Auxiliary Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Kham of Ho Chi Minh City was ordained on Nov. 15 in open-air rites on the grounds of St. Joseph Major Seminary in this metropolis, 1,710 kilometers south of Ha Noi. Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City presided at the episcopal ordination. Thirty archbishops and bishops and 400 priests concelebrated the Mass attended by 15,000 Religious and lay Catholics including seminarians.
Cardinal Man, 74, urged the congregation to "thank God, who loves the Catholic Church in Vietnam very much and offers the local Church shepherds who care for his people." The Church leader also asked them to pray for the auxiliary bishop to fulfill his new duty as a messenger of the Good News.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed the new auxiliary on Oct 15. Bishop Kham, whose episcopal motto is "Follow me," joins Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Vu Duy Thong as the archdiocese's second auxiliary.
Anna Nguyen Phan Huynh Chau, 19, a college student from neighboring Xuan Loc diocese, expressed happiness the local Church has a well-educated bishop whose homilies she appreciates. She expects the new bishop to provide catechism and living-skills courses for college students like her so they can live a life pleasing to God in a society where moral values have declined considerably and consumerism and materialism are dominant.
Anna Nguyen Thuy Phuong, 26, likewise told UCA News she hopes Bishop Kham will hold gatherings for youths to meet and share their faith experience.
Born Oct. 2, 1952 in Ha Dong, Bishop Kham and his family fled south in the 1954 exodus after northern communists defeated colonial French forces. He studied at seminaries in Can Tho, Long Xuyen and Ho Chi Minh City before he was ordained priest for Ho Chi Minh City archdiocese in 1980.
After serving at three local parishes and teaching at the major seminary, he studied pastoral theology 2000-04 at the Catholic University of America, in Washington D.C., and obtained a doctoral degree. After returning to Vietnam, he served as director of the archdiocesan Pastoral Center, secretary general of the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith and secretary of the Vietnam Bishops' Conference.
After the ordination ceremony, Anna Le Thi Chung elbowed her way through the crowd to see Bishop Kham, who was posing for photographers on the stage, "because I have never met him."
Chung said his homilies on married life, which she has listened to on CDs she bought at Catholic bookshops, helped change her life. She cited his observation that "family happiness depends on the wife, the mother who sacrifices everything for her family."
Chung hopes her son, who studies at the major seminary, will learn the spirit of service from the new bishop.
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Magdalene Dang Thi Hoa Lan also testified that Bishop Kham's homilies help her family members live a good life according to Church teachings.
Lan, 48, who works for a local insurance company, said she and her husband took the ordination day off to pray for the new bishop to start pastoral activities for local people. She picked up some roses decorating the stage to dedicate the Marian statue at her home to the new bishop, she added.
At the end of the ceremony, Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Da Lat, president of the Vietnam Bishops' Conference, welcomed Bishop Kham and hoped the conference's newest member would work with his fellow bishops to give abundant life to God's lambs both in the local Church and the global Church.
Father Jean Baptiste Huynh Cong Minh, vicar general of the archdiocese, promised that all local priests, Religious and Catholics would wholeheartedly support the new bishop. Then people clapped and sang a song to welcome Bishop Kham.
On Nov. 15 Pope Benedict named Father Laurence Chu Van Minh, rector of St. Joseph Major Seminary in Ha Noi, as auxiliary bishop of Ha Noi archdiocese. Bishop-elect Minh's episcopal ordination is scheduled for Dec. 5 at Nam Dinh church.
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(Source: UCAN)