Hanoi, Vietnam, Nov 15, 2011 / 02:01 am
An official with the Vietnamese bishops’ conference foresees a confident future for the Christian community in Vietnam. He cites the “flourishing” of priestly vocations and the government’s “signs of openness.”
“Hope for the new generations of Vietnamese youth is faith in Christ: the young people who look to a market economy, consumerism, the civilization of looking for new answers for their thirst for truth and new ways of life,” Fr. Joseph Do Manh Hung said.
The priest and theologian is vice-rector of the major seminary in Ho Chi Minh City and secretary of the Vietnam bishops’ Commission for the Clergy. He told Fides news agency his evaluation of the state of the Catholic Church in the country.
Young people are “the driving force” for the Church’s mission in society, he said. Almost all of the country’s 80,000 catechists are young people.