If you want to strengthen the Catholic Church, persecute it.
Western, liberal progressive democracy is its biggest enemy.
Amen!
Catholic priests prostrate themselves on the ground during a historic ceremony at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi to ordain 57 new priests in Vietnam on Monday, Nov. 29, 2005. Thousands crowded the streets as Vatican envoy Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe presided over the historic ordination, the first by a Vatican official in Vietnam. (AP Photos/Tran Quang Tuan)
New Vietnamese Catholic priests walk across the stage during a historic ceremony at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi to ordain 57 new priests in Vietnam on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2005.
Vietnamese Catholics attend an ordaining ceremony in Hanoi, Vietnam November 29, 2005. In a first for communist and officially atheist Vietnam, the Vatican ordained 57 Vietnamese priest on Tuesday, urging them to convert more people in the southeast Asian nation to Catholicism. REUTERS/Stringer
Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan (L) shakes hands with Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe, head of the Vatican's missionary arm, at the Government Office in Hanoi November 28, 2005. The Vatican said on Monday it wanted to continue improving its ties with Vietnam, requesting permission to build Catholic schools and publish Catholic magazines in the communist southeast Asian nation. NO SALES NO ARCHIVES REUTERS/VNA
This is a brief story of Our Lady of Lavang. This is an approved appartion of Our Lady during persecutions in Vietnam. The image is very beautiful.
Our Lady of Lavang - La'Vang, Vietnam 1798
In 1533 the first Catholic missionaries arrived in Vietnam. Just one hundred years later there were over a hundred thousand Catholics. Seminaries were established and in 1668 the first 2 native priests were ordained.
All through history Catholics have been persecuted including in Vietnam. Specially in 1698 there were severe persecutions. In the 18th and 19th century there were more persecutions. But the Vietnamese Catholics stood firm no matter how dangerous it was. In the 18th century there were already a hundred thousand martyrs. Today bishops and priests are still harrassed because of the communist regime.
By the end of the 17th century the Catholics in Vietnam was so bad that many people fled into the jungle near Lavang near Quang Tri a village in central Vietnam. There a lot of people became sick and they were hungry. One day as the people there were praying the rosary together, they saw a beautful lady holding a little child, with angels all around her. She was simply dressed but with a long cape and she had a crown on. The people recognized her as Our Blessed Lady, Queen of Heaven. Our Blessed Lady comforted and consoled them and taught them how to make medicine from leafs of trees. And anybody who would go there to pray she would protect. She appeared several times to the people of Lavang.
They built a simple church for Our Blessed Lady and several people were cured there.
In 1805 the Vietnamese emperor wanted to get rid of all the Catholics. 30 Catholics were killed by the soldiers right at the little church and the church was burned, but, not by the soldiers who were afraid because they heard about the miraculous cured people. The altar and the chandeliers were not destroyed in the fire although they were made of wood.
In 1885 a new church was build made of bricks on the same spot as the old one was. It was completed in 1900 and one year later the first celebration of the Shrine of Our Lady took place. There were over 130,000 people there at the shrine. During the years this number only grew more and more and in 1925 they had to enlarge the church, which was completed in 1928. This church was destroyed in the summer of 1972 during the Vietnam War.
On June 19th 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs and recognized the importance of the Lady of Lavang and desired a rebuilding of the Basilica for the 200th anniversary of the first apparition of the Lady of Lavang in August of 1998.
BTTT!