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VATICAN-VIETNAM Jul-5-2005 (310 words) With photos. xxxi
Official delegation from Vietnam visits Vatican to discuss relations
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An official delegation of the government of Vietnam visited the Vatican for the first time since 1992 to discuss church-state relations.
Ngo Yen Thi, director of Vietnam's government commission for religious affairs, led the delegation during its June 27-July 2 trip to Rome.
The Vatican and Vietnamese representatives looked at "the question of relations between Vietnam and the Holy See with the hope that they would advance rapidly in the direction of normalization," according to a Vatican statement.
Meanwhile, a Vietnamese news agency reported the government as saying an agreement had been reached aimed at "increasing contacts to promote mutual understanding, to regulate problems of common interest and to improve bilateral relations."
In addition to meeting officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the government delegation attended a June 29 Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
During the Mass, Pope Benedict conferred the pallium, a white woolen stole, on Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi and 31 other prelates as a sign of their authority and responsibility.
Vatican diplomats have made annual visits to Vietnam to discuss church-state relations and specific questions related to the appointment of bishops, seminary enrollment and the functioning of Catholic institutions.
The communist government of Vietnam continues to insist on approving the Vatican's candidates for bishop before their nominations are announced.
According to a Vatican statement, the Vatican invited the Vietnamese government to send a delegation to Rome for the meeting to allow Vietnamese officials "to know more directly and deeply the reality of the Holy See."
In addition to meeting officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the delegation visited the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the pontifical councils for Justice and Peace and for Interreligious Dialogue and Vatican Radio, and met with Vietnamese seminarians studying at Urbanian University.
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