|
Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
Van Thuan was born on April 17, 1928 at Hue, Viet Nam. Van Thuan
came from a family of martyrs. From 1885 to 1888, tens of thousands
of Catholics were killed by the van than militia, and among
them were Van Thuan’s relatives from the village of Phu Cam. Warned
of an imminent attatck, the Catholics of the village fled to their
church to pray. Van than surrounded the church and set
it ablaze and almost the entire community of Catholics died that
night, including the family of Thuan's grandfather. Among the survivors
were Thuan's great-grandmother, grandfather, who were not in Phu
Cam that night, and one great aunt who escaped the inferno.
Cardinal Van Thuan’s mother, who is still alive, played an important role in
his formation. He says of her, "She taught me stories from the Bible every
night, she told me the stories of our martyrs, especially of our ancestors;
she taught me love for my country. She was the strong woman who buried her brothers
massacred by traitors, whom she sincerely pardoned."
In 1941, Thuan joined An Ninh Minor Seminary and was ordained
on June 11, 1953. After six years of further studies in Rome, he
was successively faculty member and rector of the Seminary of Nha
Trang between the years 1959-1967.
He was appointed deputy archbishop of Saigon April 24, 1975. Within days of
his appointment, Saigon fell to the communist Viet Cong and a few months later,
the new bishop of Saigon was targeted for his faith as well as his family connection
to Ngo Dinh Diem, the assassinated South Vietnamese president. He was jailed
by the Communist government and spent 13 years in a communist ''re-education''
camp, nine of them in solitary confinement. He was never tried or sentenced.
Speaking again of his mother, Van Thuan said, When I was in prison, she was
my great comfort. She said to all, ‘Pray that my son will be faithful to the
Church and remain where God wants him.’"
During that time in prison, the bishop sought to console his people
by smuggling out messages to his people on scraps of paper. These
brief reflections, copied by hand and circulated within the Vietnamese
community, have been printed in the book The
Road of Hope. Another book, Prayers
of Hope, contains his prayers written in prison.
The bishop fashioned a tiny Bible out of scraps of paper. Sympathetic
guards smuggled in a piece of wood and some wire from which he crafted
a small crucifix.
How he survived the horror of that time is described in a little book Five
Loaves and Two Fish, made up of talks he gave to young people. He not only
survived, but emerged as a man of transparent integrity, calm serenity and joyful
hope. In his book The Way of Hope, Thoughts of Light from a Prison Cell,
Thuan wrote: ''In our country there is a saying: ‘A day in prison is worth a
thousand autumns of freedom.' I myself experienced this. While in prison, everyone
waits for freedom, every day, every minute. We must live each day, each minute
of our life as though it is the last.''
Van Thuan was freed on November 21, 1988 and forced into exile. He was received
by John Paul II into the Vatican, and ran the Pontifical Council of Justice
and Peace, handling issues such as Third World debt.
During the Jubilee Year 2000, the John Paul II invited him to preach the annual
retreat for the Pope and the members of the Roman Curia between March 12 and
18, 2000.
He asked Archbishop van Thuan to speak of his experience as one who could well
be called a living martyr, a witness to the Faith. The retreat talks were part
of the daily e-mail dispatches of Zenit, an international news agency. Through
this retreat, the world began to know Van Thuan and to hunger for his message
of hope.
His talks were later published under the title of Testimony
of Hope. The title is appropriate, for his talks all speak
of joy and hope, even in suffering and beyond the fear of death.
Van Thuan was created a cardinal deacon on February 21, 2001 and received the
red biretta and deaconry of S. Maria della Scala. Within a week, Viêt
Nam's Foreign Ministry eased restrictions and the Cardinal could enter his native
country with only routine immigration procedures and was afforded all the privileges
normally given to overseas citizens.
Nguyen Van Thuan died of cancer on September 16, 2002 in a clinic in Rome.
He was 74.
Although he was made a cardinal only last year, Thuan had already appeared
on lists of possible successors to Pope John Paul II, particularly by those
believing the next pontiff could come from a poor, non-European country. Vietnam
has the largest Roman Catholic community in Asia after the Philippines.
The funeral took place on September 20, 2002, at 5:30 p.m., in the altar of
the Confession of the Vatican basilica. Pope John Paul II presided
and preached the homily, the Ultima Commendatio and the Valedictio.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of State, concelebrated the mass
together with other cardinals.
 The
Miracle of Hope:
Life of Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace
By Andre Nguyen Van Chau
Written by a personal friend of Cardianl Thuan, this moving biography
chronicles the life of the man Pope John Paul II says was, “….marked
by a heroic configuration with Christ on the cross.” From
a communist jail cell, to Rome as the leader of the Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace, Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
remained a man of unshakable faith and undying hope.
Key Features
Author Profile
Dr. Andre Van Chau, former secretary general of the Swiss-based International
Catholic Migration Commission and himself a former refugee from Vietnam,
has committed his life to fighting for the dignity of refugees. Established
by the Holy See in 1951, ICMC is the operational arm of the Catholic Church
that coordinates direct practical aid for refugees, migrants and other displaced
persons worldwide.
Click here
for a brief sketch of Cardinal Van Thuan's biography in our interview with
author Andre Van Chau.
The Miracle of Hope
ISBN #4822-0
Paperback, 350 Pages
Price $19.95
Books Written By Cardinal Van Thuan Also Available:
Prayers
of Hope, Words of Courage
Testimony of Hope
The Road of Hope
Five Loaves and Two Fish
|
