Catholics from Vietnam at Mass with Pope Francis in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Sept. 3, 2023 (Credit: Colm Flynn/EWTN via CNA)
Sep 9 2023
“We came to Mongolia to ask the pope to visit Vietnam,” Father Huynh The Vinh from Vietnam’s Diocese of Phu Coung told CNA on Sept. 3.
Unlike Mongolia, which has one of the smallest Catholic populations in the world, Vietnam is home to millions of Catholics, yet no pope has ever visited the Southeast Asian country.
Vietnam and the Holy See have never had full diplomatic relations, a usual prerequisite for a papal trip, but Vietnamese Catholics remain convinced that a papal visit could have a positive impact on the situation facing Christians in the socialist country.
“I really hope that someday the pope can come to Vietnam, because if the pope comes to Vietnam it will change a lot the religious freedom in our country,” Kimviet Ngo told CNA.
Speaking at the papal Mass in Ulaanbaatar, Ngo described how she had seen Pope Francis’ visit bring hope to the Mongolian people and said she believed a similar trip to Vietnam would “be very meaningful to both overseas Vietnamese people and to people in Vietnam.”
Hung Nguyen, a 20-year-old Vietnamese-American from Houston who came to see the pope in Mongolia, told CNA that a papal visit could help to “strengthen the faith of the younger generations of Vietnamese Catholics.”
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