The beauty of Mau Lam Parish

(Baonghean) - The movement "Living a good life and upholding moral values," and "Respecting God and loving the country" is being implemented with the collective effort and unity of Catholic parishioners in Mau Lam parish (Nghi Lam, Nghi Loc). This contributes to building a warm and peaceful parish...

Visiting the Mau Lam Parish at a time when the commune had just successfully held its Party Congress and the people, both Catholic and non-Catholic, were enthusiastically renovating village roads and alleys in preparation for the commune's achievement of the New Rural Area standard at the end of August 2015, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Trung, the religious affairs officer of Nghi Lam commune, happily told us: "As a commune with a large Catholic population, the entire commune currently has 471 Catholic households with 1,840 people, accounting for 20% of the commune's total population. Within the commune, there is one Mau Lam parish and three sub-parishes: Mau Lam, Tan Giai, and Van Phong; all 19 hamlets have Catholic residents, therefore all activities of the Catholic and non-Catholic people are united and harmonious." To give an example, in the movement "All people unite to build a cultured life in residential areas," and "living a good life and upholding moral values," it was determined that for the movement to have depth and strong impact, economic development was the breakthrough element. The Fatherland Front Committee actively participated, coordinating with various departments, agencies, and organizations to encourage Catholic parishioners to boldly transform the structure of crops and livestock, change cropping seasons, and apply scientific and technological advancements to production and animal husbandry. Exploiting all the potential advantages in the area and taking advantage of the attention of the Party and the State, over the past five years, many exemplary Catholic parishioners have emerged in economic development, transforming the structure of crops and livestock, applying science and technology to production, supporting each other in economic development, and raising well-behaved and academically successful children... such as Mr. Chien's household in Hamlet 4, Ms. Nguyet's household in Hamlet 16 (belonging to Mau Lam Parish), Mr. Thuan's household in Hamlet 2 (Tan Giai Parish)...

Officials from the Fatherland Front of Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc district) discuss work with the Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Mau Lam Parish.

One of the exemplary cultural families of Mau Lam Parish for many years is that of Mr. Nguyen Van Trung (born in 1967) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong (born in 1968). Mr. Trung is currently the Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Mau Lam Parish. Mr. Trung said: "In implementing economic restructuring and applying science and technology to production, my family, as well as other parishioners' families in Mau Lam Parish, have actively taken the lead in responding. For example, my family used to only have a few acres of leased land, and if we only grew rice, we couldn't make ends meet. In recent years, thanks to the decisive guidance of the commune government, the people of Mau Lam Parish have introduced shallots to replace peanuts, which were unsuitable for the local soil. Mr. Trung's family currently has 2 acres of shallots (1 acre yields an income of 20 million VND/season)." Along with restructuring their crop patterns, Trung's family boldly invested in plows and harrows to serve both their family and neighbors in the commune. To achieve a stable life, the most important thing for Trung and his wife is unity and agreement. From deciding to have only two children to raise them well, to introducing mechanization into production and adopting high-yield crop structures, everything was carefully discussed between them. In addition, they also raise chickens, ducks, and pigeons. A stable economy has greatly facilitated Trung's participation in both religious and secular affairs.

As the Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Mau Lam Parish, Mr. Trung has directly campaigned and disseminated the policies and guidelines of the Party and State to parishioners' families through meetings of mass organizations, farmers' associations, and church services. As a result, the parishioners of Mau Lam have understood and fully implemented almost all the movements launched by the government, fulfilling their duties as citizens and faithful followers of God and the country.

Currently, the average income of Catholic parishioners reaches 31 million VND/person/year. As the economy develops, the cultural and spiritual life of the parishioners is also given more attention. In recent years, the Fatherland Front Committee of the commune has coordinated with mass organizations and parish councils to effectively promote and encourage parishioners to adopt new cultural practices in weddings and funerals. Environmental sanitation, keeping villages and alleys clean, is a priority for the parishes by encouraging each family to have a garbage pit in their garden and to avoid littering. The Women's Union is tasked with overseeing and regularly inspecting this work.

Parishes and congregations have established and maintained cultural, artistic, and sports clubs to guide parishioners, especially young people, towards healthy recreational activities. As a result, 85% of Catholic families achieve the title of "Culturally Advanced Family" annually. Many villages with Catholic communities are consistently recognized as "Culturally Advanced Villages" at various levels. The parishioners also place great importance on improving their educational level, resulting in 100% of children of school age attending school, over 90% graduating from all levels, and students passing university and college entrance exams every year. Many Catholic families have two or three children attending university or college, such as the family of Mr. Sang (Hamlet 5, Mau Lam Parish), Mr. Tin (Hamlet 18, Tan Giai Parish), etc.

Upholding the tradition of mutual support and compassion, and following the teachings of God, the Catholic community in Nghi Lam has actively supported and built "Gratitude and Repayment" and "For the Poor" funds. Over the past five years, parishioners have donated money and labor to repair and build three "Great Solidarity" houses for needy Catholic families, and provided breeding cows to two households with a total of 12 million VND.

Mr. Phan Van Hieu, Chairman of the Nghi Lam Commune People's Committee, affirmed: "In recent years, the Catholic community in Mau Lam Parish has always followed the Party and State's guidelines and policies, living the Gospel within the nation. It must be acknowledged that Nghi Lam's rapid and sustainable achievement of the new rural development goals is also due in no small part to the contributions of the Catholic parishioners in the commune. Since the implementation of the new rural development program, the village management boards have proactively collaborated with the parishes to widely disseminate information among the parishioners, making them aware of their role as key players in the new rural development effort. During each religious service, the Parish Council incorporates the dissemination of the Party's guidelines and policies. One of the highlights of Mau Lam Parish is the enthusiastic participation in the movement to utilize local resources for rural road construction. The parishioners have taken the lead throughout the commune in donating assets and labor to build inter-village roads." For the cross roads within the village, the villagers voluntarily contributed money to pave them with concrete, so the government did not need to provide any support.

Thanks to the successful implementation of the movement to build a cultured life in residential areas, the lives of Catholic parishioners in Mau Lam parish are increasingly improving, the number of well-off and wealthy households is rapidly increasing, and religious activities are becoming more diverse, creating conditions for parishioners to feel secure, enthusiastic, and actively participate in labor and production.

Thanh Thuy