Vatican official meets Vietnam’s PM during historic diplomatic trip

Apr 19, 2024

 
By Courtney Mares
The Vatican’s foreign minister met with Vietnam’s prime minister in Hanoi on April 10 during the first high-level diplomatic visit by a Church official to the country since the Vietnam War.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states, spoke with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh about the possibility of Pope Francis becoming the first pope to visit the Southeast Asian country.

The Vietnamese state-run news agency reported that both Gallagher and the prime minister agreed “on the need to push ahead with high-level contacts, including Pope Francis’ visit to Vietnam.”

During his six-day trip to Vietnam, Gallagher visited Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hue, where he celebrated public Masses at the cathedrals in all three cities.

Gallagher met with his counterpart, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, on his first day in the country on April 9. He also met with seminarians in Hue and members of Vietnam’s bishops’ conference in Ho Chi Minh City before he left the country on April 14.

The high-level diplomatic visit comes amid a warming in Vatican-Vietnam relations. Within the last year, Vietnam has agreed to allow the Vatican to send an official papal representative to live in the country and open an office in Hanoi.

Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Marek Zalewski, a Polish Vatican diplomat, as the resident papal representative to Vietnam in December 2023.

Zalewski’s appointment was a historic step toward the possibility of someday establishing full diplomatic relations. Vietnam severed ties with the Holy See after the communist takeover of Saigon in 1975.

With the new appointment, Vietnam is the only Asian communist country to have a re-sident papal envoy live in the country. --CNA