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to Vietnamese Missionaries in Taiwan Home Page1. In the beginning, this practice was filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Fr Alexandre de Rhodes wrote in his memoirs: "I can say truthfully that nothing has moved me as when I saw that in this country the number of angels is as big as the number of Catholics".
2. "They loved each other so that their neighbours called them followers of the religion of mutual love".
1. Attendance in liturgical activities and reception of the sacraments are the most outstanding features of this practice of faith.
2. Paraliturgical activities and popular devotions such as dances for the offering of flowers, multicoloured floats in processions, Eucharistic exhibitions especially the recitation of the Rosary.
3. Learning the Word of God and catechism has developed into a widespread phenomenon in the northern Dioceses.
4. Practice of faith in life: their life offers such a model that the local authorities in many places with a high Catholic proportion often admit that "the security and order in the Catholic quarters are better and that less social problems can be found there".
5. Practice of faith through social services: like everyone else, the Vietnamese Catholics have adapted themselves to the environment in both the rural and urban areas, co-operating with others to build a new Vietnam with the motto of "rich people, strong nation and just and civilized society" fostered by the State and at the same time in the spirit "of living the Gospel in the midst of the nation", as fostered in the 1980 pastoral letter issued by the Vietnam Bishops' Conference.
1. To build a civilization of love especially for the poor.
2. To live humbly and abase oneself among the people according to the spirit of "anawim and pusillus grex" of God.
3. To dialogue with everybody even with the atheist, in finding the common good constructively.
4. To promote an authentic inculturation so that Catholics would feel more at home in practising their faith.
5. To link up with Churches around the world like sisters.
6. To hope that the opening up and renovation policies of the Vietnam Government will create more favourable conditions for the perfect practice of faith by Catholics in the whole of Vietnam.
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