Vietnam's Seminarians Start New Life on Cassock Day

To wear cassocks to attend Masses is not to be given respect and priority by others but to show that we belong to God

Seminarians attend a Mass in Sulpician Major Seminary in Hue in April. (Photo courtesy of xuanbichvietnam.net)

I am immensely impressed by Cassock Day celebrations. It truly touches me to see seminarians become tearful and delighted, but slightly embarrassed, to put on longed-for cassocks for the first time. The seminary rector tells them that “receiving cassocks marks a new stage in the process to follow God. From now on, you must live a life different from that of other youths.”

I look up at my cassock and tell myself that I have had such an experience and state of mind. Many questions come to my mind immediately: After years having studied in the seminary, am I a man of God? Am I a man who has been changed to be similar to God? Am I really different from others?

The Cassock Day ceremony marks the start of a new life that is to sacrifice our hearts and souls and receive the black soutanes of loyalty and love. I am selected to wear the ankle-length garment not because I am better, wiser or worthier than others but only because of God’s love.

It is said that “garments do not produce monks” but religious garments are a sign of devotion and poverty and some people lead a consecrated life only because they love the color of the garments. Religious garments also contain expected holiness in clerics, monks and nuns as they are said to be gentle and handsome.

To wear cassocks to attend Masses and liturgical functions is not to be given respect and priority by others but to show that we belong to God as people of.....

I have visited Vietnam about once a year over the last 12 years for business.

Once I stayed at hotel next to a Catholic Church in a provincial town named Buonmethuot. I was awakened at 6 AM on a weekday to a band playing, a procession into church, and a mass beginning. The church as so full, people seated in the courtyard in front of the church.

At night I roamed the church grounds. the Church was open with many people inside praying, while families lounged outside and children played

God will very soon remove his favor from us, and give it to these people.

How many Vietnamese religious leaders, esp. from So. Vietnam, are in prison today, or were jailed, tortured and/or executed by the communists during the war and afterwards?

Very little has been done in terms of published research on this topic in terms of any depth. There was a little in the Sen. Internal Security Subcommittees’ compendium study “The Human Cost of Vietnam”, 1972, Sen. Judiciary Committee, Part 1 and the 1972 Part 2, Testimony of Daniel Teodoru”.

Some more “bits” of information on this subject can be found in the recently published “Indochina in the Years 1963-1976, Supplement” produced as one volume in a series for every year of the war by Vietnam Veterans for Factual History (VVFH.org) - www.vvfh.org in the chapter “The Blackbook of Communism in Southeast Asia”.

Some Vietnamese escapees have written their own books about the horrors of communism in Vietnam and are now being printed in English. The VVFH website has links to many other publications/sources of information.

Communism only allows as much religion as it can safely control before it crushes it as Mao and Ho did many times over, including the “societal leveling” of their respective “Land Reform Programs” and the “Cultural Revolution(s)” in both countries. Pol Pot just killed any Cambodian clergymen he could find. The same for the Kim Family in No. Korea.

I pray for the Vietnamese, Cambodia, Laotian, No. Korean, Tibetanese and Chinese peoples. They need all the help they can get on earth and in heaven.

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