The Australian pilgrim centre in Rome, Domus Australia, will feature a portrait in its chapel of the lateVietnamese Cardinal Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan. Cardinal Van Thuan was jailed in 1976 in Hanoi for 13 years, at least nine of them spent in solitary confinement, The Catholic Weekly reports. When he was released in 1989 he was never allowed to return to Vietnam and he became a frequent visitor to Australia, where his mother and sisters had settled prior to the Communist takeover in Vietnam. He regarded Australia as his second home, and he and Sydney Cardinal George Pell were close friends. A process for the cause of canonisation for Cardinal Van Thuan began last year in Rome where he spent his final years, before his death in 2002. His portrait in Domus Australia will join those of celebrated clerics in Australia’s Church history like St Mary of the Cross and Fr John Therry, as well as others who have influenced and been welcomed by the Church in Australia, including Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. The Vietnamese Australian community has given more than $50,000 towards the cost of the project, the bulk of it raised at the community’s New Year celebrations in Sydney this month, said the report. To Vietnamese Catholics he is a much loved, saintly figure. Fr Liem Duong, assistant parish priest at Sacred Heart Church, Cabramatta, and one of five chaplains serving Sydney’s Vietnamese community, said it was a privilege and a great honour for the community to be able to contribute to Domus Australia and for Cardinal Van Thuan’s portrait to be hung there. FULL STORY Grateful refugees pay for cardinal’s portrait (The Catholic Weekly) PHOTO CREDIT Image from Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan Foundation
