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| Cardinal J.B. Pham talking to representatives of faiths |
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| Exchanging gift |
A group of representatives of other religions gathered at the archbishopric of Saigon for a dinner with Cardinal JB Pham Minh Man on Dec 19, 2009. Coming from various Protestant denominations, Buddhism, Caodaism, Islam, Hoa Hao Buddhism, and Baha’ism, all was warmly welcomed to the table of plenty by the Cardinal and his auxiliary bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham, and priests and religious of the Archdiocese’s Committee for Interfaith Relations.
Stressing the need to learn how one can live his/her faith with integrity while respecting and accepting each other, the Cardinal went to great lengths to discuss on the duty to “honour your father and mother”. The Cardinal chose the topic apparently to disperse a myth about Catholicism among general public in Vietnam.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, a few foreign missionaries in Vietnam strongly condemned rites and offerings to ancestors, considering them idolatry. They considered the custom of veneration of departed ancestors religious in nature and therefore incompatible with Catholicism. In the period of 261 years, from 1625 to 1886, 53 "Edicts of Persecution of Christians" were signed by the Trinh, the Nguyen Lords and the Kings of Nguyen dynasty. They all criticised the foreign missionaries’ ban of venerating departed ancestors, and used it as one of the reasons justifying for the forbiddance of Catholicism in Vietnam.
The Cardinal stressed that honouring ancestors is “not only a sacred dogma for all religions but also a cultural nobleness of the Oriental societies.”
He went on to publicly apologize on behalf of the Vietnamese Catholic Church to people of other faiths for all the suspicions or conflicts in the past asking for a new chapter of history to be started with knowledge and mutual understanding in preparation for the celebration of Christmas as a day known for bringing meaningful harmony and peace on earth.
On various occasions, Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham has emphasized that in our increasingly pluralistic societies, more inter-religious dialogue and cooperation are needed if conflict fuelled by religion is to be constructively addressed. In that spirit, a Committee for Interfaith Relations was setup last month. Fr. Ha Thien Truc is a key member of the committee. His father is a practicing Cao Daist, and his mother a Buddhist. The priest is now acting as liaison for the Church in reaching out to other religions.
Inter-religious dialogue remains a challenging task for the Church in Vietnam due, in good part, to misconceptions against Catholicism which has been nurtured by the state policy of anti-Catholicism. Education in Vietnam has been very hostile toward Catholic belief and state media have been flooded with negative sentiments against the Church.
Also, attempts to promote Inter-religious cooperation are often seen with scrutiny by authorities who suspect that such a cooperation may generate a force capable of challenging the rule of the government and therefore present a serious “national security threat”.
Moreover, the regime has successfully copied the Chinese masterpiece of establishment of “patriotic” churches in Vietnam. Typically, between the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), and the state-sponsored Buddhist Church of Vietnam (VBC), which one the Church should conduct dialogues with, while avoiding unnecessary conflicts with the government, remains a tough question.
To the friendship dinner at Saigon Archdiocese, only representatives of the state-sponsored Buddhist Church of Vietnam were invited, a gesture could trigger angers from the UBCV which claims for 80% of Buddhists in Vietnam.