Vietnamese Catholics are mourning the death of two bishops, who both died on
August 17 last from natural causes. They
are Msgr. Joseph
Hoang Van Tiem, of the diocese of Bui Chu, in northern Vietnam, and Msgr. Thomas
Nguyen Van Tân, the bishop of the diocese of Vinh Long, in the south of the
country. Bishop Joseph, 74, died at 4 am for a myocardial infarction, Bishop Thomas, aged 73, died suddenly in the evening, without warning. Only two days before, on August 15, he had celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption.
The two sudden deaths have shocked and saddened the faithful of the diocese of Bui Chu and Vinh Long, and provoked expressions of closeness from the entire Vietnamese Catholic community that is united in prayer. On behalf of the Vietnamese bishops' conference, Msgr. Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon has sent a letter of condolence.
Bishop Joseph Hoang Van Tiêm was born September 12, 1938 in the province of Nam Dinh. After studying at the minor seminary of Bui Chu, in 1960 he began his novitiate at the Salesians. In Italy first, later in the Holy Land in Bethlehem he deepened his studies of philosophy and theology. Ordained a priest in 1973, for several years he served in a parish priest before being transferred (in 1995) to the major seminary of Hanoi, where he taught moral theology.
In 2000 he was appointed Bishop of Bui Chu, a diocese battered by war and characterized by the massive exodus of Christians towards the south in 1954, with the rise to power of the Hanoi Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City. He carried out great work in the diocese especially in the formation of priests and lay people, and now the pastoral care is entrusted to the Coadjutor Bishop Thomas Vu Dinh Hieu.
Bishop Thomas Nguyên Van Tân, whose death leaves a vacant see in his diocese, on August 15 the thirteenth anniversary of his Episcopal ordination. The community mourns a "gifted, good, humble bishop and a friend to all", who was born 27 December 1940 in the province of Tra Vinh. He entered the minor seminary of Vinh Long in 1953, after he completed his studies in philosophy and theology before being ordained a priest in 1969. A long-time teacher, holds a doctorate in theology from Rome's Gregorian University.
In 1977, two years after the fall of Saigon with the reunification of the country under the auspices of the communist North, he experienced one of the hardest periods of his life. On September 7, 1977 the Cathedral, religious institutes and seminaries of Vinh Long were occupied by the communist authorities; events that he would evoke and write about in his letter to the faithful in October 2009.
On August 15, 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop of the diocese, which he to pastoral leadership of in 2001 with the resignation of his predecessor. His faithful remember him as a person with a strong charisma, able to build a "new Church" who gave a new impulse to priestly vocations.