Lesson 1: Citizens - Catholics "living a good life, living a good religion"

(Baonghean) -The Catholic community of Nghe An province currently has 50,843 households and 257,010 people (accounting for over 8%) of the province's population. In recent years, implementing the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI "A good Catholic is also a good citizen", in the movement "Living a good life and following the religion", "Respecting God, loving the country" of Catholics, many examples of good people, good deeds, and many typical examples in various fields have appeared...

In Nghia Tan parish, Nam Hung commune, Nam Dan district, the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai and Mr. Dinh Van Hue is known as a model Catholic family in the patriotic emulation movement, "living a good life, living a good religion". From nothing, the couple has built a stable life from a production model, raising livestock, and providing construction materials for an income of 120-150 million VND/year. The family's economy is quite good, but the couple "stops at 2 children to raise them to adulthood". In addition to taking good care of family life, they also actively participate in local social, humanitarian, and charitable movements and activities, building solidarity and harmony among neighbors. Ms. Hai, with her own efforts, was also elected as the head of the women's association in the hamlet where 60% of the population is Catholic. In 2011, she was elected to the Executive Committee of the Women's Union of the commune and then became a delegate of the People's Council of Nam Hung commune for the 2011-2012 term. The family of Mr. Nguyen Van Nha and Ms. Pham Thi Phuc in Dong Son hamlet, Ru Dat parish (Long Thanh commune, Yen Thanh) is one of 12 parishioners' families that have achieved the title of Cultural Family of the commune. Mr. Nha has been elected as Deputy Head of the Executive Committee of Ru Dat parish and Deputy Hamlet for many years, while Ms. Phuc is a member of the Standing Committee of the Women's Union of Long Thanh commune and Head of the Women's Association of Dong Son hamlet. Not only actively participating in social activities, they also encourage each other to develop the family economy (working on 6 sao of contracted rice fields, opening a civil carpentry workshop, combining raising cows in captivity for a good income, establishing a bamboo and rattan weaving group for export) to have conditions to cover living expenses and raise 2 daughters to study well. Currently, the couple's eldest daughter is a second-year student at Hanoi University of Electricity, the second daughter is an excellent student at Bach Lieu Secondary School. Visiting the family of parishioner Nguyen Trong Dao, Yen Thinh parish, Hung Yen Bac commune, Hung Nguyen district, we were truly impressed and admired when we saw more than 100 certificates of merit of all kinds from 6 children, including 2 who have graduated from regular universities; 1 is studying at college... framed and hung solemnly on all 4 walls and according to the homeowner, "this is the pride and greatest asset that my family has"...

Orange growing model of parishioner Nguyen Huu Binh
in Dong Trung hamlet, Dong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh)

It can be said that, in addition to building a peaceful, happy, equal, and progressive home with 35,037 cultural Catholic families in the whole province, taking care of children's education so that they can contribute to building their homeland and country is increasingly being focused on by the Catholic community. In the parishes, there are more and more families with 1-5 children attending university and college. Typically, the family of Mr. Nguyen Trong Lo in Dong Phu Parish, Phu Loc Parish has 6 children graduating from university and above; the family of Mr. Phan Duc and Phan Sinh in Vinh Hoa Parish has 5 children attending university and above...

In the economic field, promoting the strengths of each region, parishioners have enthusiastically competed in production, boldly transformed the economic structure, applied scientific and technological advances to improve crop and livestock productivity, and actively eliminated hunger and reduced poverty. More and more models and typical examples of good economic performance have appeared in various fields, including models with incomes from 200 million VND to 1 billion VND per year, creating jobs for many workers, such as: Sao Mai Electric Cable Company in Bac Vinh Industrial Park, directed by parishioner Trinh Xuan Giao; Mr. Vu Van Duc's family in Xuan An Parish, Quynh Xuan Commune, Quynh Luu District with 12 hectares of white-leg shrimp farming, each year generating over 50 tons of income, net profit of over 2 billion VND; Mr. Nguyen Huu Kim's family, a parishioner of Tri Le parish, Khai Son commune, Anh Son district, with a farm and industrial service economic model, has a total annual net income of more than 600 million VND... The rate of well-off and rich households in the parishioner community in the whole province is 41.30%, an increase of 4.7% compared to 2007; the rate of poor households is 16.63%, a decrease of 2.4%...

In most parishes, parishioners have contributed hundreds of thousands of working days, billions of dong in land, materials, site clearance... to build electricity systems, roads, schools, stations, contributing to the construction of new rural areas, creating an increasingly rich and civilized homeland. Typically, in Quynh Luu, parishioners have expanded 20.56 km of roads, of which 17.2 km were concreted; in Quy Chinh (Nam Dan), with the help of the parish priest, a 3,000m canal was built to drain waste from food processing villages worth nearly 200 million dong.

Responding to the call in the Joint Letter of the Vietnamese Bishops' Council "Living the Gospel in the heart of the nation", as the Holy Father said "Practicing charity is proclaiming the good news", in recent years, the virtue of charity in Catholicism has been promoted and become a beautiful feature in "living religion in the world" of Catholic monks and believers. Together with the people in the province, the Catholic community has participated in contributing to the construction and renovation of many martyrs' cemeteries, thousands of gratitude houses, great solidarity houses, supporting tens of thousands of working days, tens of thousands of tons of rice and other supplies and materials worth over 15 billion VND, contributing to alleviating pain, warming many unfortunate lives, and multiplying hope for many families. Typical examples include Father Nguyen Dang Dien - Parish Priest of Nghi Loc (Dien Hanh Commune, Dien Chau), Chairman of the Provincial Catholic Solidarity Committee, Provincial People's Council delegate for the 2011-2016 term, who founded the Center for Nurturing Disabled Children, receiving and caring for 42 children for many years; Xa Doai Lovers of the Holy Cross Monastery, which shelters and helps 62 disadvantaged disabled children, and annually donates 400 million VND to charity; Luu My Lovers of the Holy Cross Monastery annually donates 35 million VND to help leprosy patients. Mr. Chu Quang Hung in Dong Thap Parish has subsidized 5 poor households since 2011, 100,000 VND per month. Mr. Nguyen Van Hien in Lang Nam Parish donated 200 million VND to build a kindergarten... and many other kind hearts and noble deeds.

Realizing the harmony between "religion" and "life", many Pastoral Council members in parishes and sub-parishes have actively promoted and mobilized parishioners to fulfill their duties as citizens "to respect God, love the country, live a good life, and follow the State's policies and laws, and local conventions". They voluntarily act as a bridge between the government and parishioners, between society and the church to build a great national unity bloc. A typical example is Mr. Phung Trong Sang - who has been Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Bot Da Parish for 20 years, Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Bot Da District for 3 years, Head of the Catechism Committee of Bot Da District for 18 years and is currently a member of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee; Head of the Catholic Solidarity Committee, and a delegate of the People's Council of Do Luong District.

Or Mr. Duong Van Lich, formerly an excellent doctor, Deputy Director of Nghe An Children's Hospital, is currently the Director of Xa Doai Bishop's Palace General Clinic with many health care activities, free medicine distribution, charity, and humanitarian activities. He is also a member of the Vietnam Catholic Solidarity Committee for 3 terms, Vice Chairman of the Provincial Catholic Solidarity Committee, Member of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, Vinh City for 3 terms. There are party members of Catholic origin who are both children of God and party members, wholeheartedly serving the people, devoted to religion, to life, actively participating in the process of building cultural life in residential areas, developing and renewing the locality. Like the family of Mr. Tran Khac Mai - a lay party member, Secretary of Long Tien Party Cell, Cong Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh, has up to 7 lay party members (including father, brother, younger brother, 2 grandchildren, grandfather and 1 child). In 2011, Long Tien Party Cell admitted 4 lay party members, all of whom were of Youth Union age, including Youth Union Secretary Nguyen Van Ty - one of the typical religious youths commended and awarded by the Provincial Youth Union.

Of the 481 party members participating in religious activities, 222 are involved in the political system at all levels (accounting for 46.2%). Many are both village cadres and commune-level People's Council delegates. Some others are commune-level cadres and district-level People's Council delegates. 150 comrades (accounting for 31.2%) have been awarded the Party Badge... They have been affirming the awareness and civic responsibility of Catholics towards the development of their homeland. This is also completely consistent with the spirit of the 1980 Joint Letter of the Vietnam Bishops' Council "... Our patriotism must be practical, meaning that we must be aware of the current problems of our homeland, must understand the guidelines, policies and laws of the State, and actively contribute with our compatriots nationwide to protecting and building a prosperous, free and happy Vietnam...".

Khanh Ly - Thanh Le