HANOI – The communist-run Hanoi government and the Vatican will discuss a Holy See proposal to establish diplomatic relations following last week's meeting between Vietnam's prime minister and the Pope, a government spokesman said on Thursday.Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Dung told reporters that relations between Vietnam and the Holy See would 'follow a roadmap', but no date had been fixed.
Advertisement 'The Vatican has proposed to establish the diplomatic relationship with Vietnam,' Dung said at a news briefing. 'Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has taken note and assigned the diplomatic agencies to conduct discussion to work out appropriate measures.'
The spokesman said that during the Vietnamese Prime Minister's Jan. 25 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, there was no discussion of a visit to Vietnam by the Pontiff.
The Prime Minister became his country's highest-ranking official to meet a pope.
The Vatican called it an 'important step' towards normalising diplomatic ties and said that the Holy See was pleased with 'concrete progress' for religious freedom in Vietnam in recent years.
About one-tenth of Vietnam's 84 million people are Catholic, the second highest number of Catholics in Asia after the Philippines.
TWO NEW RELIGIONS
Buddhism is the main religion, followed by about 80 percent of the population, although there is a division between a state-approved group and the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which opposes the state's supervision of religious groups.
At the same briefing in Hanoi on Thursday, a government official defended the Southeast Asian country's religious policies and announced the publication of a policy 'white paper' entitled 'Religion and Polices regarding religion in Vietnam'.
Nguyen The Doanh, deputy chairman of the Government Committee on Religious Affairs, said the government would recognise two new religions by the end of the year, bringing the total to eight.
The two are Pure Land Buddhist Home Practice Association (with 1.45 million followers) and Tu An Hieu Nghia (nearly 71,000 followers). The government said it was also recognizing the Missionary Christian Church, a sect of Protestantism.
Relations between Vietnam's communist rulers and the Catholic Church have been tense at times, but there has been a warming of ties in recent years. In 2005, Benedict created a new diocese in Vietnam. Bishops have been appointed through consultation between Hanoi and the Vatican.
The Vatican's warming ties with Hanoi are a good model for its ties with China, Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen was quoted in a Hong Kong newspaper on Thursday as saying.
Last November, the U.S. State Department removed Vietnam from a blacklist of countries it says severely restrict religious rights and President George W. Bush attended a church service in Hanoi during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce