The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has named a Vietnamese cardinal who spent 13 years in a communist jail as his personal hero.
Archbishop Welby, was asked in an interview with the Spectator which historical figure he drew inspiration from. He told his interviewer, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, that he was inspired by Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan.
The archbishop said: “Cardinal Van Thuan spent 13 years in a communist prison after the fall of South Vietnam. He was in solitary confinement. But he led his torturers to Christ. He converted, taught and ordained priests in prison. He breathed in the presence of Christ.”
He continued: “As a Christian, I don’t think you fall within the political spectrum. There was a very remarkable Roman Catholic bishop who once said, ‘When I work with the poor they call me a saint; when I ask why they’re poor they call me a communist.’”
Nguyen Van Thuan was born in 1928 and became a bishop in 1967. He was made Archbishop of Saigon in 1975, just six days before the city was captured by the communists. He was detained in a “re-education camp” for 13 years, nine of them in solitary confinement.
In the interview the archbishop praised the Catholic Church.
He said: “Catholic social teaching describes the family as the base community in society. If you say that, oddly enough, everyone thinks you’re on the right. But if you say we have to ask why, in a modern society, food banks are necessary on the scale that they are at the moment, then you are immediately on the left. Then you say, ‘I believe in an educational system that teaches eternal values’ and they say, ‘Oh! He’s really on the right.’ You don’t fit – so I’m not going to fit.”
English and Hungarian cardinals to honour Becket
Cardinal Vincent Nichols will celebrate Mass next year with Cardinal Péter Erdő, the Primate of Hungary, marking the start of a pilgrimage dedicated to St Thomas Becket.
The Mass, which will be attended by Hungarian president János Áder, will coincide with the launch of a joint initiative by the Hungarian government and the Anglican and Catholic communions in England.
The relics of St Thomas Becket are kept at Estergom, seat of the metropolitan archdiocese of Hungary, and each year on December 29, the anniversary of the archbishop’s death, they are displayed at the Basilica for veneration.
On May 23-29 the relics will be loaned to Canterbury Cathedral and a pilgrimage will take place from Rochester to Canterbury.
Becket was murdered in 1170 in the cathedral by four knights in the service of Henry II, who had acted after the king and archbishop had fallen out over the right of the crown to try clerics.
According to tradition, the saint’s relics were brought to Hungary following Becket’s death by his friend Cardinal Lukács Bánffy.
Mary’s Meals gets Saints on side
Mary’s Meals has established a new charity partnership with Southampton Football Club. Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, CEO and founder of Mary’s Meals, and Alan Brown, executive director of Mary’s Meals UK, met Southampton FC owner Katharina Liebherr and club chairman Ralph Kreuger at a special event at the club’s training ground to mark the deal.
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