The Spirit Keeps on Moving!

Pope John Paul the Great challenged communism on the only grounds in which it was vulnerable: the spiritual. His rallying of the Catholic identity of his beloved Poles launched the firestorm that was Solidarity. Well, the Spirit still moves his Church where he wills. The Vatican made the most of another opportunity to promote the Faith in the face of Communism.

NZ Herald has the story here!

In a first for communist and officially atheist Vietnam, the Vatican ordained 57 Vietnamese priests yesterday, urging them to convert more people in the southeast Asian nation to Catholicism.

"They will be like Jesus here," Cardinal Cresezio Sepe, head of the Vatican's missionary arm, told a cheering crowd of several thousand at a ceremony in Hanoi Cathedral, a Gothic edifice built by Vietnam's French colonial rulers in the heart of the capital.

"Those who have not heard about Jesus should listen to these priests," he said. "Of the 80 million Vietnamese, only 6 million are Catholics."

Sepe was the first ranking Vatican official to be allowed to ordain priests in Vietnam, a reflection of the steadily improving ties between Hanoi's communist government and the Roman Catholic Church.

Leaders of Vietnam's Catholic Church, which dates back to French colonial days, were given blanket approval to travel to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. They also received messages of sympathy from top Communist party leaders.

Before the ceremony, Sepe, in his white robes and bright red cardinal's hat, walked through the narrow streets of Hanoi, packed with thousands of well-wishers, some of whom had travelled from 150km away to witness the ordination.

A public ordination of Catholic priests in "officially atheist Vietnam!" China, take note! It's possible to reconcile free-market principles with communist state power without suppressing people's freedom of religious belief. Praise God that he has raised shepherds for his people behind the torn shards of the rusting iron curtain. May his Grace shower the Vietnamese with every blessing.