Father Michael Nguyen Tien Quang blesses vehicles in the compound of Archangel Michael Church in Yen Bai city on Feb. 3. (Photo: UCA News)
Catholics in a northern parish of Vietnam pledged to contribute their might for building a better community and society as they celebrated Tet or the Lunar New Year festival.
Some 1,000 attended a special Mass on Feb. 3, the third day of the festival, at the Archangel Michael Church of Yen Bai Parish based in Yen Bai city.
“We gather here to give heartfelt thanks to God for having kept us healthy and safe over the past year, and to beg him to offer us good health and jobs in the new year,” said Father Michael Nguyen Tien Quang, who presided at the Mass.
The 49-year-old priest, who serves as a parish priest of Nhan Nghia, asked the locals to donate for the repair of their church.
After his homily, hundreds queued up with their offerings for the church even as the choir sang thanksgiving hymns.
Joseph Nguyen Thanh Cong, a worker who had participated in building the church 22 years ago, said the 800-square-meter church was built on an old foundation laid by foreign missionaries.
It is essential to raise funds to renovate the historical church for younger generations
The original church had been ruined during wars in the 1960s and local people had to use a leaf chapel until 1990 when they started to build the present church to be completed some eight years later.
The parish council member said this was the first church built with an official building permit in the province after the government started to slacken its firm grips on religious activities.
“It is essential to raise funds to renovate the historical church for younger generations,” the lay leader said.
After the Mass, Father Quang also blessed with holy water the 30 cars and 300 motorbikes in the compound of the church.
Anne Le Thi Lien, who had her motorbike blessed, said she works for an insurance company and rode 200 kilometers every day for work during the Covid-19 pandemic last year. She fell off it sometimes but thanked God she emerged safely.
The mother of two said she had offered 200,000 dong (US$9) for repairing the church.
Joseph Nguyen Van Luc, a Catholic businessman, said he prayed to God to bless his business and his car in the new year.
Luc, who owns a chain of restaurants in the city, said he and his employees suffered during the pandemic but looked forward to better times. He offered to donate cement for the renovation of the church building.