Catholics compete to love their country and live a "good life and good religion"

Priest Nguyen Van Thuong, Director of Caritas of Thanh Hoa Catholic Diocese: Spreading the spirit of solidarity, mutual love, and helping poor parishioners

Over the years, as the head of Caritas of Thanh Hoa Catholic Diocese, I have always promoted the spirit of solidarity, not only encouraging and helping parishioners to compete in economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction, but also educating and teaching parishioners to "respect God, love the country", live a "good life, good religion", and comply with all policies and guidelines of the Party and policies and laws of the State.

I also actively mobilized philanthropists and parishioners at home and abroad to contribute to the "Charity" fund. From this fund, over the past 5 years, I have organized hundreds of trips to visit and give gifts to thousands of parishioners, worth more than 100.5 billion VND. Specifically: giving 54,386 gifts, worth 20.8 billion VND, supporting the construction of 254 new charity houses worth 15.6 billion VND; giving over 14,000 rice packages to poor families worth 5 billion VND. In addition, Caritas Thanh Hoa organized environmental protection activities, giving 46 water purifiers and clean water filtration systems worth over 7.5 billion VND; awarding scholarships to nearly 1,000 students in especially difficult circumstances; supporting thousands of charity meals, hundreds of "0" VND buses for poor patients; organizing medical examinations and providing free medicine to the people. Mobilizing and supporting people affected by natural disasters and floods in the Central provinces (2020) with more than 6 billion VND; donating more than 5.7 billion VND to support the Northern provinces affected by storm No. 3 (2024). Coordinated with the Standing Committee of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee to support more than 7 billion VND to build houses for 182 poor Catholic households living on the river to stabilize their lives. Mobilized and helped people in Ho Chi Minh City and Thanh Hoa children working in some southern provinces and cities; visited and gave gifts to concentrated quarantine areas, parishes to support poor people in the locality facing difficulties due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic... with a total amount of over 4.1 billion VND. Helped many poor families have solid houses to stabilize their lives and settle down in the spirit of Directive No. 22-CT/TU of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee.

Ms. Do Thi Khanh, Deputy Head of the Catholic Solidarity Committee of Vinh Loc district: Mobilizing parishioners to develop the economy and build a great national solidarity bloc

Vinh Loc district has 6 Catholic parishes, 2 Lovers of the Holy Cross Communities, 24 parishes, with 1,690 households and 6,885 people. People of all ethnic groups and religions in the district live together in solidarity in residential communities. With the tradition of loving their homeland and country, being diligent in labor and production, Catholics have well implemented the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws and policies; actively responded to patriotic emulation movements and campaigns launched by the Fatherland Front at all levels; implemented "Living a good life and following good religion", "Respecting God and loving the country". As Deputy Head of the District Catholic Solidarity Committee, I have mobilized parishioners to change crops, plants and livestock; boldly invested and applied science and technology in production, animal husbandry, and intensive cultivation of crops to bring high economic efficiency. Currently, the whole district has over 400 Catholic households with an average income of 100 million VND/year or more, many Catholic families are good at business.

In the movement "All people join hands to build new rural areas and civilized urban areas", my family has been an exemplary leader in contributing money, donating land and, together with parish priests and authorities at all levels, propagating and mobilizing brothers, relatives and Catholics in the district to contribute billions of dong, donate thousands of square meters of land, thousands of working days to build infrastructure, expand rural roads, renovate houses and community areas. Typically, Phap Ngo Parish, Phap Ngo village, Vinh Hoa commune - a village with 100% Catholics, has mobilized 71 families to voluntarily donate 2,700 square meters of land to expand roads. Currently, 100% of residential areas with Catholics meet the standards of new rural areas and model new rural areas; most of the village roads and alleys in residential areas have been asphalted or concreted; over 95% of households have solid houses, 100% of households have access to electricity. Besides, I also mobilized Catholics to respond to patriotic emulation movements, campaigns launched by the Fatherland Front at all levels; fought against social evils, bad customs... The activities of Catholics in the district have contributed to the locality's good implementation of social security policies, solidarity between Catholics and non-Catholics, socio-economic development, and building Vinh Loc district into a prosperous district of the province.

Mr. Ngo Duc Hanh, Head of Huu Le Parish, Tho Xuong Commune, Tho Xuan District: Changing awareness for parishioners in environmental protection work

As Deputy Head of the Catholic Solidarity Committee of Tho Xuan District and Head of Huu Le Parish, I have actively promoted and mobilized to change the awareness of parishioners in environmental protection (EP) work by integrating the EP message into church ceremonies, parish meetings, and residential area meetings. Every month or during the flower month, on major Catholic festivals, we organize a general environmental cleaning in the residential area, mobilizing parishioners to participate in cleaning village roads, collecting garbage and planting trees.

