Cardinal Francois-Xavier
Van Thuan. Photo courtesy of www.card-fxthuan.org
From
WIRE REPORTS
VATICAN
CITY — A Vatican delegation has left for Viet Nam in the next step toward beatification
of a cardinal who spent nearly 14 years in detention following the fall of Viet
Nam, according to church officials.
The
Vatican representatives will be in Viet Nam through April 9, talking to those
who knew and remember Francois-Xavier Van Thuan. Van Thuan was appointed Sai
Gon’s assistant archbishop a week before the fall of Viet Nam on April 30, 1975.
Van
Thuan, who was the nephew of Ngo Dinh Diem, South Viet Nam’s president until
his assassination in 1963, was then locked up in a detention camp in the town
of Nha Trang.
In
his cell, he wrote meditations on his spiritual experiences on the back of old
calendars.
In
an interview with missionary news agency Fides on Tuesday, Vietnamese Bishop
Paul Nguyen Thai Hop said Van Thuan was a man “who had the Gospel as his only
criteria.”
After
his release in 1989, Van Thuan was exiled to Rome and named a cardinal by Pope
John Paul II. He died in 2002.
Beatification
is a Catholic honor that bestows the title of “Blessed.” It is one step below
canonization, which gives sainthood to a person.
About
7 percent of the people in Viet Nam are Roman Catholic.
