RSSVietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Dec. 11 in what the Vatican called a “significant stage” toward normalizing bilateral ties. Gerard O´Connell, UCA News´ Special Correspondent in Rome, says the optimism is justified. VATICAN CITY (UCAN) — At first glance, the meeting between Vietnam´s President Nguyen Minh Triet and Pope Benedict XVI failed to meet expectations. The two key achievements hoped for by Vietnamese Church leaders — a papal visit to Vietnam and the establishment of Vietnam-Holy See diplomatic ties — did not materialize.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons for the upbeat Vatican assessment of the meeting as “a significant stage in the progress of bilateral relations.”
Firstly, it was the first time that a president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has met a Pope since the Communists took power in 1975.
Secondly, the presidential visit showed that, while there was no announcement that the Pope would visit Vietnam to mark the end of the local Church´s Jubilee Year on Jan. 6, 2011, the Vietnamese have not backtracked on their intention to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
That goal was first announced by then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung when he met Pope Benedict on Jan. 25, 2007, a historic visit that gave birth to a bilateral commission to plot the course to diplomatic links.
That commission first met in February this year and Triet confirmed this goal in comments to Vietnamese media.
“Vietnam is ready to boost relations with the Vatican on the basis of respecting fundamental principles of international law, thus making an active contribution to peace, cooperation and development the world over,” the Vietnamese leader said he had told the Pope.
While both sides are keen to move forward, some problems still need to be resolved. These were alluded to but not detailed in the Vatican media release that expressed “the hope that outstanding questions may be resolved as soon as possible.”
Diplomatic sources suggest these problems fall into three categories — the disputed question about the role of the Church and missioners under French colonial rule; tensions between Vietnamese authorities and Catholic communities over the restitution of Church properties confiscated by the Communists; and China´s relations with Vietnam, which may act as a brake on diplomatic relations.
The Vatican´s positive reading of the visit is also justified because the meeting between the Pope and president appears to have gone well.
One source told UCA News that after the two leaders had talked together for 20 minutes through interpreters, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Pham Gia Khiem, joined them.The mood in the Pope´s library at the end of the unusually long, 40-minute private session between the two men appeared upbeat and festive.
The president presented his 12-person delegation to the pontiff amid smiles and friendly handshakes.
While the content of the conversation between the two leaders remains confidential, it is possible to gain some insights from the Vatican media statement and comments by Triet to Vietnamese media.
The Vatican said the Pope and the Vietnamese president touched upon themes “concerning co-operation between Church and State,” particularly in the light of Pope Benedict´s recent message to the Vietnamese Church for the opening of the Jubilee Year. That message called for reconciliation within the Church in Vietnam and between Catholics and other Vietnamese.
According to Vietnamese media, Triet told the Pope that Vietnam has always respected and ensured citizens´ rights to freedom of belief and considered religious followers integral to national unity.
The Vietnamese media quoted him as expressing his support to Pope Benedict for his message to Vietnam´s bishops during their ad limina, or five-yearly, visit to the Vatican last June, in which he counseled Catholics to be good followers of Christ and good citizens.
Triet is said to have praised the Pope for the message he sent to Vietnam´s Catholic Church for the opening of the Jubilee Year “in which the Vatican admitted mistakes committed in the past and pleaded for forgiveness.”
Pope Benedict, in turn, reportedly thanked Vietnam for its support of the Vietnamese Catholic Church in the successful organization of the opening ceremony of the Jubilee Year.
Pope Benedict is believed to have asked the Vietnamese government to continue providing more opportunities for the country´s Catholic Church to get involved in humanitarian, healthcare and educational activities.
Triet said the Pope hopes to enhance ties between Vietnam and the Vatican, and for his part Triet affirmed this was possible with goodwill and determination from both sides.
So while the results of the meeting may not be all that the Vietnamese Church may have hoped for, it marks a new and hope-filled chapter in relations between the two sides.
It remains to be seen how soon it will be before all this results in the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the Holy See.
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