Vietnamese president to meet Pope Benedict in the Vatican

(December 7, 2009) The president of Vietnam will visit Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican this week to strengthen ties between his country and the Holy See the Vietnamese government has announced. Nguyen Phuong Nga, spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the president and Pope Benedict will discuss "measures to reinforce relations between Vietnam and the Vatican," which she said have been progressing well. Vietnam and the Holy See do not have diplomatic relations and Vietnamese Catholics continue to protest their treatment at the hands of the communist government, particularly against confiscation of Church property. Vietnam’s Communist authorities closely monitor religious groups and insist on approving most church appointments. However, relations between Vietnam and the Holy See have warmed in recent years with easing of restrictions on the Catholic community. Earlier in 2007 Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung made a historic visit to the Vatican. Earlier this year a senior Vatican official led a delegation to the country to hold the first formal meetings with government authorities to discuss establishing diplomatic ties. Vietnam has Southeast Asia’s largest Catholic community after the Philippines, with some six million faithful, or seven percent of the country’s some 86 million population.