mgr Alphonse Nguyễn Hữu Long, bishop of the Archdiocese of Hue and president of the Commission. “However, many young people want to return to it with a new spirituality. Young people need a new evangelisation in order to strengthen their faith and meet the challenges of materialism and consumerism."
Every year, the Commission for Evangelisation gets the entire Church involved in finding new ways to communicate the faith. The aim is to "improve the model of the Church, its communities and its participation in public life", involving the laity and families in the evangelising mission.
All of the country’s 26 dioceses are expected to study and research local conditions in parishes and communities, as well as share information at the conference this year.
Demographic data for the past 50 years show a proportionally stable Catholic population. According to a 2010 study prepared by Fr Antoine Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn, there were 2 million Catholics in Vietnam in 1960 out of a population of some 30 million (6.6 per cent). The latest data (2015) show 6,606,495 Catholics out of a population of 95 million (6.9 per cent).
Therefore, the unchanged percentage shows that the current strategy of evangelisation has not paid off. According to the Bishops' Conference, some 88,000 Catholics are involved in missionary activities, but there are only 41,000 baptisms per year. This calls for missionary action.
Materialism and consumerism pose another major challenge to the Church. Before 1975, northern dioceses had no churches or priests. Thus, many people moved away from the faith.
Now the Church of Vietnam (in both the north and the south) has a better organisational structure; yet, many individuals and families have strayed away because of worldly attitudes.
For this reason, the Commission for evangelisation has called for "greater awareness of missionary work. We must learn, understand the views of people and devise a path and pastoral activities for them.” At the same time, “The Vietnamese Church must stand by the poor,” some Catholic intellectuals told AsiaNews.
In view of this, “We should avoid the risk of vanity, like building magnificent churches or holding expensive ceremonies. Instead, our main concern should be to proclaim the Good News to as many people as possible."
.png)
