In a first for communist and officially atheist Vietnam, the Vatican ordained 57 Vietnamese priests yesterday, urging them to convert more people in the southeast Asian nation to Catholicism.
"They will be like Jesus here," Cardinal Cresezio Sepe, head of the Vatican's missionary arm, told a cheering crowd of several thousand at a ceremony in Hanoi Cathedral, a Gothic edifice built by Vietnam's French colonial rulers in the heart of the capital.
"Those who have not heard about Jesus should listen to these priests," he said. "Of the 80 million Vietnamese, only six million are Catholics."
Cardinal Sepe was the first ranking Vatican official to be allowed to ordain priests in Vietnam, a reflection of the steadily improving ties between Hanoi's communist government and the Roman Catholic Church.
Leaders of Vietnam's Catholic Church, which dates back to French colonial days, were given blanket approval to travel to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. They also received messages of sympathy from top Communist party leaders.
Before the ceremony, Cardinal Sepe, in his white robes and bright red cardinal's hat, walked through the narrow streets of Hanoi, packed with thousands of well-wishers, some of whom had travelled from 150 kilometres away to witness the ordination.
Police blocked off traffic in the fashionable quarter around the cathedral to give people a better chance of witnessing the proceedings.
"I have never seen such a big ceremony as this. I'm really happy to see the Cardinal with my own eyes," said a man who identified himself as Hung.
Cardinal Sepe met government leaders on Monday to express the Vatican's wish to improve ties with Vietnam and request for permission to build Catholic schools and publish Catholic magazines.
While the status of Catholics has steadily improved since the 1975 communist unification of the country at the end of the Vietnam War, lingering suspicion remains about the activities of Catholics and other religious leaders.
In its annual report on human rights this year, the US State Department listed Vietnam as one of its "countries of particular concern" with regard to religious freedom.
The European Union has also expressed concern about religious rights in Vietnam, where an estimated 80 percent of the population is Buddhist.
Hanoi says it respects freedom of religion, and there are now no restrictions on individual worship. Churches are filled on Sunday and other Christian holy days.