"Viet Catholics look to revive evangelical efforts"

Spreading the faith despite government hostility


Adapted from: The Catholic World Report, May 2009.


"The Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- has held a series of seminars on evangelization in recent weeks, to address mounting concerns about the ineffectiveness of the Church's missionary efforts.

"Although Catholicism is relatively widespread in Vietnam and the Church has a strong corps of devoted lay activists, in recent decades growth of the country's Catholic population has lagged significantly behind the overall population growth.

"[S]aid Father Anthony Nguyen Ngoc Son, a key speaker at the seminars, The latest official statistical figures from the Church in Vietnam show that the Catholic population in 2007 was 6,087,700 among 85,154,900 people, or a rate of about 7.15 percent of [the] national population.

"[H]e warned, This indicates a decline in the number of registered Catholics, compared to 7.2 percent in 1933 or 7.5 percent in 1939.

"[W]hile the proportion of the Catholic population in Vietnam has decreased over the last 50 years, other Christian denominations have enjoyed a surge in people joining their churches.

"In 1999, non - Catholic groups had 400,000 members.

"This number quadrupled to reach 1,500,000 in 2008, according to the latest report.

"Father Nguyen lamented, These figures are a clear indication of the ineffectiveness o f the Church's mission in Vietnam during the last 50 years..."

Good read!