The cause of beatification of Cardinal
Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan opens today in the Conciliation Hall of
the Vicariate of Rome. Catholics in Vietnam and around the world have
joyfully welcomed this news.
He is greatly admired in Vietnam, considered an example of strength
and humility to Catholics and non Catholics alike. Cardinal Van Thuan
was a witness to faith, hope and holiness for all.
This is what one Mr. Hai, a comrade of the Cardinal’s in prison,
wrote to the Cardinal in a letter: "Dear brother Thuan, I promised that I
would go by Our Lady of La Vang to pray for you. In recent years every
Sunday, when it was not raining, I rode a bicycle to the shrine of Our
Lady, because the church here collapsed during the war. I said this
prayer for you, 'Dear Mother Mary, I'm not Catholic and do not know any
prayer. But I promised my brother Thuan to pray, so I come here to ask
you, Mother Mary, you who know my brother, to help him if he is in
need".
Card. Van Thuan was bishop of Nha Trang, before being named auxiliary
bishop of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). A few months after taking of the
South and the independence, he was arrested by the Communist regime.
The
cardinal spent 13 years in prison - from 1975 to 1988, 9
of them in total isolation - without being tried. In 1991 he was forced
to leave the country, and was received into the Roman Curia by Pope John
Paul II.
He was president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace from 1998 to 2002, when he passed away at age 74.
SIC: AN/INT'L