Vietnamese government officials have met with a representative from the Vatican to discuss establishing diplomatic relations with the papal city-state, Vietnamese press reports said Wednesday, dpa reported.
The Vatican's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, met with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Monday and Tuesday, the Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) reported. The two sides discussed formalizing relations and agreed to a future meeting at an unspecified date.
Communist Vietnam has lacked diplomatic relations with the Vatican since achieving independence in 1954. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007, and the two countries have since held several discussions on formalizing ties.
The issue remained sensitive because of the legacy of hostility between Vietnamese Communists and the Catholic Church during the 1950s and '60s. Vietnam's Catholic community was viewed as insufficiently patriotic and associated with the former French colonial government.
Several Vietnamese Catholic churches have staged protests over the past year to demand the government return church real estate it confiscated during the 1960s, but Hanoi said the country's land laws rule out disputes dating back before 1991.
In an interview Tuesday with the Vietnam News Agency, Nguyen The Doanh, head of the government's Commission on Religious Affairs, said an improvement in bilateral relations depended on the church "respect[ing] Vietnam's independence and sovereignty, history, culture, tradition and laws."
Doanh underlined the importance of the Vietnamese Catholic Church "taking the same road as the nation."
Vietnam's Catholic community dates back to the 16th century and numbers 6 million. Catholic congregations in Vietnam enjoy broad freedom of worship, but the land disputes beginning in December 2007 led to clashes with authorities that resulted in jail terms for some of the protestors.
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