Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was a prisoner of war and a source of inspiration for the Vietnamese faithful
Vietnamese faithful sharing their memories of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan at a cultural performance at Giang Xa Parish in capital Hanoi on Sept. 15. (Photo courtesy of Giang Xa Parish)
Thousands of Catholics in Vietnam prayed for the speedy canonization of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, whom communists jailed for 13 years without trial and exiled from his homeland.
Catholics gathered at Giang Xa Parish in the capital Hanoi on Sept. 16, marking the 20 death anniversary of Cardinal Thuan.
“We feel he has been extremely close to us since the cause for his canonization was opened in 2010,” said Cardinal Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, retired archbishop of Hanoi.
Cardinal Thuan was declared a Servant of God by Pope Francis in 2017.
Cardinal Nhon said Cardinal Thuan loved the Church in Vietnam and heartily welcomed the Vietnamese bishops when they visited Rome, where he served as the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Cardinal Nhon urged Catholics to “fervently pray for his canonization to happen soon if it pleases God and brings benefits to the Church.”
Father Bruno Pham Ba Que, rector of St. Joseph Major Seminary in Hanoi, said Cardinal Thuan became a witness of suffering, hope and martyrdom ever since he was named coadjutor archbishop of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in April 1975.
He was arrested on Aug. 15, 1975, just months after communist forces took control of South Vietnam for founding the Institute of Hope and being a nephew of the late Catholic President John Baptist Ngo Dinh Diem, who was assassinated in 1963.
He spent 13 years in prison, which included nine years in solitary confinement. He was kept in an old house nearby Giang Xa Church for over four years.
Tran Nang, a security officer who worked with Cardinal Thuan in Hanoi, said the late cardinal did not hate communists but saw them as lost sheep and tried to look for and bring them back to the church.
Nang said the cardinal suffered the most when left alone inside prison and missed his children outside.
Born in 1928 at Hue, Thuan was ordained a priest in 1953 and served as bishop of Nha Trang Diocese in 1967-75, when Paul VI appointed him coadjutor bishop of Saigon.
Archbishop Thuan was released from prison in 1988, but after making a trip to Rome in 1991 he was not allowed to return home.
In 1994 he entered the Roman Curia after his appointment by John Paul II as the vice president of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. In 1998, he was named the council’s president. He was created cardinal in Feb. 2001 and died in Sept. 2002.
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