Vietnam to host Asian bishops’ assembly

(January 28, 2011) Communist-ruled Vietnam is expected to host the next assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC). “Church leaders throughout Asia have decided to hold the 10th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in our country,” Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City told UCANEWS ON Wednesday. Cardinal Man said the FABC Central Committee made the decision at a recent meeting in Bangkok, which he and Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Bishops’ Conference, attended. The FABC’s plenary assembly is held every four years, the last being in Manila in 2009. The next is scheduled for the third week of November 2012, at the archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Ho Chi Minh City, the cardinal said, expressing the joy over his country being able to play host for the first time to the plenary assembly since the establishment of FABC in 1970. However, he noted that they expect to receive the list of participants a month or two ahead of the assembly to seek government approval for the issue of visas. Cardinal Man said he hopes the event will foster solidarity, fraternity and communion among the Churches in Asia.