Msgr. Stanislas Nguyên Duc Vê, Vicar-General of Huê Diocese will attend. He told AsiaNew: "We expect about 100,000 pilgrims from around the country. And we are happy that this pilgrimage will occur at the same time as the Pope's visit to Lourdes. It is a beautiful thing to celebrate the Assumption together with the Pope. We pray for the Church, for the whole universal Church, and for the complete freedom of the Church in Vietnam."

Our Lady of La Vang is one of the better known and visited sanctuaries in Asia. Despite heavy government restrictions on the Catholic Church thousands of pilgrims make the journey to La Vang every year for the Feast of the Assumption.

In 1998 on the bicentennial of the first apparition more than 200,000 people came in spite of government constraints and a campaign against sanctuary and pilgrimage. At that time the authorities advised against travel because of alleged "security considerations" and warned travel agencies against selling tickets to pilgrims.

The sanctuary was erected where Our Lady appeared to a group of Catholics fleeing persecution after Vietnam's King Canh Minh issued an edict in 1798 against Catholic churches and sanctuaries. Many Christians took refuge in the jungle near Quang Tri village, 60 km (38 miles) from the former imperial capital of Huê in central Vietnam.

One evening, the refugees gathered to say the Rosary when a woman in a long cape, a child in her arms, appeared saying she was the Mother of God.

She spoke to comfort them, encouraged them to bear the burden of their faith in Christ, and told them to use the leaves from the surrounding trees and wild plants as food.

"All those who shall come to this place to pray shall be heeded and their prayers answered," Our Lady told them.

Eventually, more pilgrims started coming to the sanctuary in the mountain. A small chapel was first built in 1820 only to be destroyed in 1885 at the end of long wave of anti-Christian persecutions (more than 100,000 Christians died over 65 years).

Rebuilt the following year the chapel was consecrated by Bishop Gaspar in 1901 and before a congregation of 12,000 faithful Our Lady of La Vang was proclaimed the Patron Saint of Vietnam's Catholics.

In 1928, a new, bigger church, built to accommodate an increasing number of pilgrims, was consecrated before a crowd of 20,000 people.

In 1959, La Vang was declared the National Sanctuary on the tricentennial of Christianity's arrival in Vietnam. Two years later John XXIII raised it to the rank of minor basilica. However, the sanctuary was destroyed in 1972during the war between the North and the South.

A national pilgrimage takes place every three years and proved to be an important event during the country's long decades of division.

In 1988, when he beatified 117 Vietnamese martyrs, John Paul II reiterated the importance of Our Lady of La Vang to Vietnamese Catholics. He expressed his hope that the sanctuary would be rebuilt to celebrate the bicentennial of Our Lady's apparition but so far the Vietnamese government has prevented its reconstruction. Only a small building stands where the church once stood forcing most pilgrims to gather and pray in the opposite square.

Blessed by Popes, Our Lady of La Vang's role in joining Vietnam's Catholics to the Universal Church explains the government's attitude and actions.

For Card. Pham Dinh Tung, Archibishop of Hà Nôi, La Vang is "a bastion of the Church in Vietnam". (LF)