New Church Opens for Vietnamese Ethnic Groups

UCANews ^ | 10/21/22

[marshmallow]

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church brings the Good News to communities in a remote mountainous province

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Na Phac sub-parish in Bac Kan province was formally inaugurated on Oct. 20. (Photo: nhathothaiha.net)

A diocese in northern Vietnam has inaugurated a new church to bring the Good News to ethnic communities in a remote mountainous province where Catholics had no resident priests for decades.

On Oct 20, Bishop Cosme Hoang Van Dat of Bac Ninh formally inaugurated the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Na Phac sub-parish in Ngan Son district of Bac Kan province. Some 100 priests joined the ceremony attended by many people including local government officials.

“This is the first church in the province and is a source of pride and a clear sign of the faith of local Catholics,” Redemptorist Father Joseph Nguyen Van Tinh, who was in charge of the church's construction, said.

Father Tinh, 49, who began serving the sub-parish in 2011, said the Gothic-style church with a bell tower and 300 seats will be a solid fulcrum for local people to find ecstasy and peace in their faith life.

“We hope people will improve their faith life and earn absolute trust in God and the Church because they did not have such a church before,” he said. There is a Redemptorist monastery and a pastoral house adjoining the church.

The pastor of Bac Kan parish said the new church is “compelling evidence of God answering Bishop Dat’s prayers.”

[Bookshelf]

North of Hanoi.