Dear Mary, Please Take Care of Us: Saint Bruno, Tuesday, October 6, 2020

 

J.M.J.


One of the world’s great witnesses to Jesus Christ died on September 16, 2002 at the age of 74. The Venerable François-Xavier Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Thuận, the President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, succumbed to cancer.

 

His story is astonishing.

 

The future prelate was born in Huê, Vietnam on April 17, 1928. A pious lad from a devout family that counted among its relatives some of the early Vietnamese martyrs, François-Xavier was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on June 11, 1953. Six years later, he obtained the Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Urban University, Rome.

 

Father Văn Thuận’s prayerfulness and brilliance were quickly recognized. He was appointed as a seminary professor and later as the Rector of the Seminary and the Vicar General of the Diocese. Pope Saint Paul VI nominated him as the Bishop of Nha Trang on April 13, 1967.

 

The same Sovereign Pontiff, in 1975, named Bishop Văn Thuận as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon (now known as Hô Chí Minh City). His Excellency took as his episcopal motto the title of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes.

 

The triumph of South Vietnam by the Communists was completed that year; the entire country had “gone red.” The new Coadjutor Archbishop was arrested on the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 1975, and incarcerated for thirteen years, nine of which were endured in solitary confinement in Vinh Phu prison in Hanoi.

 

The Archbishop was conscious of his bond to an esteemed group of persecuted Vietnamese Catholics who meekly but resolutely carried the Cross of Christ. Within 300 years, 130,000 Vietnamese Catholics died for the Faith, of whom 118 have been beatified. The number of Catholics in Vietnam since 1975 who similarly have died is unknown.

 

Archbishop Văn Thuận was released from prison in 1988 to house arrest; he was denied permission to perform his pastoral duties. He was allowed to leave Vietnam in March 1989 to visit his elderly parents in Sydney, Australia. He also traveled to Rome where he met with Pope Saint John Paul II.

 

In 1991, the Archbishop was expelled from his beloved Vietnam.

 

Pope John Paul II named Archbishop Văn Thuận the Vice President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in November 1994 and promoted him to the Presidency on June 24, 1998—thirty-one years to the day on which he was ordained to the Episcopate. In March during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, he preached the annual Lenten Retreat to the Pontiff and the members of the Roman Curia.

 

The Holy Father created Archbishop Văn Thuận a cardinal in the Consistory of February 21, 2001.

 

In 2002, a few months before his death that, in the words of the Holy Father, had been preceded by “a long and painful illness,” Cardinal Văn Thuận acknowledged that soon the Church would publish a compendium of her doctrine regarding important social issues—like wealth, unemployment, resources and debt.

 

Upon the Cardinal’s death, Pope John Paul sent a telegram of condolence to his one hundred year-old Mother who lived in a nursing home in Rome.

 

On September 20, 2002, the Holy Father presided and preached at the Mass of Christian Burial celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State. During his homily, Pope Saint John Paul disclosed the “pearl” that enriched Cardinal Văn Thuận’s life: “His secret was indomitable trust in God, nourished by prayer and suffering, accepted with love.”

 

Now we know a little about this Vietnamese hero. But does he teach us something?

 

The Risen Lord Jesus Christ is our only hope. Isolated in prison for over a decade, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon could have despaired. Instead, he remained steeped in prayer and penance, constantly keeping his eyes fixed on the Master. The humble inmate knew that the beneficent Savior would not abandon him. And his loyalty to and trust in Jesus provided a stellar example for his jailers and fellow prisoners.

 

The Most Holy Eucharist is our most magnificent treasure. How easy it is for those who routinely have access to Mass to treat the Bread of Life and Chalice of Salvation with an over-familiarity—and worse, carelessness. Not the imprisoned Archbishop! He gladly offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass behind bars. If he had been discovered, he would have been punished severely. Years later, in Testimony of Hope: The Spiritual Exercises of John Paul II (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2000), the Cardinal described his clandestine Masses after having received bread and wine from the Faithful.

 

I will never be able to express my great joy! Every day, with three drops of wine and a drop of water in the palm of my hand, I would celebrate Mass. This was my altar, and this was my cathedral! It was true medicine for soul and body, “Medicine of immortality, remedy so as not to die but to have life always in Jesus,” as St. Ignatius of Antioch says.

 

Each time I celebrated the Mass, I had the opportunity to extend my hands and nail myself to the cross with Jesus, to drink with Him the bitter chalice. Each day in reciting the words of Consecration, I confirmed with all my heart and soul a new pact, an eternal pact between Jesus and me through His Blood mixed with mine. Those were the most beautiful Masses of my life! (page 131)

 

Love and the forgiveness of enemies are obligatory, not optional. Bitterness was not in the Archbishop’s vocabulary. He freely and willingly loved and pardoned his captors. When a prison guard expressed his incredulity how the prelate could love him and the others who jailed him for years without a proper trial and sentence, Archbishop Văn Thuận replied: “Because Jesus has taught me to love everyone, even my enemies. If I don’t, I am no longer worthy to be called a Christian.” (page 70)

 

In prison the Archbishop pleaded with Our Blessed Lady: “Mother, if you see that I can no longer be useful to your Church, grant me the grace to consume my life in prison. Otherwise, allow me to leave prison on one of your Feasts.” (page 199) On November 21, 1988, the Memorial of the Presentation of Mary, Archbishop Văn Thuận was summoned to see the Minister of the Interior and was immediately granted his unexpected release from jail. He never forgot, whether in or out of custody, the Virgin of Tenderness who delights in assisting her children, regardless of—and on account of—the seemingly impossible circumstances.

 

To assert that the Venerable François-Xavier Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Thuận was a spiritual giant of the twentieth century is no overstatement. And perhaps some of us may even live to see him elevated to the glories of the Altar.

 

The unpretentious Cardinal Văn Thuận, who prized the Most Blessed Sacrament and cheerfully lived under the gentle mantle of the Immaculata, displayed the abundant charity and unparalleled mercy of Christ both inside and outside of detention. For that, the Church in the Third Christian Millennium is much richer.

 


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