Archbishop Cardinal Pham Minh Man launched the Jubilee Year 2010 on November 23 with a call on the Vietnamese Catholics community to show love to each other and to all for the development of the nation and society as a whole.

The opening ceremony for Vietnam ’s Jubilee Year 2010 was held at the So Kien parish church in Kien Khe town, Thanh Lien district, the northern province of Ha Nam .

The ceremony, held by the Vietnam Catholic Church, was attended by Cardinal Roger Atchegaray, Vice-Dean of the Vatican ’s College of Cardinals, 60,000 local Catholic followers, representatives from 26 dioceses nationwide as well as foreign Catholic organisations, and officials from the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Government Committee for Religious Affairs and Ha Nam ’s authorities.

Ha Van Nui, Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee, said the VFF has always valued the active contributions the Catholic followers have made to the national great unity bloc and the nation’s struggle for liberation and reunification.

Upholding the motto of “living religious and secular life in harmony” and “accompanying with the nation”, the Catholic followers have continued to stand shoulder to shoulder with the nation in surmounting difficulties and challenges to achieve economic growth, maintain political stability and heighten the country’s prestige in the global arena in the renewal cause, the VFF leader said.

In a letter announcing the Year to Catholics, Chairman of the Episcopal Council of the Catholic Church in Vietnam , Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, called upon Catholics to be good citizens and actively participate in building a just and equal society, which will contribute to human and social development.

The opening ceremony of the Jubilee Year 2010, which mark the 50 th anniversary of the establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Vietnam and the 350 th anniversary of the founding of the northern and southern dioceses,
will run through November 24, 2009.

The closing ceremony of the Year will be organised on January 6, 2011 at the La Vang Parish in the central province of Quang Tri./.