Pope Francis appoints a 56-year-old biblical scholar, vice-rector of Ho Chi Minh City's major seminary, to join Msgr Cosme Hoàng Văn Ðạt to guide the populous northern diocese where there are just 140,000 Catholics.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) On Saturday Pope Francis appointed Fr Joseph Do Quang Khang as coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Bắc Ninh, in northern Vietnam. To date he was the vice-rector of St Joseph's Major Seminary in Ho Chi Minh City, northern Vietnam. As coadjutor bishop, he will join 74-year-old Jesuit Cosme Hoàng Văn Ðạt in leading the diocese.
The new bishop was born on 7th November 1965 in the Thủ Đức district of Ho Chi Minh City. He is the eighth child in a family of ten brothers and sisters. He studied at the College of Pedagogy in Hồ Chí Minh City and worked as a teacher in his hometown. He entered the seminary in 1993 and was ordained a priest on 30 June 1999 by Cardinal Jean Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn.
After serving as parish vicar in Chợ Đũi, he studied biblical theology first at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse in France and then in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, where he obtained a licence in Sacred Scripture.
On his return to Vietnam in 2010, Mgr Joseph Đỗ Quang Khang taught Sacred Scripture and Biblical Greek at St Joseph's Major Seminary in the former Saigon, at the Catholic Institute of Vietnam and at some local congregations.
The Catholic community is a small minority in the province of Bắc Ninh, which is home to over 9 million citizens: 140,000 baptised Catholics account for 1.38% of the population. The diocese relies on the service of about 100 priests for a total of 77 parish churches and 263 chapels.
Many young couples are forced to emigrate from this region of Vietnam to the cities in search of work. As a result, in most cases it is the grandparents who raise their children.
The appointment of the coadjutor bishop was greeted with joy by the young Catholics of the Bắc Ninh diocese: "We thank God for this gift," they told AsiaNews, "even before his arrival, each of us is already praying for Msgr Joseph Đỗ Quang Khang".