Posted on 08/10/2013 11:50:35 AM PDT by NYer
At a special ceremony on July 6, Pope Francis briefly met with clergy and officials who, over the past two years, have been involved in the diocesan phase of the beatification process of Vietnamese Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.
Cardinal Van Thuan spent 13 years in prison, nine of them in solitary confinement in Hanoi, following his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Saigon just seven days before South Vietnam fell to the Communist North in 1975.
He was released in 1988 and Pope John Paul II called him to Rome, where he eventually became president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace until his death in 2002.
During the ceremony on Saturday, Pope Francis shared his “joy” over the progress of Van Thuan's rise to the altars – his case will now be taken up by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints – and said his “reputation for sainthood” had spread thanks to the witness of the many people who had known him personally.
Many priests and lay Catholics who emigrated from Vietnam to Europe, the Americas and Australia, were among the 500 people who attended the ceremony in Rome, the culmination of a three-day long series of Van Thuan-themed events hosted by the Vatican.
But in a brief speech, as reported by the Vatican press office, the Argentine pontiff didn't mention the word “Vietnam” once.
Francis only praised Van Thuan as a “son of the East.”
This signaled that Van Thuan's beatification process is now entering its most delicate phase, where the fragile diplomatic equilibrium between the Holy See and Vietnam will matter as much as his “heroic virtues” as a Christian and his alleged miracles.
Vietnam and the Vatican have been engaged for years in a cautious rapprochement, which led to a breakthrough with the establishing of diplomatic relations through the Vatican's representative in Singapore, Monsignor Leopoldo Girelli.
But in their most recent bilateral meeting, the Vatican turned up the pressure to take relations to the next stage, by explicitly asking for the establishment “as soon as possible” of a more formal and permanent Vatican diplomatic presence in the country.
This comes as reports of religious freedom violations and harassment of priests and Catholic communities in Vietnam multiply.
Ho Chi Minh City's cardinal warned in a recent interview with ucanews.com not to fully trust the government's words, as its policies on religion “make people feel threatened, doubtful and dissatisfied.”
Thrown into this mix, raising the profile of Cardinal Van Thuan – a political prisoner as well as nephew of South Vietnam's first president, Ngo Dinh Diem – could prove explosive.
While he is well known to older Vietnamese, younger generations know very little about him, thanks to his long imprisonment and exile.
Van Thuan's message of non-violence and reconciliation, as well as his unapologetic defense of his faith, could now prove embarrassing for the government.
Around 65 percent of the 90 million people in Vietnam are under 35, while there are an estimated 7 million Catholics in the country.
But this could change as the beatification process proceeds, according to Father Joachim Hien, an American-Vietnamese priest who works as a liaison between Vietnam's Catholics and the United States’ bishops' conference.
Van Thuan's story, he told ucanews.com, “will be very interesting, especially for young people in Vietnam who are looking for some hope in the future.”
“As a young bishop who brought a message of hope to Vietnam during a time of war, many young people today who start to learn about him can find some hope for their own future, no matter who they are and what religion they belong to."
As more and more young Vietnamese travel and study abroad, they will have better access to information about the late cardinal and “will bring that message home,” he believes.
How Vietnam’s government will react to this is all but certain.
“Still today, unfortunately, [Van Thuan's] writings do not circulate freely,” Father Paul Phan Van Hien, a Vietnamese priest, told the Vatican news agency Fides.
“The government still holds a certain mistrust of this hero of faith. But even non-Catholics ask for his works, which are spread by word of mouth or in person. The government probably fears being 'overshadowed' by the light that emanates from the cardinal.”
According to Joachim Hien, the American-Vietnamese priest, Vietnam's Communist government shouldn't be afraid of Van Thuan.
“I hope they will know him as a man of faith and a man of deep love for Vietnam. He had a strong faith in God and strong faith in the future of Vietnam as a nation,” he said.
In fact, he suggests, the party’s leaders should follow Van Thuan's example “for their own personal growth, and that of their people.”
This is part of the positive engagement the Church is seeking with Vietnam's government.
Vietnam is currently engaged in the revision of its constitution and the Catholic Church has submitted its own proposals. Among them, it has challenged the assumption that the Communist Party is the “guiding force of the state and of society,” and that Marxism-Leninism is its ideological foundation.
