Fr Jos. Hoang Van Quang SJ narrates a brief history of the Jesuit mission in Vietnam and makes an appeal for donations to support their work.
Although Christianity came to Vietnam in 1533, it was only when the Jesuits arrived in 1615 that the seeds of the Good News of Jesus Christ spread throughout the country.
From 1615 to 1773, the Jesuit missionaries set up a solid foundation for the Vietnam Catholic Church. In 158 years, 77 Jesuits went to the North and 95 Jesuits to the South, and 33 Vietnamese Jesuits were trained and served God’s people in their country.
It was the Jesuits, primarily Fr Alexander De Rhodes SJ,who used the Latin alphabet to symbolise Vietnamese sounds and developed the Vietnamese script. This enabled the Vietnamese people to learn more about the outside world and about Holy Scripture.
However, when Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society in July 1773, the Jesuits in Vietnam had to stop their mission.
Although Pope Pius VII reversed the suppression in 1814, the Jesuits only officially returned to Vietnam on May 24, 1957.
Their primary focus on their return was the training of priests for the missionary regions in Southeast Asia. They ran the Collegium Pontificium Pii X in Dalat, which produced 14 bishops and 250 priests to work in the dioceses in Vietnam, which has more than 6 million Catholics.
The Jesuits also taught social sciences and humanities in universities in Saigon, Dalat and Hue, making a positive and effective contribution to the country’s development. In addition, they ran two cultural centres: the Alexander De Rhodes Centre with a library, a hostel for students and a studio making programmes for television; and the Xavier Centre for students in Hue.
When the communists took over control of the south of Vietnam in 1975, all foreign Jesuits had to leave the country. There remained only Vietnamese Jesuits with 11 priests, 10 scholastics, 1 brother, four novices and 15 candidates.
Living in communist society has been fraught with difficulty, but thanks to God’s mercy and protection, the Jesuits have continued to have opportunities to exist, develop and serve God’s people in Vietnam. On July 14, 2007, the Region of Vietnam was promoted to the Province of Vietnam. Vocations have flourished and in 2010, there were 42 Jesuit priests, 75 scholastics, 23 brothers, 22 novices, and 100 candidates.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”(Luke 10:2)
Today, the most important activity of the Vietnam Province is promoting the Jesuit vocation and training Jesuits. Many young men want to serve God and people by becoming Jesuits but our funds are severely limited and donations are needed for us to train candidates, novices, scholastics and brothers of the Society in the Vietnam Province.
Donations are also needed to build and maintain the houses needed for formation and apostolic work as well as for the activities of the Jesuits which include giving Spiritual Exercises, running the theology college and library, and parish activities.
All forms of donations would be welcome for the glory of God and for the mission given by the Church to the Society of Jesus in Vietnam.