Divine Word Missionaries

SVD Mission 2000

Province
Reports
for
the XV
General
Chapter

Contents

Presentation
Four Zones
AFRAM
ASPAC
AUS
ID-
IDE
IDJ
IDR
IDT
IN-
INC
INE
INS
JPN
KOR
PH-
PHC
PHN
PHS
PNG
SIN
VIE
EUROPA
PANAM
Statistics
Index

en Español

SVD Publications
Generalate
Rome
1999

VIETNAM

1. General Situation of the Country

Vietnam is one of the oldest centers of civilization and like some other countries in Southeast Asia, can claim to be one of the cradles of humanity. It has served as a crossroads for peoples passing from the north and the east, and as a meeting place for many races and languages. The influence of Confucianism and Mahayana Buddhism has been particularly been strong, becoming deeply integrated into the character of the Vietnamese people.

Vietnam has a population of about 74 million, some 85% of which come from the "Viet" racial group. About fifty other ethnic groups such as the Thais, Khmers, Nungs, Hmongs, Bahnas, Sodangs, Chams, etc. form the remainder of the nation's people. These have been living together for centuries and have formed a common cultural heritage adapted to their particular regions, each evolving its own way of life and cultural peculiarities.

Vietnam was under China's imperial rule for a little more than eight hundred years (112 - 938 AD). By the sixteenth century, Europeans had began their colonial expansion and asserted their influence over the area. In 1885 France installed her protectorate over Tonkin and Annam. Independence was finally declared in 1945, but it was only after the Geneva Conference of 1954 that France withdrew all her troops, leaving behind a divided country. The civil war which followed cost the country more than three million dead. When the United States withdrew in 1976 after the fall of Saigon the country was finally reunited under the communist government of Hanoi.

Twenty percent of all Vietnamese live in the cities. Hanoi, located in the north of the country in the delta of the Hanoi River, is the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and has 2,154,000 inhabitants. The city was founded by King Ly Thai To in 1010 and served as his capital. It was also the capital of French Indochina from 1902-1945. The present Ho Chi Minh city was formerly known as Saigon. It was founded some three centuries ago and has a current population of 4 million. Under the French colonial rule Saigon was the administrative center of what was then called Cochin China.

2. The Church in Vietnam

The first contacts of Vietnam with Christianity occurred sometime in 1530. The first serious steps towards the evangelization of the country were taken when the French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes arrived there in 1627, who founded a famous institute for catechists. These catechists were responsible for keeping the faith alive through the long and bloody persecutions of the next centuries. Christianity was first banned in 1630 and Fr. De Rhodes was eventually expelled from the country. The exiled priest presented the proposal to the Roman Propaganda Fide to send several bishops to Vietnam for the purpose of training the local clergy. A period of violent persecutions ensued which produced hundreds of martyrs. One could say that through this painful history of martyrdom, Christianity has paid dearly for its "citizenship" in Vietnam.

Three archdioceses with 22 suffragan dioceses and 2.122 parishes form the Church in Vietnam The church is allowed by the present government to run six seminaries. This guarantees the continuity and possible future expansion of the Church's pastoral activities. Church statistics show that in 1995 there were 2,213 Catholic priests, (1,888 of whom were diocesan and 325 religious), 624 members of men's congregations and 6, 189 Sisters.

Vietnam lags just behind the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia, as one of the churches which are growing in strength and number in Asia. The Catholics are about 5,920,000 while about 200,000 belong to Protestant groups. They form a decidedly small majority compared with the 60% of the population who are practicing Buddhists.

The Church is very much alive in spite of all the difficulties it meets within the present political situation. It makes use of all the possibilities of action which the regime allows. These difficulties stem mostly from the influence which the government exercises over the nomination of bishops and from the restriction on the number of students entering the seminaries and on those entering religious life. While the government seems to be slowly moving to a position of greater openness, the road to full religious liberty is still a long one.

3. SVD contacts in Vietnam

During the past decades our Society has maintained fraternal relations with a local Vietnamese institute called the Brothers of St. Joseph. These ties have grown stronger due to the work of some Brothers born in Vietnam who are now active in different parts of the world.

The diocesan institute of the Brothers of St. Joseph was founded in 1926 by Jean Simon (1890 - 1981), a priest of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris and later bishop of a diocese in Vietnam. Bishop Sion died in Paris in 1981. As a founder he was able to transmit to his followers a deep love for God and a loving concern for the poor.

The institute was not spared the painful sufferings which recent history has brought upon Vietnam. The Brothers live a life rooted in a spirituality centered on the Sacred Heart, on Mary, his humble servant, and on Joseph, under whose protection, in the words of Jean Simon, "the Brothers need have nothing to fear." They see in St. Paul a patron and model for their missionary service.

The community now has 60 professed members (priests, Brothers, and novices). The number of young candidates gives much cause for hope. The institute has its mother house in Nha Trang, from where it tries, little by little, to offer its services to other dioceses. Their activities are focused on the education and support of young children in need, on lepers, on catechetical work among adults, and on parish pastoral work.

The Brothers are inspired by the ties of unity which they find in the Catholic Church and are beginning to show great interest in the work of the Church beyond Vietnam's frontiers.