“The Church wants to make [the constitution] better. It is challenging the government to take a courageous step, for all the Vietnamese people. The leadership of Vietnam should not be afraid of progress,” Joachim Hien said.
Recorded on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, 7 October 1976, in Phú Khánh prison, during his solitary confinement: "I am happy here, in this cell, where white mushrooms are growing on my sleeping mat, because You are here with me, because You want me to live here with You. I have spoken much in my lifetime: now I speak no more. It's Your turn to speak to me, Jesus; I am listening to You"
Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận Foundation - Official Site
Road of Hope - Salt & Light Production has produced a powerful documentary on the remarkable life and imprisonment of Cardinal Van Thuan. His prison cell had a single bulb dangling from the ceiling. The guards would alternate between constant light or total darkness. As he became weaker, he could no longer say an entire prayer. Yet despite the torments inflicted upon him, many were converted, including his guards.
The Road of Hope is a collection of teachings written by an imprisoned Vietnamese archbishop to his people. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan (1928-2002) was ordained a priest in 1953. Subsequently he served as a pastor, studied canon law in Rome, served as a seminary professor in the archdiocese of Hue, and was consecrated as bishop of Nha Trang in 1967. During the following eight years he took on additional duties that included traveling widely to support peaceful solutions to the Vietnamese conflict and solicit aid for reconstruction. In 1975, after the communist takeover, he was arrested as he journeyed to Saigon for a new assignment as an archbishop.
In the introduction to The Road of Hope Translator John Peter Pham describes the communist persecution of priests and religious who were deported to "re-education camps," as Church property was seized. In March of 1976, Pham writes, the Archbishop was deported to North Vietnam along with 2000 other prisoners. For the next 13 years he was confined to prisons and camps, spending the bulk of that time in isolation. For a period in 1975, Van Thuan was placed under house arrest. "Realizing that this 'respite' would be brief and that the Church, bereft of its shepherds, was facing a period of possibly years of persecution, the Archbishop took up his pen," writes Pham. The plan was to write a few messages to encourage and offer spiritual counsel to his flock. Over time, the messages formed a manuscript, and pages were smuggled to the outside and assembled as 1001 reflections, which were printed clandestinely and disseminated widely despite government efforts to interfere. Van Thuan was eventually able to edit the manuscript himself following his expulsion from Vietnam.
This book has just been reprinted and is once again available for spiritual reflection.
O mighty and eternal God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
I offer thanks for giving to the Church
the heroic testimony
of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân.
The suffering he experienced in prison,
which he united with the crucified Christ
and commended to the maternal protection of Mary,
is for the Church and the world
a shining witness of unity and forgiveness,
and of justice and peace.
His loving person and his Episcopal ministry
radiate the light of faith,
the enthusiasm of hope and the warmth of love.
Now, my Lord,
through his intercession
and according to your will,
grant me the grace I am imploring
in the hope that he will soon be elevated
to the honour of sainthood.
Amen.
If Cdl. Van Thuan’s canonization is God’s will, the government of Vietnam can do nothing about it.
There is ONE BIBLICAL path to sainthood and it covers EVERY Christian who has entrusted themselves to Christ’s sacrificial death as payment for their sins. They are called Saints by God.
Anything else is added over the aeons of time through accretion of pagan practices.
The man spent 13 years in jail for Christ and 9 in Solitary.
Please take enough time to honor him for such a profession of faith even if you personally disagree with his theology.
Honoring him and respecting him is different that telling the truth about sainthood.
It is quite possible to do both at the same time.
We do not have to circumvent God’s Holy Scripture to honor someone.
Sounds like where I live.
5.56mm
I’ll say a prayer for you.
Peace.
from your eyes is much different than from a Catholic's eyes. At least with the Catholic method, it is proven.
You way has no proof.
How Many Miracles are Required to Canonize a Saint?
Saints [Catholic, Orthodox, Open]
SAINTHOOD 101: Rules for Becoming a Saint [Catholic Caucus]
The Process of Becoming a Saint (Canonization) [Catholic Caucus]
Pope Lists Criteria for Causes of Canonization
Your way has no proof.
