page_title: Catholic Church in Vietnam
section_title: Present time
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic Church in Vietnam / Present time
caption_attribution_description: English: Cua Bac church in Hanoi Deutsch: Röm.-kath. Märtyrerkirche in Hanoi, Architekt: Ernest Hébrard
context_page_description: The Catholic Church in Vietnam is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of Bishops in Vietnam who are in communion with the Pope in Rome. Vietnam has the fifth largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia. There are about 7 million Catholics in Vietnam, representing 7.0% of the total population. There are 27 dioceses with 2,228 parishes and 2,668 priests.
context_section_description: The first Vietnamese bishop, John Baptist Nguyễn Bá Tòng, was consecrated in 1933 at St. Peter's Basilica by Pope Pius XI. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam was founded in 1980. In 1976, the Holy See made Archbishop Joseph Mary Trịnh Như Khuê the first Vietnamese cardinal. Joseph Mary Cardinal Trịnh Văn Căn in 1979, and Paul Joseph Cardinal Phạm Đình Tung in 1994, were his successors. The well known Vietnamese Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận, who was imprisoned by the Communist regime from 1975–88 and spent nine years in solitary confinement, was nominated Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and made its President in 1998. On 21 February 2001, he was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II. Vietnamese Catholics who died for their faith from 1533 to the present day were canonized in 1988 by John Paul II as "Vietnamese Martyrs". On March 26, 1997, the beatification process for the Redemptorist brother Marcel Nguyễn Tân Văn was opened by Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Thuận in the diocese of Belley-Ars, France.
  There have been meetings between leaders of Vietnam and the Vatican, including a visit by Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI on 25 January 2007. Official Vatican delegations have been traveling to Vietnam almost every year since 1990 for meetings with its government authorities and to visit Catholic dioceses. In March 2007, a Vatican delegation visited Vietnam and met with local officials. In October 2014, Pope Francis met with Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng in Rome. The sides continued discussions about the possibility of establishing normal diplomatic relations, but have not provided a specific schedule for the exchange of ambassadors. The Pope would again meet Vietnamese leader Trần Đại Quang and his associates in Vatican in 2016.
  Vietnam remains as the only Asian communist country to have an unofficial representative of Vatican in the country and has held official to unofficial meetings with the Vatican's representatives both in Vietnam and Holy See, which it doesn't exist in China, North Korea and Laos, due to long and historical relations between Vietnam and the Catholic Church. This has improved in a more favorable manner, when Holy See announced they will have a permanent representative in Vietnam in 2018.
  Restrictions on Catholic life in Vietnam and the government's desired involvement in the nomination of bishops remain obstacles in bilateral dialogues. In March 2007, Thaddeus Nguyễn Văn Lý (b. 1946), a dissident Catholic priest, was sentenced by Vietnamese court in Huế to eight years in prison on grounds of "anti-government activities". Nguyen, who had already spent 14 of the past 24 years in prison, was accused of being a founder of a pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 and a member of the Progression Party of Vietnam.
  On 16 September 2007, the fifth anniversary of the  Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Thuận's death, the Catholic Church began the beatification process for him. Benedict XVI expressed "profound joy" at the news of the official opening of the beatification cause. Vietnamese Catholics reacted positively to the news of the beatification. In December 2007, thousands of Vietnamese Catholics marched in procession to the former Apostolic Nunciature in Hanoi and prayed there twice aiming to return the property to the local church. The building was a historic Buddhist site until it was confiscated by the French colonists and given to Catholics, before the communist North Vietnamese government confiscated it from the Vatican in 1959. This was the first mass civil action by Vietnamese Catholics since the 1970s. Later the protests were supported by Catholics in Hồ Chí Minh City and Hà Đông, who made the same demands for their respective territories. In February 2008, the governments promised to return the building to the Catholic Church. However, in September 2008, the authorities changed their position and decided to demolish the building to create a public park.
caption: Cửa Bắc Church, Hanoi.
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