Journals: Pilgrimage to Viet Nam (3)

4th Day

We left the hotel at eight o’clock. Fr. T wore a Roman collar for the first and the last time during our trip. We headed for the Archbishop’s residence in Ho Chi Minh City. On the way there, we passed by Unification Hall, the former official residence of the President, and – I’m not making this up! – a maternity hospital, where a family with two twin boys named Viet and Duc used to live.

The archbishop’s residence was built in 1887, but it was now used as a chapel. The chapel had a very quiet and prayerful atmosphere. The tabernacle was constructed in the style of traditional Vietnamese architecture. It was originally meant to be used in a prince’s study, and some of the decorations we could see reminded us of the old Kingdom of Vietnam.

On the fourth day of our tour, we listened to a talk by Cardinal Tuan and also one by the local parish priest.

Summary of a talk given by Cardinal Tuan

“The statue of Jesus in Takatori Catholic Church in Japan was brought to Japan from Vietnam by Vietnamese Christians, twenty years ago. I was greatly impressed when I heard that this statue was preserved intact following the fire in Nagata Ward which broke out during the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, despite the fact that the entire church was burnt down, and part of the bishop’s residence as well. Also, I was deeply moved to hear the true story of a mother who sacrificed her own life to save her child, during the earthquake. That spirit of self-sacrifice is the true spirit of Jesus.

“Several decades ago, I watched a Japanese movie about a mother whose life was completely devoted to supporting her four children. A mother like that is a powerful image of God’s love, and her life is a witness to God. If I ever get hold of that film, I will show it to our people here in Vietnam.

“I respect the culture of Japan, including its traditions and its code of manners. I would like to share whatever is good in Japanese culture with our people. When Japanese Christians were persecuted, the government confiscated the images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

One of the officers asked a Christian in prison why Jesus’ heart was painted outside of His body when it was really invisible. I reflected on this question for a while, and finally came up with this answer: true love forgets itself and is totally self-giving. After I was released, I gave my permission for an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be painted with blood flowing from the Heart, inscribed with these words.”

After his talk, the Cardinal gave us some gifts. There was a five-colored rosary and some leaflets for each of us, and also some images of the Heart of Jesus. All of these were designed according to the Cardinal’s inspiration. He had received a rosary from the Pope and that gave him the idea of designing a five-colored rosary. The colors are meant to represent the five continents, signifying that this rosary should be used by people all over the world. The colors have an additional symbolism.

yellow       for those who are economically poor;
red          for those who are culturally poor;
 white       for those who are spiritually poor;
 brown (or black in the rosary given out by the Pope) for those who suffer from poor health; and
 blue   for everyone to be united with God.

The cardinal explained that when you pray the Rosary, it is important “to taste the love of God with Mary” and “to pray for each other.” I will pray for Japan. I would ask you to please pray for Vietnam. Prayer is like water which is poured on a tree. Prayers bring harmony to your life, your family and the society you live in.

The parishioners told us that the images in the leaflet had been painted by a Vietnamese artist. The leaflet showed the 20 mysteries of the Rosary, including the five “luminous mysteries” approved by Pope John Paul II. The cardinal gave us the copyright for the translation into Japanese, but on condition that we ourselves did the translation.

Our tour guide happened to be a Catholic organist who played there on Sundays, and his wife happened to be a member of the church choir. They summoned all the choir members for Mass. I heard that they practiced after the 4:30 a.m. Mass. Most of them were self-employed, and they would get together even during their working hours. Some of our group joined the choir and sang a hymn in Japanese. It was an amazing experience.

The parish priest then introduced two couples to us. The first couple were both local parishioners. The wife, who was a nurse, was married to a Japanese husband, and it was her faithful example that caused him and his mother to get baptized into the Catholic Church.

The second couple were also members of the local church. The husband, who had studied in Japan for two and a half years, was Vietnamese and his wife was Japanese. These two couples are bridges between Vietnam and Japan. The parish priest is trying to find more Japanese Christians in his parish, and he hopes that he will be able to offer Mass in Japanese, in the future. He says it will be hard for him to learn Japanese in his seventies; nevertheless, it is his dream to offer a Japanese Mass.

I was greatly impressed by his fervor.

Summary of a talk given by the parish priest

“Like Bishop Tuan, I have spent 13 years in prison. After I was released, I was not allowed to go back to my parish, and I was sent instead to Ho Chi Minh Parish. Forty years have passed since that time. From 1965 to 1975, I stayed at the main seminary for priests, next to the convent of Mary Immaculate. In those days Bishop Tuan, who became the bishop of Nha Trang Diocese in 1967, often used to lecture there.

“I met him again in prison in 1975. After we were released, military chaplains were sent to the northern part of the country, and Bishop Tuan remained under house arrest. When I visited him in exile in Rome in 1997, we had our photo taken together. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to see him since then.

