Holy See-Vietnam talks next week

(February 24, 2012) Talks on full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Vietnam are progressing normally with the third meeting of the Joint Working Group scheduled for next week. Holy See’s spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said on Friday announcing the meeting between the two sides will take place in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, Feb. 27–28. The last meeting took place in the Vatican, June 23-24, 2010 and the first meeting was held in Hanoi, Feb. 16-17, 2009. Fr. Lombardi said that the Holy See’s non-residential representative to Vietnam made several visits for next week’s meeting which will “study in depth and develop bilateral relations.” There tis no diplomatic relation between Vietnam and the Holy See as yet, but relations have warmed in recent years with easing of restrictions on the Catholic community and exchange of visits by top officials. Pope Benedict XVI received President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam in the Vatican on December 11, 2009, the first head of the Southeast Asian nation to visit a Pope. Vietnam's 6 million Catholics are the second largest Catholic community in Asia after the Philippines.