Parish donations give medical insurance to elderly Vietnamese

Published: 2008-03-28

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNS) -- Special Lenten donations at a parish in Vietnam have bought poor, elderly Catholics medical insurance and an opportunity to receive health care. Marie Tran Thi Lan, 78, one of the beneficiaries, has been bedridden since she slipped and fell on a wet floor earlier this year. "I want to go to the hospital for treatment so I can walk around and go to church for Mass," Lan told visiting officials from Vietnamese Martyrs Parish March 23. Lan, who lives with her daughter's family, shed tears of happiness after the parish council members informed her she was one of 30 local Catholics for whom the parish had bought medical insurance from a government plan. Father Pierre Phan Khac Tu, the parish priest, told the Asian church news agency UCA News that his parish grants monthly allowances of about $4 to 60 elderly people who are poor or have no relatives in the area. These people cannot afford to pay for medical treatment, he said. Father Tu, 70, asked parishioners two weeks before Good Friday to donate for the special cause as a Lenten penance.

Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .