Peaceful Tan Cao Catholic village

(Baonghean) - Tan Cao is an all-Catholic hamlet in Dien Nguyen commune (Dien Chau). In recent years, Tan Cao hamlet has always been a bright spot in patriotic emulation movements and building a cultural lifestyle (the hamlet has achieved the cultural title for 9 consecutive years). In particular, Catholic households in the hamlet have always actively promoted solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics, increased mutual support, and promoted neighborly love, contributing to making Dien Nguyen a culturally standardized commune for many consecutive years.

Tan Cao hamlet has changed a lot now, the village roads and alleys have been concreted running between rows of spacious tile-roofed houses. Mr. Dang Minh Ngoc, the hamlet chief of Tan Cao hamlet, led us to visit the village and said: “This is the 9th year that Tan Cao hamlet has maintained the title of cultural hamlet. We are actively promoting the people to carry out movements well, build a cultural life to continue to maintain this title.”

Tan Cao - Catholic village has maintained the title of cultural village for 9 consecutive years.

Tan Cao is a Catholic hamlet with 221 households. The people here mainly do agriculture, many families do other jobs such as trading, construction, labor export... thanks to that, the people's lives are increasingly improved. Up to now, only 9% of the families in the hamlet are poor; in the hamlet there are many effective economic development models. The family of Dang Tai Dai is one of the typical examples. Both husband and wife are farmers, but Dai's family has a spacious property that any farmer would dream of. Previously, Dai's family was a poor household, in order to have money to send his children to school, he tried hard to borrow capital to do scrap business. Thanks to that, his family's monthly income is now over 10 million VND, becoming a well-off household in the commune.

In addition to focusing on economic development, local people are always highly aware of the movement of solidarity to build a cultural life. Up to now, over 80% of households have achieved the title of cultural family. The family of Mr. Nguyen Trong Lo stands out. Although the family's economy mainly depends on agriculture, he and his wife always try to take care of their children's education. Mr. Lo shared: "Despite difficulties and hardships, my family always focuses on taking care of our children's education. Up to now, my children have all passed their studies and have stable jobs. Now they can take care of and support their parents. Besides, I always teach my children and family members to always be united and love each other. That is the motivation for everyone to strive to build a warm family."

Thanks to the active participation of the Hamlet Executive Committee in coordination with the Parish Executive Committee, in recent years, parishioners in the hamlet have always raised their responsibility in contributing to the construction of local public works. “We have proactively linked the movement “All people unite to build a cultural life” with the contents of the Campaign “Living a good life, beautiful religion” through many popular mobilization methods. Up to now, most families in the hamlet have participated in donating land and contributing labor to open roads. In 2013, each household voluntarily donated over 30m2 of land to build cultural works and roads in the hamlet.” – Mr. Dang Xuan Khiem – Head of the Dong Phu Parish Committee – Phi Loc Parish (Tan Cao hamlet) said.

Responding to the movement to build a cultural lifestyle in the village, every year, Catholic households participate in signing a commitment to prevent social evils, ensure security, order and traffic safety. Thanks to that, the Catholic hamlet is always peaceful, people are confident in developing the economy, and their lives are improved. As the only Catholic hamlet in the commune, the Catholics here always live in harmony with non-Catholics in other hamlets. Mr. Bui Duc Hoa - Head of the Cultural Committee of Dien Nguyen commune said: "People in the commune, especially Catholics, always promote the spirit of helping each other, solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics to build a new lifestyle together. In the movements and cultural, artistic and sports activities of the commune, Tan Cao hamlet is one of the leading units. Exchange activities between units in the commune are all positively responded to by the people. This is an important basis contributing to building a common great solidarity bloc, thereby increasingly improving the lives of people in the commune in all aspects".

Dinh Nguyet