HO CHI MINH CITY (UCAN): Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang was installed as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest archdiocese in Vietnam, at Notre Dame Cathedral on December 11.
Among the 900 people who attended the ceremony were local government officials, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, the Vatican’s non-resident representative to Vietnam, as well as Peter Cardinal Nguyen Van Nhon and 25 bishops from the country’s 27 dioceses.
Addressing the congregation, the 65-year-old Archbishop Nguyen, said migrants, people in need, patients and abandoned people in remote areas are high on the archdiocese’s list of priorities
“I will work with all of you to build a local Church based on the faith foundation of apostles. All of us will maintain the evangelisation programme initiated by our predecessors,” the archbishop said.
“We must help one another be holy. The Church is not a social organisation or an international charity but the body of Christ. The Church is holiness,” he said.
He called on Catholics “to be active missionaries to bear witness to the Good News.”
The Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City has some 860 priests and thousands of religious serving one million Catholics out of a total population of 13 million.
Father Joseph Vu Minh Truc of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, said that the new archbishop was expected to foster priestly formation and evangelisation to deepen the faith of local Catholics, especially domestic migrants.
“Archbishop Nguyen is calm, good-hearted and zealous. He was known to foster Church activities and priestly formation while working in Xuan Loc and Phat Diem dioceses,” Father Vu said.
He observed that the local Church needs “enthusiastic priests who give themselves to their flock and recognise their needs to serve them better” adding that people in remote areas and on the outskirts of the city also need good priests to give them pastoral care.
“We expect him to develop mission stations and evangelisation work for migrant workers,” Father Vu added.
Father Paul Pham Trung Dong, who is in charge of migrant affairs in the archdiocese, said he hoped Archbishop Nguyen would continue providing pastoral care for domestic migrant workers who lack facilities to practice their faith.
He said 25 mission stations established by the local Church in recent years have difficulty in holding religious activities and building facilities, adding that the Church should build more houses of worship and offer catechism courses and other activities to maintain migrants’ faith life.
The Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City cares for 300,000 domestic migrants from across Vietnam.
Mary Luong Kim Nu from Jeanne d’Arc Parish said the new archbishop should focus on training lay Catholics in prayer life, marriage, family and catechisis. She noted that many people abandon their faith to chase material benefits and ignore the faith education of their children.
Mary Nguyen Thi Kieu My hoped Archbishop Nguyen would spur priests into offering better pastoral care noting the disappointment people in her parish have in their priest, who she said refuses to offer last rites, treats altar boys shamefully and ignores parish activities. “The archbishop has to help this priest change his attitude,” she said.
