Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng is expected to visit the Vatican later this month for the signing of an agreement that will allow the Holy See to appoint a permanent representative in Hanoi, the Reuters news agency reported yesterday, citing high-ranking Vatican sources.
President Thưởng, who took office last March, should meet Pope Francis in Rome. The last time a Vietnamese head of state, then President Trần Đại Quang, met with the pontiff was in 2016.
The Holy See and Vietnam have been negotiating on a permanent papal representative for some time. The Holy See already has a non-permanent representative to the Southeast Asian country, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, who is the nuncio to Singapore and is authorised by the Vietnamese government to visit the country.
An agreement in principle for a permanent office in Hanoi was reached last year. Now, the deal can be implemented. The last time the Holy See had a permanent representative was in 1975 when the apostolic delegate to Vietnam was expelled by the communist government.
Although a major step forward, the presence of a permanent representative falls short of full diplomatic relations.
The issue is relevant also for relations between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China. Seen from the Vatican, the Vietnam deal could serve as a pragmatic model for relations with Beijing.
Opening “a permanent Holy See liaison office in China” to order to open a “dialogue and respectful exchange” is one of the requests made by the Vatican Secretary of State, Card Pietro Parolin in an interview with Vatican media on Saturday after Pope Francis decided to appoint Joseph Shen Bin as bishop of Shanghai ending the canonical irregularity created by Beijing.
As one might have expected, no Chinese Catholic website controlled by the Communist Party of China has reported the pope’s decision, nor have the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association or the diocese itself.
Even Xinde ignored the news. Usually, the online Catholic paper covers the pontiff's activities; for example, just a week ago, it described as a "double gift" the appointment of Bishop Stephen Chow of Hong Kong as a cardinal and as a member of the synod.
This time, there was nothing on the matter, not necessarily because it deems it irrelevant to Catholics in China, but out of self-censorship, the umpteenth time an episcopal appointment appears as a Chinese internal affair, despite the agreement with the Holy See.
