Official delegation from Vietnam visits Vatican to discuss relations

Published: 2005-07-05

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An official delegation of the government of Vietnam visited the Vatican for the first time since 1992 to discuss church-state relations. Ngo Yen Thi, director of Vietnam's government commission for religious affairs, led the delegation during its June 27-July 2 trip to Rome. The Vatican and Vietnamese representatives looked at "the question of relations between Vietnam and the Holy See with the hope that they would advance rapidly in the direction of normalization," according to a Vatican statement. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese news agency reported the government as saying an agreement had been reached aimed at "increasing contacts to promote mutual understanding, to regulate problems of common interest and to improve bilateral relations." In addition to meeting officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the government delegation attended a June 29 Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.

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