The Diocese of Vinh, Vietnam, ordained 34 new priests on July 25, and Bishop Alphonso Nguyen Huu Long says he has decided to send half of these new priests to needy dioceses.
In the context of the scarcity of priests, and while the population suffers severely from the pandemic and other causes, after a prayer discernment, I have decided to share half of these new priests with isolated territories, in other dioceses that lack priests.
In particular, they will be ‘fidei donum’ in the diocese of Hung Hoa, in North Vietnam, which covers 10 provinces in mountainous and lowland areas with about 250,000 faithful but with a limited number of priests.
According to the Fides agency, the bishop said that his diocese is “happy to share this precious gift with places where people desperately need a priest.”
We ask our new priests to dedicate their lives to service and to the glory of God until the rest of their lives, not worrying about where they will live, but only thinking about bringing souls to God.
The expression Fidei Donum is Latin for ‘the Gift of Faith.’ This is the name of the 1957 encyclical of Pius XII, which called on all bishops “to face the challenges of the universal mission of the Church,” not only by means of prayer and assisting each other but also by making priests available to other dioceses, countries, and continents.
And today we celebrate...