However, I still have a short letter from him, in which he writes: ‘I often remember the times when we used to have meals together in a Chinese restaurant. That restaurant is still standing, and I know they are waiting for us. If God wills it, we shall meet again. I am enclosing a photo of the International Bishops’ Congress in Rome, which was held in the Holy Year of 1975.’

“Bishop Tuan taught us Canon law at the main seminary for two years. The students came from different parts of the country and they asked him questions in their local dialects. The bishop always answered their questions in the same dialects. He also had a sense of humor.

 One day he told us: ‘In the future you will be priests, and you may even become bishops if God wills it. Here is my advice to you if you ever become a bishop. When you choose a secretary, don’t choose a good-looking, outgoing person because you will look bad by comparison. However, when you choose your vicar general, choose someone who radiates joy. He is the man whom people will have to deal with first, before they meet you, so people will expect that you will be a wonderful priest, too.’

“Before the bishop was appointed to Nha TRang Diocese, there was a certain priest who had been stubbornly resisting a transfer to another parish for a very long time. Now, it was the policy of Bishop Tuan that bishops had to spend half their time with the priests in their diocese, so the bishop had been keeping an eye on this priest for some time.

When he visited Rome, he sent the priest a holy card with a picture of his patron saint. On the card, the bishop had written a short, simple message: “I need the help of an experienced priest like you, who can give guidance to younger priests. That is why I am asking you to please get ready to move to another parish. I will tell you all about your new appointment when I return to my diocese.” When the bishop arrived back in his diocese, he found the priest, all ready for his transfer. The bishop knew how to deal with people.

“At the moment, I have three seminarists sent by Bishop I. from Osaka Diocese and Bishop M. from Ooita Diocese, in Japan. They are currently studying theology, philosophy and Japanese. I hope that Japan and Vietnam will continue to help each other, and I hope that this mutual giving will bear more fruit in the future.”

After Mass, they held a welcome party for us in the guest room of the church. The cardinal rode to our party on a motorbike, so he could join us. We drank a toast of red wine, followed by various traditional Vietnamese dishes, including a dessert that had been prepared by the people of the parish.

The church choir sang for us, and in return we sang “Standing in the wind on a hill in Galilee” in Japanese, in front of our tour guide, who was also the church organist. The cardinal left soon after the dinner. We gave the parish priest some gifts from Japan.

Next, we visited the Vietnam War Memorial Museum. It was built to remind people of the horrors of the Vietnam War, which finally ended in 1975, and to promote peace. We saw a replica of a prison cell. Bishop Tuan may have lived in such a cell back in those days, when he was under house arrest.

 At the museum, they used dolls to display the ways in which people were tortured during the war. I wondered: how could human beings have done such terrible things to one another? There were also some photos of naked children walking in the street with tears running down their cheeks. Some of these photos were famous, as they were featured in documentaries on the Vietnam War. A girl in one photo later went to Canada and became a doctor.

After that, we went to St. Mary’s Cathedral. We were a little early, as the cathedral gates did not open until three o’clock, so we decided to kill some time by going to the post office across the street. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they sold souvenirs there, so most of the people in our group did some shopping at the post office instead of mailing letters.

 After that, we had to cross the street to get back to the cathedral. This was a good opportunity for us to learn about traffic safety in Vietnam. It’s quite different from Japan. First, cars travel on the right, not the left. Second, you should never trust the traffic lights, because many motorists flout the law. And finally, when you are walking along the street or crossing the street, it is best to walk in a group, and you should always walk very slowly. If you run, it is very dangerous, because drivers of cars and motorbikes simply take it for granted that pedestrians will walk very slowly when crossing the street. Fr. T. told us that it is safer for people in a group to walk abreast. He gave us a demonstration of how you should cross the street slowly, in Vietnam. I have to say it looked rather like the way a drunken person might walk.

The cathedral was huge. Each station of the cross was in a separate little chapel, and there were different saints in each chapel, including St. Francis of Assisi and a Vietnamese martyr.

 We dropped by at a shop that sold rosaries and cards. We were astonished at the difference in prices between Vietnam and Japan. For instance, a CD in Vietnam costs 10,000 dong, which is only 80 yen or so. After shopping there, we visited the famous Ben Thanh market in Ho Chi Minh City.

We stopped there for about a quarter of an hour to do some shopping. Our guide warned us that tourists were often ripped off by unscrupulous merchants, and advised us to just look around. After that, we went to a department store.

We arrived at 4:20 p.m., and we didn’t have to leave until 5:30, so we had more than an hour to do some shopping there. We finally got back to the hotel shortly before 6 p.m., and then we had an hour’s rest.
    
At eight, we went out again, to a seafood restaurant named “Two Fish”. Before the meal, we all said grace together, for the first time on our tour. During dinner, we listened to a band playing songs on one-stringed banjos. The Vietnamese known for
one-stringed banjo is Dan Bau. The sound of the banjo was truly delightful. They even played a Japanese song for us.

(to continue)

[by N.K.; A.T.; H.F; J.S]