The Church in Vietnam:

The Church leader noted that he has ordained 150 priests over an eight-year period, but during the same time almost 100 priests died, retired or became unable to do regular pastoral work due to illness.

A lot of overseas Vietnamese priests serve Vietnamese communities in foreign countries, the cardinal-archbishop acknowledged. In the United States, he noted, 700 Vietnamese priests serve 450,000 Catholics among 1.3 million Vietnamese-Americans. In Australia there are 116 Vietnamese priests serving 42,000 Catholics among 200,000 Vietnamese-Australians.

Cardinal Man said he would not invite those overseas priests to return to Vietnam to provide pastoral activities to local Catholics, since they "are not acquainted with local Catholics’ lifestyles, feelings and thoughts or social norms." However, he qualified, overseas Vietnamese priests can be invited to give talks to local clergy, Religious and laity on Church issues and other subjects in which they specialize.

Meanwhile, he said, old churches and many churches that have been built or repaired in recent years do not provide enough seats for Massgoers, who "have to stand outside the doors or even on the pavement."

This past Easter, he recalled, he celebrated the two-hour Easter Vigil at Redemptorist-run Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Church and Massgoers stood throughout the whole celebration so more of them could fit. So, he concluded, many churches still need to be built to serve Catholics in the archdiocese.

The local Church also "does not have enough facilities to admit vocations," the Church leader said, noting that St. Joseph Major Seminary, where 210 seminarians from seven dioceses are studying, has to use its storeroom for student accommodations. This is because the government did not restrict the number of candidates proposed by the dioceses for this school year, he added.