New converts from Hmong community mark first Easter decorating new chapel with images of the Ways of the Cross
New converts from the Hmong community attend the Way of the Cross at Hong Ngai subparish on April 7. Their parish in Mai Yen in Son La province is 70 kilometers away. (Photo: Supplied)
Hundreds of new converts from the indigenous Hmong community in Vietnam held Holy Week celebrations for the first time this year.
“We are happy that some 200 Hmong villagers attended Palm Sunday Mass, Holy Week services and Easter celebrations for the first time at Hong Ngai sub-parish,” said Father Joseph Nguyen Tien Lien, pastor of Mai Yen Parish in Hung Hoa diocese in northwestern Vietnam bordering Laos to the south.
The new converts, assisted by a seminarian and a nun, decorated a small chapel, which was built in March this year, with images of the Ways of the Cross and Sacred Heart, Father Lien added.
We had to teach the first timers how to fast on Good Friday, sing hymns, recite prayers in the Hmong language, the priest said.
The Hmong people are an indigenous group mainly found in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and China. Most Hmong people in Vietnam are day laborers, eking out a living in tea gardens and rice fields. There are more than 20,000 Hmong Catholics living in remote and mountainous areas of Vietnam.
Evangelization among the Hmong community started in 1917. Hung Hoa diocese, the largest in Vietnam in terms of area, was set up on April 15, 1895. Since the missionaries were expelled in 1954 after the communist victory in northern Vietnam, Catholic books were banned and gradually lost.
In Mai Yen, many of the parishioners live far away from the parish church and are not in a position to attend services. The distance between Hong Ngai sub-parish, where new converts had their first Easter encounter, and Mai Yen Parish is 70 kilometers. Hung Hoa Diocese in Bac Yen district of the northwestern mountainous province of Son La, covers 10 provinces and serves 245,000 Catholics, including 20,000 from the Hmong community.
“Our top priority is to offer pastoral care to disadvantaged ethnic villagers in remote areas and celebrate Easter for new Catholic communities to strengthen their faith,” the 44-year-old priest said.
The three mission stations, set up last year, are among the many in Bac Yen district, which houses more than 700 ethnic Catholics. There is a plan to erect two chapels at the new mission stations next month.
Father Lien, who has been working in Mai Yen Parish since 2017, along with Fathers Paul Nguyen Cong Hien and Joseph Nguyen Van Cuong provide pastoral care to Catholics from ethnic Hmong, Thai and Kho Mu throughout Son La province
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