HUE, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Rural people who endure annual floods in a central Vietnam parish can now take shelter and store their belongings in a new church that features a big cement yard.

Archbishop Etienne Nguyen Nhu The of Hue and his Auxiliary Bishop Francis Xavier Le Van Hong cut the ceremonial red ribbon at the consecration of the new church of Cay Da parish on July 24, 2008.

Archbishop Etienne Nguyen Nhu The of Hue presided at the consecration of the new church of Cay Da parish on July 24. Auxiliary Bishop Francis Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, Abbot Stephen Huynh Quang Sanh of Thien An Cistercians and 60 priests concelebrated the Mass. About 1,000 Religious and Catholics attended.

The parish, established in 1708, is in Quang Tri province's Hai Tho village, 590 kilometers south of Ha Noi.

Paul Tran Dung, a parishioner, told UCA News after the Mass, "I hope our new church will help shelter the local people and protect their properties from flood damage during the September-to-November rainy season."

Dung, 46, a farmer who annually harvests 3,000 kilograms of rice, said his six-member family occupies a 40-square-meter house often flooded after heavy rains. He said he has had to put their rice, clothes and other belongings in higher places in the houses or carry them to the old, dilapidated church.

Father Benedict Le Quang Vien, the pastor, told UCA News the new church, which can hold 1,500 people, aims to give local Catholics a proper worship place as well as shelter from flooding. The floor is 1.8 meters above street level, compared to the old church's 0.6-meter elevation, he pointed out.

Benefactors donated the 2.4 billion dong (US$144,578) needed to build the new 43-meter-by-18-meter church, he added. The old building had been damaged during the Vietnam War but was repaired in 1985 and stayed in use until construction began on the new building in 2005.

Many local Catholics told UCA News that when their houses are under 0.8 to 1.5 meters of water, they would have to use boats to carry their clothes, food, rice, domestic animals, poultry and other things to the old church, lest their possessions be washed away or damaged.

They said their area has more than two floods a month during the rainy season, and the flooding would last up to four days each time.

In 1999, they recalled, flash floods caused by heavy rains inundated their houses and left eight local people dead among the 60 dead or missing in the province. All the cattle, poultry and crops were washed away or damaged.

Father Vien, who has served the parish since 2002, said the new 3,000-square-meter cement yard in front of the church will also help local people, who are mainly farmers, to dry their rice and other produce under the sun.

Simon Tran Hai, a parishioner, told UCA News the new church, the area's biggest building, can safely shelter the 2,000 or so local villagers from flooding, including the parish's 700 Catholics.

According to Hai, the church's cement yard can benefit 30 local householders who have no place else to dry their rice after harvests.

Local people have little farm land and live in poverty, said Father Vien, 41, and many must earn a living as day laborers. He said he tries to help the poor by covering their shelters with iron-sheet roofs instead of leaves, and by giving them clean water.

In 2004, he built a 162-meter-long bridge connecting neighboring villages over the O Giang River passing in front of the church. Pham Luc, 72, a Buddhist from nearby Hai Tan village, told UCA News local people are grateful to the Catholics for the bridge because it helps them travel easily in an area that is low and has many streams.

Archbishop The told UCA News he was born in the parish, and he fished and swam in the river when he was a child.

According to Father Vien, feudal soldiers killed 123 Catholics and threw their bodies into the river on Sept. 24, 1885. Local Catholics later collected the bodies of the martyrs and buried them in a big tomb in front of the church.

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