At the meeting, Thang told the Vatican official that Vietnam always respects and guarantees the freedom of religion and belief, affirming that all citizens have the right to practise their faith at home or at places of worship.
In the past two years of COVID-19, religions in general in Vietnam, including the Catholic Church, have accompanied the government in the battle against the pandemic, said the Vietnamese official.
He noted that many local Catholic organisations reserved their facilities for quarantine and treatment of coronavirus patients, while more than 1,700 Catholic priests and seminarists volunteered to work on the frontline.
Deputy Minister Thang expressed his wish that the Vatican would continue to direct the Vietnam Catholic Church to follow the guideline of living the Gospel in the heart of the nation and taking part in patriotic movements.
He asked for cooperation between the functional agencies of Vietnam and the Holy See to promote the Vietnam-Vatican relationship.
For his part, Under-Secretary Miroslaw Stanislaw Wachowski expressed his delight at the Vietnam Catholic Church’s contributions to social security and compliance with local laws on religious activities.
He expressed his wish that the 9th round of negotiations between the two sides will be successful in reaching the basic principles on the operation of the Holy See’s permanent envoy to Vietnam.
