Vietnam ordains priests at historic event

Thousands of Vietnamese came out to witness a historic ordination of 57 Vietnamese priests by a Vatican envoy yesterday. It was the largest ordination ceremony for Vietnam. I spoke to local Catholics in San Jose about the ordination. There's a lot of excitement. According to the folks here, many of these priests are middle-aged and have been ministering covertly for years because of Vietnam's religious restrictions. The Vietnamese government has long insisted that it have the final say on church appointments.

It's a good development and is likely to help in softening Hanoi's image. Religious freedom is a big sticking point for the Vietnamese-American community, the largest outside of Vietnam.

Here's what I wrote for today's paper:

In San Jose, the ordination generated excitement as the news trickled out Tuesday among the city's 20,000 Vietnamese-American Catholics. ``We are very joyful and very proud,'' said Rev. Hien Minh Nguyen, vicar for Vietnamese ministry at the Diocese of San Jose, the second-largest Vietnamese-American Catholic community in the country. ``This is a sign of the vitality of the church of Vietnam after so much difficulty it has had to deal with.''

Nguyen said Vietnamese priests throughout the diocese will ``no doubt'' share the news with their parishioners at Mass today and this weekend.

``We've been anticipating this event with prayer,'' Nguyen said.