Lam Thanh Catholic village lives "good life, good religion"

(Baonghean) - As a Catholic hamlet with 476 households and nearly 900 people, over the years, the parishioners of Lam Thanh hamlet, Lam Xuyen parish, Nam Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) have always promoted the spirit of living a "good life and good religion", "respecting God and loving the country", strictly following all policies of the Party and laws of the State, actively participating in local movements...

We arrived at Lam Thanh Cultural Village when the parishioners were actively completing the concreting of a rural road over 1 km long and 3.5 m wide according to the commune's policy. Along both sides of the road, piles of sand and gravel were scattered. Mr. Vu Van Quynh - Village Chief excitedly said: The parishioners all understand that to improve their lives, transportation must first be convenient, so they are willing to contribute manpower and resources to build roads to facilitate travel, production and beautify the village and parish.

We learned that although the land here is narrow and the population is large, the movement to donate land to open roads is still going strong. The parishioners have contributed 600,000 VND each and voluntarily cut down trees, dismantled fences, and built solid structures to widen the roads without asking for any compensation or support from the locality. From the beginning of 2013 until now, 12 households have donated 309 square meters of land on the Xuan market islet route; 8 households have donated 120 square meters of land on the Trung Long route.

Typically, the family of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hong donated 39 m2, Mr. Dieu donated 53.2 m2, Mr. Tran Cong Ngai - Deputy of the Executive Committee donated 20.3 m2. Particularly, the family of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Bau - who has two houses on the street donated nearly 70 m2 of land and voluntarily removed the solidly built fence to build the road. Mr. Bau shared: "I have been the Chairman of the Lam Xuyen Village Council for 20 years, now I am an advisor to the Village Council, so I have the responsibility to encourage my children and grandchildren to implement the State's policy well: Building roads is for people to travel, after all, if traffic is difficult, the economy cannot develop."

Mr. Bau is the younger brother of priest Nguyen Dinh Sang - a son of Nam Thanh who studied and achieved success abroad but always turned to his hometown and actively contributed to building his homeland through concrete actions. Mr. Sang supported the commune with funds to build schools, build rural roads, purchase medical equipment... He also paid special attention to and cared for the parish, both materially and spiritually.

From supporting the construction of churches, water plants, community centers, contributing with the government to build a spacious, clean and beautiful cultural house in the hamlet... to meet the daily living, entertainment, cultural and artistic needs of the people and on important holidays. Mr. Sang is also the one who initiated the learning movement of the children of Lam Thanh parish through advising, teaching and raising funds to encourage learning and reward students with high academic achievements.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Diem - Chairman of the Village Council, Vice Chairman of the Elderly Association of Lam Thanh Village, said: Before 1993, it was difficult for the village to find high school students to reward, but now the village has 40 children studying at university and college, many families have 2-3 children studying at university. In 2013 alone, 4 children passed the university entrance exam... In addition to the village's general scholarship fund, the fund for the youth of the village, the large clans all have scholarship funds, promptly encouraging and rewarding their children on the occasion of holidays, New Year, and the beginning of the new school year. On the occasion of Mid-Autumn Festival this year, the village organized a reward for 90 good and studious students...

In daily life, the parish priest, the parish pastoral council, the parish committee and the elderly always harmoniously combine religious and secular work, set an example, and teach their children and grandchildren to practice a cultural lifestyle, build a harmonious and warm village and neighborhood relationship, study hard, work hard, and stay away from social evils. Following the advice of Pope Benedict XVI that "a good Catholic must first be a good citizen", every week the youth in Lam Thanh parish have 2 activities, any child who makes a mistake at school, in class or swears in society... is informed to their parents, and if they are reminded many times and do not correct it, they are criticized in front of the whole parish.

Patriotic emulation movements, humanitarian charity, culture, arts, sports, environmental sanitation... are voluntarily carried out by parishioners and achieve high efficiency. Along with participating in the activities of associations and groups in the parish according to religious rituals, parishioners also actively participate in mass organizations in the hamlet suitable to their age and actual conditions. Many members of the parish executive committee and parish pastoral council also hold additional positions such as deputy hamlet head, branch head of the farmers' association, branch head of the elderly association, head of the inspection committee, branch head of the war veterans' association... and all have fulfilled both secular and religious work well.

As a purely agricultural hamlet with more than 90% of the population engaged in agricultural production, in recent years, Lam Thanh parishioners have focused on transforming the structure of crops and livestock; applying scientific and technological advances to production, combining the development of occupations, trade services, production of construction materials, raising livestock and poultry, developing carpentry, buying passenger vans, forming groups of masons and builders to create jobs for many workers. In the area, there are many typical examples of good economic performance such as the construction, raising livestock, and purchasing agricultural products model of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh's family, which has an average income of hundreds of millions of VND, creating jobs for about 15 workers, mainly children in the hamlet.

Or like Mr. Nguyen Dinh Bau, despite his old age (74 years old), he still bid for 3.5 hectares of deep land combined with standard land to form an 8.5-hectare farm to dig a pond to raise fish and raise commercial frogs for high income; then Village Chief Vu Van Quynh with a model of raising pigs, chickens and more than 1 hectare of rice fields with high productivity... Currently, the village has 30 rich households, 35 well-off households, 10 poor households, 50 households have children working abroad, the average income per capita is 16 million VND/year. In the past 3 years, the village has 45 families building new houses, including 15 high-rise buildings worth billions of VND...

Frog farming model of parishioner Nguyen Dinh Bau in Lam Thanh hamlet (Nam Thanh - Yen Thanh).

Talking to us, Mr. Phan The Trung - Chairman of Nam Thanh Commune People's Committee said: Lam Thanh Catholic hamlet, Lam Xuyen parish is a model Catholic hamlet, the parishioners always create conditions for their children to study properly, comply with all policies of the local government, actively develop the economy, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty; at the same time, seriously implement the contributions according to regulations, there are no cases of delay or stagnation of products. Imbued with the lifestyle of "good life, beautiful religion", "respect God and love the country", over the past 8 years, the hamlet has maintained the title of Cultural Village and become a typical example in the new rural construction movement in the locality.

Leaving Lam Thanh with the ringing of church bells, we felt warmed by the peaceful, warm, happy life and the close, friendly, and harmonious feelings of the Catholic people.

Gia Huy - Mai Hoa