Two New Bishops for Vietnam

DALAT, March 3, 2011--Two diocese in Vietnam have new bishops, appointed on 1 March by the Pope, who moved to Dalat (photo: Cathedral) Mgr. Vincent Vu Huy Chuong, formerly bishop of Hung Hoa, where the current auxiliary Jean-Marie Vu Tat , was promoted.

The new bishop of Dalat, Vincent Vu Huy Chuong, was born September 14, 1944 in the northern diocese of Hung Hoa. In 1954, during the surrender of power to communists in the north of the country, his family joined the many Catholics who fled south to Saigon. There, in 1956 he entered the minor seminary of St. Francis Xavier of Bui Chu, from where he entered the Pontifical Seminary in Dalat.

Ordained a priest in Saigon December 18, 1971, in the following years he deepened his studies in Rome, Italy, Taiwan and Manila. Subsequently, he was a teacher and spiritual director at the minor seminary in Thanh Quy and pastor before being called to the Regional Major Seminary in Can Tho, where he was chair of the department of theology until 2003, when he was appointed bishop of Hung Hoa, a diocese that had had no bishop for 11 years.

The diocese of Dalat in the south of the country, founded in 1960, has an area of over 10 thousand square kilometers and, according to diocesan register, at the end of 2007 there were 313,086 Catholics among a population of 1,190,057 inhabitants, including 91,250 people from ethnic minorities.

Jean-Marie Vu Tat, now becomes bishop of Hung Hoa. The diocese former auxiliary, Vu Tat was born March 10, 1944 in the village of Ben Thon, in the province of Son Tay. He entered the diocesan minor seminary, but was forced to leave when it was closed by the regime. He continued his studies in philosophy and theology at the residence of the bishop, working to support himself. He succeeded in completing his formation at the major seminary of Hanoi, and was ordained priest on 1st April 1987, when he finally got permission from the government.

From 1987 to 1992 he was in charge of the vocational centre for the diocese, then, until 1998 was an assistant diocesan administrator. Meanwhile, in 1997, he obtained a license in canon law in Rome, at the Urbanianum University. From 1998-2003 he was assistant to the Bishop, director of the pastoral mission in the province of Lao Cai and then a professor of canon law and vice-rector at the major seminary of Hanoi: On 29 March 2010 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Hung Hoa.

The Diocese of Hung Hoa was created in 1960 over a huge area of almost 55 thousand square kilometres in the north, bordering China and Laos. It counts 198 thousand Catholics, 3.12% of the over six million inhabitants. Among them are ethnic minorities, especially Hmong. In 2003, 4635 baptisms were celebrated, although it has only 24 priests for its 80 parishes.

The appointments fall into a time when the Vietnamese Church is confronted with "conflicts of human resources and lack of communion with some leaders of local churches. They do not know how to deal with the cruelty, injustice, violence and ignore the fate of the poor and unfortunate. Moreover they are failing the Church of God These are issues that are leading to confusion and desertion of clergy and faithful.

"Hung Hoa - some believers tell AsiaNews - is a small society of anxieties. This is why the faithful need to have moral support from the good example of the shepherds. The poor, the elderly, the sick, children and even ordinary people have nothing in life. In particular they need the closeness, friendship and kindness of the bishop, things that they have not had for at least three years." (AsiaNews)