Thank you for faithfully presenting the biblical definition and the truth concerning the term “saint”. EVERYONE who has believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their personal savior have been forgiven of ALL their sin; past, present and future through the ONE and only, ALL SUFFICIENT sacrifice of Christ upon the cross of Calvary. As a result believers in Christ have been justified: declared “righteous” by God and treated as such. They have also been made perfect IN CHRIST, and as a direct result of their POSITION IN CHRIST ALONE, and not as a result of any “good works” or any so-called personal “merit” or “sacrifice” which believers have done, God Himself declares ALL believing Christians “Saints”
** EVERYONE who has believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their personal savior have been forgiven of ALL their sin; past, present and future through the ONE and only, ALL SUFFICIENT sacrifice of Christ upon the cross of Calvary. **
This is the first time I have seen someone post future sins. How can Christ forgive sins that aren’t committed? To me, this is heresy.
Yes, Christ died for our sins....but I can’t purposely go out and murder someone and expect to be forgiven for a premeditated act.
Thanks be to God that no man or earthly organization, or the vain “traditions of men” have the power or authority to make men “saints” or proclaim them to be such, but God alone, through faith in Christ alone to ALL who believe in Him alone!
The word "saint" literally means "holy," and, in the New Testament, "saint" referred to all who believed in Jesus Christ and followed his teachings. St. Paul often addressed his epistles to "the saints" of a particular city (see, for instance, Ephesians 1:1 and 2 Corinthians 1:1), and the Acts of the Apostles talks about St. Peter going to visit the saints in Lydda (Acts 9:2). The assumption was that those who followed Christ had been so transformed that they were now different from other men and women and, thus, should be considered holy.
Very early on, however, the meaning of the word began to change. As Christianity began to spread, it became clear that some Christians lived lives of extraordinary, or heroic, virtue. While other Christians struggled to live out the gospel of Christ, these people were eminent examples of the moral virtues, and they easily practiced the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
The word "saint" thus became more narrowly applied to such people, who were venerated after their deaths as saints, usually by the members of their local church or the Christians in the region where they lived, because they were familiar with their good deeds. Eventually, the Catholic Church created a process, called "canonization," through which such venerable people could be recognized as saints by all Christians everywhere.
Most of the saints whom we refer to by that title (for instance, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) have gone through this process of canonization. Others, such as St. Peter and St. Paul, received the title through acclamation, or the universal recognition of their holiness.
Catholics believe that both types of saints (canonized and acclaimed) are already in Heaven, which is why one of the requirements for the canonization process is proof of miracles performed by the possible saint after his death. Canonized saints can be venerated anywhere and prayed to publicly, and their lives are held up to Christians still struggling here on earth as examples to be imitated.
It’s available on amazon. I read a few pages. It’s worth the investment.
I’m thinking of ordering the dvd...
Or repented.
Presumption.
No proof? You don’t consider scripture proof?
The word “saint” comes from the Greek word hagios, which means “consecrated to God, holy, sacred, pious." It is almost always used in the plural, “saints.”
Acts 9:13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.
Acts 9:32 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
Acts 26:10 And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.
Romans 12:13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
Romans 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
Romans 16:15 Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.
Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Why do Catholics not believe the very words the Holy Spirit guided to be written?
When they announced they were reprinting the book, I ordered it in May and it arrived 2 weeks ago. As for the DVD, I believe the link posted above to the Salt & Light production is the same one as the DVD. It runs 1 hour. Aimee, you may want to watch the video and then compare it with the DVD description. It’s very moving. The pope invited him to speak about his prison experience before a large delegation at the Vatican. He was too humble but the pope insisted. He described how, while in prison, he asked to cut wood. The guards asked why. He said he wanted to make a cross. They said that was forbidden. He said if they turn their heads, they won’t see. He fashioned the cross and then buried it in a bar of soap that he took with him to the next prison. There, he asked the guards if he could have a piece of electrical wire. They asked if he planned to hang himself. He said, no but if they turn their heads they won’t see. He stripped the wire and fashioned a chain. Once he was released from prison, he put the two together. That is the cross, hanging from the chain, that he is holding in both of the above photos.
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