"Cosme Hoang Van Dat, S.J., arrives for his episcopal ordination ceremony in Bac Ninh, Vietnam, Oct. 7"

Adapted from the Jesuit magazine, "America," October 20, 2008.

New Bishop Ordained in Vietnam ...

"Cosme Hoang Van Dat, S.J., arrives for his episocpal ordination ceremony in Bac Ninh, Vietnam, Oct 7.

"Bishop Hoang Van Dat became the first Jesuit bishop in Vietnam more than 400 years after the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries set foot in the country.

"Vietnam, with eight million Catholics, is the second largest Catholic community in Asia after the Philippines."

NOTE:

You know folks, it'd be my own uneducated guess that this is one tough man; or to put it another way: I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the local Vietnamese equivalent of the Archdiocese of San Antonio's hypothetical Lavender Mafia, that is being used to describe what one or more Catholic authors casually refer to as black - mailing bishops (and priests, too, you can be sure!), has had to luck black - mailing this hombre!