HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Migrant workers in Ho Chi Minh City work long hours to make ends meet, and Sunday evening Mass is the only chance for many Catholic migrants to go to Church.

Redemptorist Father Joseph Le Quang Uy initiated the evening Mass in August, especially for migrant workers coming from rural areas to this city, 1,710 kilometers south of Ha Noi.

Many of the 1,000 people who now attend the weekly liturgy are college students, housekeepers, shopkeepers and street vendors who work during the weekends.

On Nov. 9, street vendors pushed tricycles filled with corn, eggs, sweet potato, cassava and peanuts into the compound of Redemptorist-run Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church to attend the Mass at 8 p.m.

"Today I come here to attend Mass and pray to God to forgive my sins," said Anna Tran Thi Hao, who admitted she has hardly gone to church the past four years because she needs to sell corn and sweet potatoes.

Hao, her husband and two of their children moved to Ho Chi Minh City, the country's commercial capital, in 2004 from Ha Noi, where they had a small plot of farmland but no jobs. The couple sell food on the streets, and their children work for a local garment company.

The mother of four explained they have to work every day including Sundays to have enough money for their room rent of 1.5 million dong (US$88) and 2 million dong for other living expenses. They buy corn and sweet potato from local markets at dawn, then cook and sell food until late at night.

Hao, a former member of the St. Ann Association at her home parish, regretted she had never had the opportunity to wear her blue ao dai, traditional Vietnamese women's dress, at a church in the city yet.

"Some Redemptorists and lay Catholics visited our boarding rooms this morning and invited us to attend the Mass," she said. The Church people also allowed the migrants to sell food after the Mass.

That evening, Hao finally put on her traditional clothes and did her hair before attending the Mass, at which people shared faith experiences and prayed.

Afterwards, Father Uy, 50, invited churchgoers to buy food from the street vendors to celebrate his congregation's 276th anniversary. Saint Alphonsus Liguori founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on Nov 11, 1732.

Father Uy and other Redemptorists had visited 100 street vendors at a slum in the city's Tan Phu district and invited the 30 Catholics among them and some others to attend the Mass. Most of them come from northern and central provinces.

The priest, who actively works among migrant workers and young people, said many street vendors live in very poor conditions. Since last year, local Redemptorists have visited them where they stay. The Religious also teach catechism to Catholic migrants on Sundays. Young Catholics have started visiting the migrants too and sometimes help them repair their dwellings, he added.

The workers appreciate the attention and listen to the messages the visitors bring, even while busy preparing food, Father Uy said.

"We have to be patient with people who are very busy earning their livelihood," he added.

After the Mass, Joseph Vu Van Diep sold all his boiled cassava and corn within an hour. "Today I am very happy I sold out my food in the shortest time in 15 years."

Diep, 51, said migrants working far from their homes "are deeply moved at the loving care given by local Redemptorists and young Catholics." He vowed to go to church for Sunday Mass in the future to worship God.

Le Thi Tam, a Taoist from Quang Ngai, a central province, said Father Uy advised her when he visited to sell only good quality food, amid local media reports saying low-quality food sold on streets could damage peoples' health.

"Local Religious care for me even though I am not a Catholic," noted Tam, who sells boiled peanuts and rice sheets.

Father Uy said one street vendor had donated her full day's earnings of 50,000 dong (US$3) to the parish to show her gratitude.

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