Jamaine Punzalan

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, August 22, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/178297147045420250822-solemn-declaration-our-lady-of-aranzazu-MT24.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, August 22, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File</span></span></span></div><p>Tens of thousands of Catholics flocked to a small parish in the Mekong Delta on Thursday for the first beatification ceremony held on Vietnamese soil.</p><p>Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided as papal envoy over a special mass in a church in Ca Mau for Father Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep, a  priest killed while protecting parishioners in 1946.</p><p>Diep became &quot;blessed&quot;, the second of three steps towards sainthood.</p><p>Around 70,000 people were expected to attend, according to the Catholic Church in Vietnam, many arriving days early to watch the ceremony on big screens outside the church.</p><p>&quot;We were sleeping on a mat outside the church last night,&quot; said Tran Le Tap, a 65-year-old saleswoman who travelled from the southern province of An Giang.</p><p>&quot;It was a great honour for us to be here on this special occasion. We cannot miss it… It was honour for our Catholic followers and also for the Vietnamese. I feel so blessed.&quot;</p><p>The presence of Tagle, an <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/4/9/pope-leo-appoints-cardinal-tagle-bishop-maralit-to-vatican-s-communications-arm-2257">envoy of Pope Leo XIV</a>, highlights the warming ties between Communist Vietnam and the Vatican, which have not had official diplomatic relations since the end of the civil war in 1975.</p><p>The two sides made a breakthrough in 2023 by agreeing to a &quot;Resident Papal Representative&quot; for Vietnam.</p><p>Tagle called Thursday&#x27;s ceremony a &quot;moment of great joy for Vietnamese Catholics&quot; and a &quot;truly historic day in the life of the Church&quot;.</p><p>Le Mai, 33, came all the way from Hanoi with her mother for the event -- a day-long journey by plane and car.</p><p>&quot;It was a long way to go, all the way from the north here, but it&#x27;s a privilege for me and my mother to be able to attend this ceremony,&quot; she said.</p><p>Vietnam has more than 7.5 million Catholics, accounting for about 7.4 percent of the population, according to the Vatican&#x27;s official news outlet.</p><p>Vietnam&#x27;s constitution enshrines a right to religious freedom, but the government tightly regulates religious organisations.</p><p>Rights groups often criticise restrictions on religious practice such as registration requirements and surveillance.</p><p>Vietnam has had 117 people beatified and later canonised as saints, but the Church said this was the first time a beatification ceremony had been held in the country rather than at the Vatican.</p><p>Appointed priest of Vietnam&#x27;s Tac Say parish in 1930, Diep was known for his devotion to the poor, sick, and those suffering because of war, according to the local Can Tho diocese.</p><p>He was murdered by two Japanese defectors, a diocesan investigation concluded in 2017.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/7/1/breakaway-catholic-sect-defies-vatican-again-by-ordaining-bishops-1606">Breakaway Catholic sect defies Vatican again by ordaining bishops</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/6/28/pope-closes-consistory-with-fervent-call-for-peace-2328">Pope closes consistory with fervent call for peace</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/6/11/6-7-bad-bunny-ai-pope-targets-the-young-0948">6-7, Bad Bunny, AI: Pope targets the young</a></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g28kF-FaKRU?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gn-MaBmJQ4A?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ufAgeDFfLVE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Tens of thousands of Catholics flocked to a small parish in the Mekong Delta on Thursday for the first beatification ceremony held on Vietnamese soil.</p>

Tens of thousands of Catholics flocked to a small parish in the Mekong Delta on Thursday for the first beatification ceremony held on Vietnamese soil.

Papal envoy Tagle presides over first Vietnam beatification rite

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Papal envoy Tagle presides over first Vietnam beatification rite

Agence France-Presse

Published July 02, 2026 01:54 PM PHT

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Vietnam

Catholic

religion

beatification

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