In addition, I also mobilized parishioners to donate hundreds of square meters of land, contribute hundreds of millions of VND, hundreds of laborers to expand roads; build waste treatment systems; establish environmental self-management teams... From the above practical activities, the residential area of ​​Huu Le Parish has become a "bright - green - clean - beautiful - safe residential area" with a healthy living environment, parishioners consider environmental protection a part of their daily life, closely linked to faith and morality.

Along with environmental protection work, social security activities are the areas that Huu Le Parish and I always devote a lot of effort to. Every year, we mobilize resources from parishioners, philanthropists and social organizations to build and repair houses for households in difficult circumstances; give hundreds of gifts to poor households and the elderly; support scholarships, books and learning tools for poor students who overcome difficulties; support compatriots affected by storms, floods, epidemics...

In addition to the above activities, we also create jobs for local people by supporting their livelihoods. For example, we give seeds of crops and livestock to poor households, helping them have the means of production to escape poverty sustainably. My family alone has created seasonal jobs for 4-5 local workers, with a stable income of 8-10 million VND/person/month. From the above practical activities, poor and disadvantaged households in the parish have gradually improved their living conditions, and the movement of mutual love and solidarity in the parishioners has spread more and more strongly.

Mr. Pham Cong Nhien, Head of the Catholic Solidarity Group of Hai Chau Ward, Nghi Son Town: Creating close ties between the government - Catholic Solidarity Group and Catholics

Hai Chau Ward, Nghi Son Town has 2 parishes with nearly 2,700 parishioners. As a member of the Catholic Solidarity Committee of Nghi Son Town, head of the Catholic Solidarity Group of the ward, I always identify my role, position and responsibility to the community, bringing peace to people's lives. With the spirit of "charity, charity, living the religion of love", I and the members of the Catholic Solidarity Group have propagated and mobilized parishes and parishioners to actively respond to campaigns launched by the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations, such as: Supporting the construction of the "For the Poor" Fund, building Great Solidarity houses, supporting people affected by natural disasters; participating in building community covenants, useful activities of parishes, building residential areas to ensure social order and safety...

In the campaign "All people unite to build new rural areas, civilized urban areas", I, together with priests, monks, parish pastoral councils, and congregations, mobilized parishioners of Yen Chau residential group to contribute more than 1.2 billion VND, donate over 500m2 of land, hundreds of working days, materials... to expand and concretize 500m of rural roads from 2m to 4m; build electric lighting lines in residential areas. Mobilize parishioners to actively respond to charitable activities with a total amount of over 50 million VND.

Along with mobilizing parishioners to change their occupations from salt making to aquaculture, fishing, and seafood processing, raising the average income per capita to 72 million VND/year, my family and I still maintain the model of clean vegetable production and aquaculture, bringing in nearly 100 million VND/year. By maintaining regular meetings to discuss church work and social work once a month, the Catholic solidarity group has promptly resolved issues arising in residential areas and parishioners' families, creating a close connection between the government - Catholic solidarity group and parishioners, implementing the direction of "Living the gospel in the heart of the nation"...

Mr. Tran Van Tieu, Head of Lien Nghia Parish, Nga Thai Commune, Nga Son District: Building a model of "Peaceful Parish, Cultural Family"

Lien Nghia Parish in Nga Thai Commune (Nga Son) has nearly 4,000 people in 7 parishes; parishioners live interspersed with non-parishioners. In recent years, as the Parish Chief, I have actively worked with the Front Committee and organizations in residential areas to effectively carry out propaganda and mobilize Catholics to exercise their rights and obligations as citizens and parishioners according to the motto "Living the Gospel in the heart of the nation"; participating in preventing, detecting, fighting, denouncing crimes, maintaining security and order, effectively implementing self-management models in residential areas combined with emulation movements and campaigns launched by the Fatherland Front. At the same time, I have propagated and mobilized 100% of parishioners to register, sign a commitment to ensure traffic safety and register to implement 8 contents of the model "Peaceful parish, cultural family". Propaganda to all parishioners, groups, and households in the parish to comply with the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, and consciously stay away from social evils; good Catholics are also good citizens, providing valuable information and effectively assisting the police force in resolving complicated cases...

Thanks to the above active activities, in recent years, the economy of Lien Nghia Parish has had high growth, healthy socio-cultural development, stable politics, guaranteed national defense and security, average income per capita (in 2024) reached 66.8 million VND; the poverty rate decreased to 0.88%; over 90% of Catholic families achieved the title of cultural family; 100% of villages were recognized as meeting cultural standards, communes meeting new rural standards; 3/3 of schools met national standards level 2, communes met national standards on health; Nga Thai commune achieved a safe commune in terms of security and order; 9/9 residential areas achieved advanced residential areas... Those results also demonstrated the contributions and positive and important roles of Catholic compatriots in the movement to build civilized urban areas, peaceful parishes and parishes.

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dong-bao-cong-giao-thi-dua-yeu-nuoc-nbsp-song-tot-doi-dep-dao-244807.htm