First national conference honours outstanding Catholics

The first national conference honouring good examples within the Catholic community for 2010-2015 was held in Ho Chi Minh City on September 30.

In his speech, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan extended congratulations to 180 Catholic priests and followers who made outstanding achievements in the patriotic emulation movement.

He expressed his wish that the Vietnam Committee for Solidarity of Catholics (VCSC) and the Vietnamese Catholic community would continue spreading the patriotic emulation movements in the future.

Nhan lauded the VCSC for its effective operations in recent time, upholding its role as a member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and a bridge linking Catholics together, contributing to building great national unity.

According to the VCSC, patriotic emulation movements and campaigns initiated by the Vietnam Fatherland Front have taken root among Catholic communities nationwide and yielded fruits in political and socio-economic fields over the past five years.

Many Catholic communities have become outstanding examples in the cause of economic development, reducing poverty, ensuring social security and safety, fighting social evils and corruption as well as conducting charity.

In the northern province of Ninh Binh, all parishes registered to join the campaigns “Cultural village”, “Cultural residential area” and “Cultural families.”

In many localities, parishioners have donated tens of billions of VND and hundreds of voluntary working days to build rural roads.

Over the past five years, Catholic followers across the country have raised in excess of 600 billion VND (27.2 million USD) for charity cause.

On the occasion, outstanding individuals were awarded with certificates of merit from the Prime Minister, the VFF Central Committee and the VCSC.-VNA