Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - Women's Day is deeply felt in Vietnam, where an ancient proverb says that the mother is " Thiên chức”, close to the role of God, and another that" mẹ nào cũng thương con "will love you always. Today, on the streets, poor and students sell flowers.

A special group of women known as " Hiệp hội các bà Mẹ Công giáo”, the Association of Catholic mothers, is active in the Archdiocese of Saigon and its numerous parishes. In Định Tan, one of its members is president of the Pastoral Committee, in others they are in charge of pastoral organizations, secretaries, choir leaders and more.

The Association is primarily a group of apostolate: they offer their support to all families of the parishes, elderly priests, nuns who are sick. Last year they also paid the school fees for seminarians and made contributions to sick, elderly living alone with social and voluntary activities to the tune of 1,068,866,000 đồng, about 35 thousand euro.

In 17 parishes in the area of Chí Hòa, the Association has 1,630 members. They have a monthly Mass during which they pray for the Church and for society, organize seminars to share working experiences, they carry out pastoral and social activities in the parishes as well as missionary activities.

The development of Catholicism in this country is also a history of the Association’s sacrifice, work and contributions. They are witnesses to the faith in God, the people and the Church. They are also among the 117 Martyrs of Vietnam and the hundreds of thousands of people who died to show their faith and defend the Church for the growth of the Church and society today.