Vietnamese seminary marks 25 years

Stella Maris Major Seminary was suppressed by the government but re-emerged, training priests for Vietnam's parishes.

Stella Maris Major Seminary in Vietnam celebrated its 25th anniversary on Feb. 22 in Nha Trang city. (ucanews.com photo)

Nha Trang city:  A major seminary established 25 years ago in central Vietnam has produced hundreds of priests to meet the needs of the country's Catholics even as the communist government suppressed their faith.

Father John Baptist Ngo Dinh Tien, rector of Stella Maris Major Seminary in Nha Trang, capital of Khanh Hoa province, said that the seminary trained some 500 priests for nine dioceses over the past 25 years. He said that the priests satisfied the need for clergy that dioceses had after the country was reunified under communist rule in 1975.

But it has not been a easy process.

A senior priest said, under condition of anonymity, that Nha Trang Diocese said the previous Stella Maris Major Seminary — and 60 other church facilities — were confiscated by the government in 1979. He said no priests were ordained from 1976 to 1990 and other priests were banned from pastoral work.

After the government enacted their "open door" policy in the late 1980s and allowed six major seminaries to be reopened, the late Bishop Paul Nguyen Van Hoa of Nha Trang decided to re-establish the Stella Maris Major Seminary in 1991.

The government granted the diocese a former elementary school to use for the seminary. In 1992, the seminary ran its first course attended by 30 students from three dioceses.

Father Tien said, at first, the government allowed the seminary to recruit only 30 students every two years; they attended courses lasting six years.

However, since 2010, the seminary has annually admitted 50 students who eight-year courses before ordination.

He said that the seminary also conducted refresher courses in theology for old seminarians who had trained unofficially during the underground period, at parishes and study houses. They are from nine dioceses throughout the country.

Father Tien said that, since 2008, the seminary has been affiliated with the Rome-based Pontifical Urban University that offers graduates bachelor degrees in theology so that they can further study at international church institutes.

Luke Y Ngit, an ethnic Mnong man from Ban Me Thuot Diocese, said his son was studying philosophy at the seminary. "My family ask God to support him to be a priest in the future to serve our villagers," he said.

Bishop Joseph Vo Duc Minh of Nha Trang presided over a Mass that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the seminary's establishment on Feb. 22. Some 1,000 people attended the Mass.

Source: UCAN