Living the "gospel" with the nation

(Baonghean) -These days, the Christmas atmosphere is filling all parishes and churches in the whole province. On the roads leading to the parish churches and churches, lights and flowers are hung with garlands, star lanterns, and splendid Santa Claus to celebrate the important holiday of Catholics. People of parishes and churches enthusiastically welcome a peaceful and happy Christmas, in the spirit of "Living a good life, practicing good religion", "respecting God".patriotic”…

The lands where they are happy

In places where many Catholics live, the joy of welcoming Christmas seems to be multiplied when hearing stories about peaceful parishes, actively participating in building solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics, competing to develop the economy, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, build new rural areas and examples of Catholics living a good life and following the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI: "A good Catholic is also a good citizen".

Celebrating Christmas in Lam Dong hamlet, Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen). Photo: Mai Hoa

We visited the furniture workshop of Mr. Phung Trong Sang's family, a typical Catholic businessman and Chairman of the Pastoral Council of Bot Da Parish, Head of the Catholic Solidarity Committee of Do Luong District. The carpentry workshop is opened at home but usually has nearly 10 workers, the average income of each person is from 3 to 4 million VND/month, the main worker alone is approximately 10 million VND/month... Also thanks to the dynamism and diversity in economic development, the rate of rich and well-off households accounts for over 80%, the poor households are only 9 households, the average income reaches 15 million VND/year. In the excitement, Father Hoang Duc Luyen - the administrator of Bot Da parish shared that: Because life is increasingly prosperous, this year the parishioners celebrate Christmas peacefully and traditional activities are organized bustlingly and joyfully.

Coming to Anh Son district, we met Mr. Ho Sy Ngan, Head of the Catholic Solidarity Committee of Anh Son district - a God-fearing, patriotic Catholic who was awarded the First Class Resistance Medal and the Medal for the Great Solidarity Cause by the Party and the State. He proudly told us about the movement to build cultural villages and advanced residential areas in Catholic hamlets in the area, of which 3 hamlets stood out: Hamlet 7, Thach Son commune, Hamlet 9, Hung Son commune and Hamlet 10, Tuong Son commune. In 2013, implementing the movement of the entire people uniting to build a cultural life in residential areas, the number of families achieving the title of Cultural Family among Catholics reached 652 households, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. In addition, the movement to take care of children's education has received more and more attention and investment from many families, clans and localities.

Forms of encouragement of learning and talent have been and are being focused on, increasingly effective in encouraging children to study well such as: Drums for studying, families encouraging learning, associations encouraging learning... Every year, priests, parish committees, families and philanthropists have met in many forms, encouraged and given gifts to poor children who have made great efforts to improve their studies, building an average annual scholarship fund of nearly 60 million VND. In addition, thanks to dynamism in economic development, applying scientific and technological advances in production, many models of economic development, poverty reduction, and legitimate enrichment have emerged. A typical example is Mr. Tran Van Hien, a parishioner of hamlet 8, Hung Son commune, with a VACR model of tea, raw material forests, fish ponds, and barns, earning an annual income of 300 - 350 million VND; Mr. Hoang Huong, a parishioner of Khai Son commune, has invested nearly 3 billion VND to buy a 45-seat passenger car, running the Anh Son - Hanoi route...

In Nghi Trung commune (Nghi Loc), parishioners actively join hands with authorities at all levels to build new rural areas. Typically, in hamlet 8, where more than 90% of the population are parishioners, it is the leading unit in the whole commune in implementing the movement "All people unite to build a cultural life in residential areas" associated with building new rural areas. The main important goal is to build internal traffic roads and carry out land consolidation. Hamlet 8 chief, parishioner Dang Huu Luong said: "Another favorable thing is that we receive support from the parish priest, the pastoral council and the support of parishioners.

Many households have voluntarily donated land to build roads to beautify the village, including Mr. Luong who donated nearly 150 square meters of garden land, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, a member of the Fatherland Front Committee, volunteered to break down the fence and cut nearly 200 square meters of land to build roads, the families of parishioners Nguyen Thi Linh, Nguyen Thi Huong and 30 other households in the hamlet also voluntarily donated nearly 5,000 square meters, some less than a few dozen meters, some more nearly 200 meters. Joy came to the hamlet at the end of 2012, after 9 intra-hamlet traffic routes, the cultural house, the garbage dump, and the village gate were completed, the hamlet was also recognized as a cultural hamlet by the District People's Committee.

Coming to block 6 of Nghi Thuy ward, Mai Linh parish (Cua Lo town), the first impression for us is the concrete road stretching from the main road to the alleys to the households, on both sides of the road are spacious houses showing the well-off life of the parishioners here. The block has 152 households with 658 people, all Catholics. The parishioners always show the spirit of solidarity, love, creating conditions to help each other borrow capital to develop production and business, do tourism and export labor. Up to now, the whole block has 46 well-off households, 33 rich households, the rate of poor households accounts for 0.78%, 136 families have achieved the title of Cultural Family, charity movements, contributions to all kinds of people's funds in the block always meet and exceed targets.

