The visiting pontifical representative for Vietnam yesterday praised Religious in Ban Me Thuot diocese, in the Central Highlands for their valuable service to poor people.

“The local Church has won great respect due to our work with the poor and underprivileged,” Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli told 300 local Religious at the Bishop’s House in Buon Ma Thuot city.

Archbishop Girelli praised local nuns for providing love and care for patients at state-run hospitals, people with leprosy, for elderly people without relatives and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Their service has drawn around 80,000 people to the Church and inspired many others over the past three decades, he noted.

The Italian archbishop, who is based in Singapore, urged the Religious to continue with various charity activities, especially for ethnic minority groups.

“This is an effective way of introducing Christian values to people,” he told them.

Father John Baptist Nguyen Minh Hao told Archbishop Girelli that there are 494 Religious from 34 congregations working with 397,211 Catholics in 95 parishes and 43 sub-parishes.

Fr Hao, 61, said many local Religious live and work among people in remote areas and offer them farm machinery, basic education, job skills, scholarships, healthcare, clean water, and even cash to help develop livelihoods.

The priest, who is in charge of evangelizing ethnic groups, said local priests are overworked, with each one having to give pastoral care to between 4,000 and 10,000 people.

During his September 12-13 visit to the diocese, Archbishop Girelli also visited the tomb of the late bishop Peter Nguyen Huy Mai, the first Vietnamese-born prelate of the local Church, and a Marian shrine.

Today he begins a visit to neighboring Nha Trang diocese.

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Vatican envoy urges locals to serve