Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang blesses people in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 11. (ucanews photo)
The Church in Vietnam has installed Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang to head up the country’s largest archdiocese.
He was installed as archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese in Notre Dame Cathedral in the city formerly known as Saigon on Dec. 11.
Among the 900 people who attended the ceremony were local government officials, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, the Vatican’s non-resident representative to Vietnam, as well as Cardinal Peter Nguyen Van Nhon and 25 bishops from the country’s 27 dioceses.
Missionaries of the Precious Blood Father Joseph Vu Minh Truc said that the new archbishop was expected to foster priestly formation and evangelization to deepen the faith of local Catholics, especially domestic migrants.
“Archbishop Nang is calm, good-hearted and zealous. He was known to foster church activities and priestly formation while working in Xuan Loc and Phat Diem dioceses,” Father Minh, 50, said.
The local Church needs “enthusiastic priests who give themselves to their flock and recognize their needs to serve them better,” he said.
The priest said Catholics in remote areas and on the outskirts of the city also need good priests to give them pastoral care.
“We expect him to develop mission stations and evangelization work for migrant workers,” he added.
Father Paul Pham Trung Dong, who is in charge of migrant affairs in the archdiocese, said he hoped Archbishop Nang would continue providing pastoral care for domestic migrant workers who lack facilities to practice their faith.
He said 25 mission stations established by the local Church in recent years have difficulty in holding religious activities and building facilities.
The Church should build more houses of worship and offer catechism courses and other activities to maintain migrants’ faith life, added.
The southern archdiocese serves 300,000 domestic migrants from across Vietnam.
Mary Luong Kim Nu from Jeanne d’Arc Parish said the new archbishop should focus on training lay Catholics in prayer life, marriage, family and catechism.
Nu, 67, said many people abandon their faith to chase material benefits and ignore faith education for their children.
Mary Nguyen Thi Kieu My said she hoped Archbishop Nang would spur priests into offering better pastoral care.
She said Catholics in her parish are disappointed with their priest, who she said refuses to offer last rites, treats altar boys shamefully and ignores parish activities. “The archbishop has to help this priest change his attitude,” she said.
Addressing the congregation, Archbishop Nang, 65, said migrants, people in need, patients and abandoned people in remote areas are high on the archdiocese’s list of priorities
“I will work with all of you to build a local Church based on the faith foundation of apostles. All of us will maintain the evangelization program initiated by our predecessors,” the new prelate said.
“We must help one another be holy. The Church is not a social organization or an international charity but the body of Christ. The Church is holiness,” he said.
He called on Catholics “to be active missionaries to bear witness to the Good News.”
Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese has some 860 priests and thousands of religious serving one million Catholics among a total population of 13 million.