The parishioners also pay great attention to improving the intellectual level of the people, so that all school-age children can go to school, reducing the rate of having a third child. The people have carried out the program of peace and security in the area well so that everyone can have a peaceful and happy life and have the responsibility to build a strong bloc in all aspects, becoming a typical example in the movement of solidarity in economic development, poverty reduction, and new rural construction of Cua Lo Town. In the joyful atmosphere of the Christmas holidays, we also heard many funny stories about the spirit of contributing to building new rural areas and building a new cultural life of the parishioners in Bao Thanh Parish (Bao Thanh, Yen Thanh); Quan Lang Parish (Tuong Son, Anh Son); Son La parish (Xuan Son, Do Luong) and typical examples such as 15 parishioners of block 6, Thu Thuy ward (Cua Lo town) of Yen Trach parish contributed 225 million VND and over 50 working days to build 175m of concrete road; parishioner Nguyen Duy Quynh's family in Xuan La hamlet (Nghi Dong, Nghi Loc) donated 700m2 of land to build a road...

"Living the faith in the world"

The Catholic community of Nghe An province currently has 53,843 households, 264,845 people (accounting for over 8%) of the province's population, with 10 deaneries, 88 parishes, 344 parishes living in harmony with the residential areas mainly in 14/20 districts and cities. In recent years, with the attention and support of authorities at all levels, the support of priests, parish councils, parishes, Catholic Solidarity Committee and Catholic Solidarity Committees, the Catholic community has been encouraged to strictly comply with the policies and laws of the state; local regulations; effectively carry out movements to build advanced parishes, build cultural villages, care for education, unite and help each other to preserve and promote traditional humanistic values, practice the lifestyle of exemplary grandparents and filial children; care for community health.

Catholics in parishes and churches actively work and produce, enrich themselves legitimately, help each other to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, contributing to raising the number of rich households among Catholics to 7,742, accounting for 14.5%; 18,718 well-off households, accounting for 32.5%, with 3,4946 households meeting the standards of cultural families, accounting for 65.7%. The implementation of the Population and Family Planning Ordinance is given attention, and the education of Catholic children is increasingly valued. In 2013 alone, 632 Catholic students were admitted to universities and colleges; 40 students were excellent students at the provincial and national levels. There are parishes and churches that have not had a third child or more for many consecutive years, such as Tri Le parish (Khai Son), Quan Lang parish (Tuong Son), Anh Son, Catholic hamlets 6 and 12 (Hung Phuc, Hung Nguyen) for 5 consecutive years without having a third child...

Responding to the call in the General Letter of the Vietnamese Bishops' Council to "live the Gospel in the heart of the nation", as the Holy Father said "Practicing charity is spreading the good news", in recent years, the virtue of charity in Catholicism has been promoted and become a beautiful trait in "living the faith 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 martyr cemeteries, thousands of gratitude houses, solidarity houses... contributing to alleviating the pain, warming the lives of many unfortunate people, and multiplying the hope of many families.

Realizing the harmony between "religion" and "life", many members of the Pastoral Council in parishes and sub-parishes have actively propagated and mobilized parishioners to fulfill their duties as citizens "to respect God, love the country, live a good life and follow the religion, strictly comply with the State's policies and laws, and local regulations. They voluntarily act as a bridge between the government and parishioners, between society and the church to build a great national unity bloc. Currently, there are 4 religious dignitaries participating in the commune-level Fatherland Front Committee, 2 priests participating in the Vietnam Catholic Solidarity Committee, 2 priests participating in the Provincial Catholic Solidarity Committee.

Consistent with the Party and State's policy of respecting freedom of religious belief, over the years, Party committees and authorities at all levels in the province have always supported and created conditions for Catholics to live and practice their religion in accordance with the provisions of the law and the Ordinance on Religious Beliefs. Party committees and authorities have also organized and implemented many programs and strategic goals for economic and social development, ensuring national security and defense in religious areas, improving the material and spiritual life of religious people. On important Catholic holidays such as Christmas, along with sending delegations to visit, congratulate, and share joy with priests, dignitaries, officials, key cadres and outstanding parishioners; Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and organizations also organized many exciting activities such as discussions, meetings with key cadres in religious areas; commending typical religious youth; typical typical parishioners in patriotic emulation movements for living a good life and a good religion; organizing Christmas parties; Visit and give gifts to disadvantaged areas... to encourage Catholics to fulfill their duties as citizens - Catholics who "respect God and love their country".

In fact, the majority of Catholics in Nghe An province are people who live the gospel, strictly comply with the Party's policies and the State's laws, and keep in mind "to devote themselves to serving others through good deeds and positive contributions to the socio-economic development of the province". However, there are still cases of Catholics violating the law, some dignitaries and officials in the church have not truly realized the harmony between religion and life, and have not cooperated with the Party Committee and the government to lead Catholics - citizens to live a good life and a good religion to "meet God in the heart of the nation", leading to unfortunate incidents that affect the solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics and the great national unity bloc.

Sharing the joy of Christmas 2013 with many good hopes for the coming new year, the government committees and the Catholic Solidarity Committee at all levels hope that the parishioners of all parishes will properly implement the pastoral direction of the Vietnam Bishops' Council, unite and accompany the nation, contributing to building a prosperous and happy life because "this homeland is where we are called by God to live as His children, this country is the mother's womb that carries us in the process of fulfilling our calling as children of God, this nation is the community that God has given us to serve as both citizens and members of God's People...".

Khanh Ly - My Ha