Workers from Ho Chi Minh City who come from other parts of Vietnam are advised to avoid premarital sex in order to have a good life. “Having sexual relationships outside marriages is to abuse people’s bodies to satisfy one’s sexual needs,” said Auxiliary Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham of Ho Chi Minh City archdiocese. He was speaking to about 2,000 internal migrant workers on Jan. 9 at an opening ceremony for the Week for Migrant Workers at Binh Thuan Church. “We need good advice from the Church to live a better life” as local young Catholics run after premarital sex and ignore moral values, a young man told Bishop Kham. Bishop Kham said premarital sex could lead women to have abortions and leave then physically and spiritually scared. “The Church wants you to live a good life and have a happy marriage,” Bishop Kham. Maria Nguyen Minh Nguyen, who works for a local garment company, said her boyfriend often got angry with her for refusing to have sex with him. Father Paul Pham Trung Dong, head of the archdiocesan committee for migrant workers, said migrant workers will attend Mass, visit abandoned elderly people and engage in charitable activities during the migrant workers’ week. The annual event will end on Jan. 16 with a closing ceremony to be held at Khiet Tam parish. Ho Chi Minh City is home to two million indigenous migrant workers including 150,000 Catholics from elsewhere in the country. Related report Church ponders how best to serve migrants VT12808.1636
