by John L. Allen Jr.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York
Benedict XVI’s meeting this morning with Prime Minister Nguyên Tân Dung marks an important step in improving ties between the Vatican and Vietnam, but it’s unlikely to lead immediately to full diplomatic relations, a senior Vatican diplomat has said.
Speaking on background, this diplomat told NCR that stumbling blocks remain on both sides. The Vatican wants greater autonomy in the appointment of bishops, he said, while Vietnamese Communists are concerned about the implications of greater religious freedom for maintaining their monopoly on power.
The long-term trajectory is towards improved relations, this diplomat said, but as with China, it’s important to be patient.
Catholics number some 6 million out of Vietnam’s total population of 84 million, making it the second largest Catholic community in Asia, behind the Philippines. In recent years, Vatican delegations have visited Vietnam with increasing regularity, the most recent such trip taking place in November 2005, led by the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe. In general, Vietnamese Catholics are finding it easier to practice the faith freely.
Most experts believe that Vietnam wants to insert itself ever more systematically into the international community, and recognizes that doing so will require some concessions on human rights, including religious freedom. On the other hand, reports from Vietnam, especially the more rural portions of the country, indicate that Catholics continue to suffer periodic bouts of harassment and repression from the Communist authorities.
In a communiqué issued after this morning’s meeting, the Vatican said that the session between Benedict and the Vietnamese leader, the first time a Prime Minister from Vietnam has ever met the pope, marked “a new and important step towards the normalization of bilateral relations.”
“In the course of the discussions, attention turned to the problems that remain which, it is hoped, will be faced and resolved through existing channels of dialogue and will lead to a fruitful cooperation between Church and State, so that Catholics can, ever more effectively, make a positive contribution to the common good of the country, to promoting moral values, in particular among the young, to spreading a culture of solidarity and to charitable assistance in favor of the weaker sectors of the population,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, opinions were exchanged on the current international situation, with a view to a joint commitment in favor of peace and of negotiated solutions to the serious problems of the present time,” it said.
One of those “problems that remain,” according to the senior Vatican diplomat, is how new bishops in Vietnam are named. Under the current arrangement, the Vietnamese government essentially holds a veto power over episcopal nominees. The Vatican proposes a name, and the government says “yes” or “no.” The back-and-forth continues until the government gives its approval. The senior diplomat said that it is not uncommon for the Vietnamese to balk at the first or second names, but not always, so it’s not possible simply to hold your true top pick until the second or third pass – by that time, he said, you might already have a bishop.
Over the long term, this Vatican diplomat said, such a system is not acceptable.
In the meantime, Pope Benedict XVI is attempting to move ahead with what has long been the Vatican’s top priority in Asia, which is the establishment of full diplomatic relations with China. Following a recent Jan. 19-20 closed-door meeting in the Vatican with top Chinese prelates as well as figures from the Secretariat of State and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Benedict has announced that he is drafting a letter to the Catholics of China, to be released shortly.
For now, some China-watchers expect that things may get worse for the Catholic Church before they get better. In the last few months, there have been a series of arrests of priests loyal to the underground Church as well as the ordination of priest without the approval of the Holy See.
The Vatican’s interest in China is not merely the protection of the roughly 13 million Catholics presently in the country, but the potential for that population’s rapid expansion. Given the erosion of traditional Catholic cultures in Europe and North America, an Asian country with more than a billion people, with a deep hunger for moral and spiritual values as the old Communist ideology crumbles, and without any established national religion, appeals strongly. Asia’s other emerging superpower, India, will likely never offer as many potential converts, given the tight identification there between national identity and Hinduism.
