HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (UCAN) -- The Church in Vietnam should consider inculturating local traditional rites and lifestyle in the liturgy to help enliven the faith life of Catholics, a researcher-priest says.

The Vietnam Bishops' Conference should adopt kowtowing, bowing, incensing, worshipping of ancestors and other traditional rites in the liturgy, the priest said, adding that the Church needs to inculturate in a way that it presents Jesus as represented in Vietnamese "legends and ancient tales."

When Catholics are familiar with Jesus' "Vietnamese face," they will find intimacy with him and live out their faith better, the Jesuit wrote in the July-August issue of "Cong Giao va Dan Toc" (Catholicism and nation) of the Ho Chi Minh-based Catholic Committee for Solidarity.

"The Kingdom of God was established in Vietnam but nothing was adopted from Vietnam," he wrote under the pen name Hoanh Son, adding that as a result, Catholicism has been considered an alien religion in the country.

"Vietnamese Catholics live the same way as all Vietnamese people do, but they change into Westerners when they are in church," he noted.

The Jesuit researcher argued that the local Church should give up Western cultural practices in the liturgy and adopt local practices so that Vietnamese Catholics can have a deep experience of their faith in line with Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortation "Ecclesia in Asia" (Church in Asia).

The scholar of East Asian philosophy lamented that although Vietnamese bishops have urged the study of "Ecclesia en Asia," its contents are hardly mentioned in priests' homilies or catechists' lessons.

Inculturation, he said, will be successful if seminarians and candidates for religious life also study Vietnamese thought and culture.

Seminarians should also be taught Chinese and Indian philosophies and religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, in the spirit of respect and dialogue. He asked them to be familiar with the East Asian methods of prayer.

He urged the bishops' conference to ask seminaries to adapt Westernized teaching materials to Vietnam's cultural and ideological context.

He proposed regular seminars for seminary formators and theologians to discuss issues related to inculturation and interreligious dialogue, and said Vietnamese Catholics should attend training courses on inculturation and interfaith dialogue organized by the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

He proposed that the Church not only study Southeast Asian, Chinese and Indian cultures, but also Vietnamese people's mindsets and customs in various parts of the country, including the cultures of ethnic minorities who speak a variety of dialects and practice various beliefs.

However, not all agree with Son's proposed means of inculturation.

Father Joseph Nguyen The Thoai, a professor of Nha Trang diocese in central Vietnam, told UCA News that inculturation basically means integrating with the people. "We must harmoniously combine tradition and modernity," he said.

"We would make another mistake if we stress traditional culture too much because today's society has dramatically changed," he warned.

"We cannot keep wearing traditional costumes and performing traditional rites since they are no longer suitable for today's Vietnam society," he said.

"We must explain Jesus' ideas and teachings in such a way that the Vietnamese people can understand and live Gospel values, but since Jesus was a historical person, we must give him his Jewish face," he added.

Nguyen Chinh Ket, a lay researcher of inculturation, agreed with Father Thoai. He said that Christian faith in Vietnam today should be inculturated "synchronically," rather than "diachronically."

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