VATICAN CITY (UCAN) -- The Vatican has hailed the visit of Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 25 as "a new and important step towards the normalization of bilateral relations."

In a statement issued shortly after their exchange, the Vatican expressed "satisfaction" at Dung's landmark visit to the pope, and later to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states.

Dung, 57, is the first Vietnamese leader to meet a pope since communists reunited the country in April 1975. According to the Vatican release, it was "the first time that a prime minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has met the Holy Father and the highest authorities of the Secretariat of State."

The visit "marks a new and important step towards the normalization of bilateral relations," the Vatican press release states. It also says: "Those relations have, over the last few years, made concrete progress opening new spaces of religious freedom for the Catholic Church in Vietnam."

The text does not describe what Dung and his delegation discussed with the pope and his senior aides, but the history of the Vietnam Church during recent decades provided many topics for their deliberations.

More than 6 million of Vietnam's 83 million people are Catholics. When communists came to power in North Vietnam in 1954 and took over the whole country in 1975, they closed seminaries, confiscated Church schools, churches, hospitals, Religious buildings and other properties, and expelled foreign missioners and papal diplomatic missions.

However, the communists allowed many churches to remain and priests to celebrate Mass and, though they tried to control almost every aspect of Church life, never engaged in the kind of anti-Church repression seen in China.

Since the mid-1980s, when Vietnam's doi moi (renovation) policies started to allow free-market initiatives and collectivized activities began to disappear, the Church situation has improved. In 1989, the government allowed Cardinal Roger Etchegeray, then head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to visit the Church in Vietnam.

During his visit, the cardinal also met government ministers. This opened the way to more official encounters between the two sides, the gradual development of positive bilateral relations and the step-by-step resolving of problems, all of which paved the way for Dung's visit.

The Vatican press release points out, "In the course of the discussions, attention turned to the problems that remain which, it is hoped, will be faced and resolved through existing channels of dialogue and will lead to a fruitful cooperation between Church and State, so that Catholics can, ever more effectively, make a positive contribution to the common good of the country, to promoting moral values, in particular among the young, to spreading a culture of solidarity and to charitable assistance in favor of the weaker sectors of the population."

It also says that "opinions were exchanged on the current international situation, with a view to a joint commitment in favor of peace and of negotiated solutions to the serious problems of the present time."

After a 12-hour flight from Hanoi, Dung and his delegation of 60 persons, many from the business and financial community, landed at Rome's airport at 8.00 a.m. on Jan. 25. By 4.00 p.m., they were on their way to Davos, Switzerland, to take part in the World Economic Forum.

Three hours after landing in Rome, Dung arrived at Vatican City with a nine-person delegation that included four government ministers -- the head of his cabinet and ministers for commerce, industry and planning and development.

A dozen Swiss Guards forming a guard of honor saluted Dung at Cortile di San Damaso, the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace where the pope lives. Archbishop James Harvey, head of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, welcomed Dung and led him along a red carpet to the lift that took them to the second floor of the palace. When the prime minister entered the pope's private library, Pope Benedict greeted Dung with outstretched hands. They warmly shook hands before standing still for video cameras to record the historical moment.

Dung then presented to the pope Ngo Yen Thi, head of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, and Thi stayed at Dung's side throughout the 26-minute private audience. Dung spoke in Vietnamese but he brought along a translator who spoke excellent Italian. The pope had his own translator, Dominican Father Tran Duc Anh, a Vietnamese who lives in Rome.

After their talk, Dung cordially presented his delegation and gave the pope a gift brought from Hanoi, a melon-shaped ceramic vase made in 2000 with clay baked at 1,300 degrees Celsius. It sounds like a bell when struck.

Pope Benedict reciprocated by giving medallions of his pontificate to Dung and the delegates. After posing for a group photo under "The Resurrection," a painting by Italian artist Pietro Perugino (1446-1524), Dung said farewell to the pope and went on to meet Cardinal Bertone and Archbishop Mamberti.

After those visits, the prime minister called on Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who offered a banquet in his honor. Italy ranks ninth among European Union countries and 31st among all countries investing in Vietnam.

On the eve of the visit, Father Joseph Nguyen Cong Doan, a Vietnamese who assists the superior general of Society of Jesus in Rome, told UCA News he believes Vietnamese authorities "would like to establish diplomatic relations, but refrain from doing so out of respect for China, the elder brother."

Father Doan, who led the Jesuits' Vietnam province when the communists came to power, explained, "Vietnam will not establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See before China, just as it did not enter the WTO (World Trade Organization) before China, though Vietnam had been invited first."

Just before Dung met Pope Benedict, Cardinal Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, told UCA News on Jan. 25 while attending a meeting in Bangkok: "We are hopeful. Both sides would like to see official relations and the meeting (at the Vatican) is a step towards this."

"Vietnam joined the WTO, and successfully organized and hosted the meeting of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) last November, so we are hopeful," the cardinal noted. "But we do not know how long it will take for official diplomatic relations (with the Holy See). For us Catholics in Vietnam, if there is communication, things will go easier for the Catholic Church."

"Things are not relaxed (for Catholics)," he added. "The Church wants to contribute in education and health care but we have to see how this develops. The system is still there, but we are hopeful."

END

(Accompanying photos available at here)