Mary Tran Thi Thuy (right) leads Catholics to attend a Mass at Cang Huong Ly Chapel in August. (Photo: UCA News)
Mary Tran Thi Thuy, a trained nurse, busily treats poor patients with minor and brief illnesses with intravenous fluids, injections and medicines at her home. Dozens of people visit her daily in Cang Huong Ly Subparish in Yen Bai province.
Thuy said she and her single sister mainly live on her income from caring for patients because they have no farmland or other jobs. She spends the rest of her time developing people’s spiritual lives as her top priority.
Thuy, a trainer of catechists, is annually assigned to offer summer courses to catechists at parishes throughout Hung Hoa, Vietnam’s largest diocese covering nine provinces and part of the capital Hanoi. Some 30 catechists take each two-week course.
She is one of 24 catechists who were trained in 1992 by the 125-year-old diocese, which has 260,000 Catholics served by 163 priests.