Priest Tran Xuan Manh: Catholics always accompany the nation

(Baonghean.vn)- Catholics always accompany the nation, the heroic Vietnamese nation. Let's ask the question 'What have I done for the Fatherland?', 'What have I done for my beloved homeland Nghe An?'

That was the sharing of Priest Tran Xuan Manh - Acting Chairman of the Vietnam Catholic Solidarity Committee at the 7th Congress of Catholics for National Construction and Defense in Nghe An province, term 2017 - 2022.

Priest Tran Xuan Manh - Acting Chairman of the Vietnam Catholic Bishops' Committee spoke at the Congress. Photo: Chu Thanh

"Perhaps all of us clearly realize that before being a Catholic, I was Vietnamese. As a Vietnamese, a citizen of the country where our ancestors for more than 4,000 years have shed so much sweat, effort and blood to have what we have today, so we have the duty to build and protect our Fatherland. As Catholics, you and I consider it our determination to live our faith according to the direction that the Vietnamese Bishops' Council has set out for nearly 7 million Catholics in this land of Vietnam for the past 37 years. That is to live the gospel in the heart of the nation.

Thus, we need to constantly strive to live our faith according to the Pope's teachings: A good Catholic is also a good citizen. Being a good Catholic means constantly setting a good example for everyone according to Jesus's message. He wants us to become leaven, salt for the world, and light for the world so that everyone can see the good works of our brothers and sisters and glorify our Father - who is in heaven.

I would like to mention the words of Pope John Paul II: “Man is the way of the Church. Thus, man is the object of our service, serving with a spirit of humility, without profit, without personal gain, without indifference, without emotion, without heartlessness. Serving is for the public, serving is forgetting oneself, serving without asking for anything in return, serving without waiting for grace, serving for Christ.”

Priest Tran Xuan Manh - Acting Chairman of the Vietnam Catholic Bishops' Committee talks with leaders and Catholic people of Nghe An province. Photo: Chu Thanh

Serving according to the motto that the Vietnam Catholic Solidarity Committee always encourages and expects, including 6 words: "Accompanying, cooperating, sharing". I also want to emphasize the 2 words harmony, harmony between religion and life, harmony between church and society.

Let us follow the guidance: “Dialogue should not be confrontational, should not create hot spots, unexpected points”. When there are problems in life and religion, we should dialogue, which means meeting to discuss and find peaceful and satisfactory solutions for all work, reasonable, emotional, beneficial to life and religion, to the peace of the country, of this lovely and lovable homeland of Nghe An.

Therefore, Catholics always accompany the nation, the heroic Vietnamese nation. Only when the country is in chaos can we know the loyalty of our subjects, only when the family is poor can we know the filial piety of our children. Each of us must be a filial child to our ancestors and a loyal citizen to our Fatherland. We should not ask the question “What has the Fatherland done for me?” but instead ask the opposite question “What have I done for the Fatherland?” and more specifically “What have I done for my beloved homeland, Nghe An?”.

Each of us should always be happy when the Fatherland calls our name. If the enemy tries to sabotage us 24/7, we are determined to unite and be vigilant 365/365 days a year to destroy all the dark and cunning plots of our nation's enemies.

I hope that, when returning home, the delegates sitting here will quickly bring love to places of hatred, forgiveness to places of insult, peace to places of conflict, and truth to places of error, as the Peace Prayer chanted at the opening of our congress. Then, together with the entire people, unite to build new rural areas and civilized urban areas, and live a good life and a virtuous life."

(Excerpt from Father Tran Xuan Manh's speech at the Congress)

PV Group