Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) More than 10,000 Vietnamese youth participated in an event held yesterday for World Youth Day at the Catholic cultural centre by the pastoral committee for youth of the archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City.
As proposed by Benedict XVI, the theme of the meeting was: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path".
At the beginning of the event, a message written by the Pope for WYD this year held at diocesan level was read out. Organizers gave much importance to a particular phrase in the papal message: "Dear youth, I exhort you to become familiar with the Bible, and to keep it close at hand, so that it may become for you as a compass, showing you the way to go."
The event took off at 4.30pm and finished at 8.30pm, but participants met outside the centre several hours before it started. They sang, prayed and read the Bible together as they waited for the celebration to begin.
Nguyen Van Son, a sociology student at Ho Chi Minh City, told AsiaNews: "This is a great opportunity to meet likeminded youth and to exchange experiences and opinions about our lives, as well as learning much about the Bible and its spirit."
"Life is hard here, but we young people keep our beliefs and protect the Church," said one youth waiting to gain admission with the rest. "We do not work for 'social position', because this would mean refusing our faith, renouncing Jesus' Love. These days, we are tempted by consumerism and atheism: we try, however, to face these temptations that threaten our social structure."
Another youth, who works in a nearby shop, told AsiaNews: "I want to become a Catholic because I have watched them for a long time and I want to be like them and participate in their activities. They make me feel hopeful for my future."
Ho Chi Minh City has a population of around eight million, out of which 800,000 are Catholics.
