QUANG TRI (UCAN): Some 2,000 people gathered to mark the 35th anniversary of the Marriage-Family Enrichment Programme at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, in Quang Tri, Vietnam.
Four bishops and 30 priests were also present at the January 31 to February 2 event themed Walking with the Church, couples love one another through humility and closeness.
Jesuit Father Peter Chu Quang Minh started the programme in the United States in 1987 to teach Vietnamese refugees how to live as good Catholics, maintain traditional family values and build a happy life in their new home.
Father Minh, who is now 85-years-old, and had fled to the US in 1975, introduced the programme in his home country for the first time in 2003.
Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh of Hue said people gathered to show their great determination to build happy families based on Christian values and restore traditional values destroyed by consumerism, insensibility, selflessness and social evils.
The archbishop, who presided at the opening ceremony, called on participants to bear witness to sustainable marriage bonds and bring solidarity to themselves and other couples who are in trouble as all people dream of happy families.
He said that they should work together to spread the spirit of the programme that teaches couples how to realise and admit to their own mistakes, apologise to their spouses, correct their mistakes, and forgive one another.
We attended a course in solidarity by the Marriage-Family Enrichment Program for three days in 2019, and I knelt down on the ground asking her pardon for my sins and she forgave me… We are really appreciative…
Stephanus Nguyen
Stephanus Nguyen Van Son from Tan Phu Parish in the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City, said that he and his wife started to separate in 2005 after he had a romantic relationship with another woman. His wife supports their two children.
Nguyen, a taxi driver, admitted that his disrespect toward his wife and children could have destroyed his family.
“We attended a course in solidarity by the Marriage-Family Enrichment Program for three days in 2019, and I knelt down on the ground asking her pardon for my sins and she forgave me,” the 54-year-old father said as he shared his story with the gathering.
“We are really appreciative of the programme that saves our marriage,” he said, adding that more than 100 couples from the southern archdiocese attended the gathering.
Mary Do Thi Hoan from Nha Trang Diocese said she used to ignore faith practices and pick bitter quarrels with her husband, a Buddhist, for years.
The 59-year-old Do said she and her husband completed a three-day course, joined by 50 other couples with troubles, at Vinh Thai church. They went to confession, sought spiritual healing, said prayers, attended Masses and Eucharist adoration, admitted to their mistakes, asked for pardon, and were reconciled with one another.
“I am over the moon that my husband and three children also embraced Catholicism,” she said.
Dominic Vu Xuan Tien, from Australia, said some 200 people who get married to Catholics convert to Catholicism thanks to the programme which saves their marriages from breakdown.
During the three-day gathering, people listened to talks about fostering communion in family and synodality in communities, attended Masses and Eucharistic adoration, recited the rosary, and shared their stories on family issues.
Over 40,000 Vietnamese couples in Vietnam, Japan, Australia, Europe and North America have joined the programme.
