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| Bishops in their first day of the Plenary Assembly |
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| The explosion at My Dinh stadium |
Bishops chose the Monday Oct. 4, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, to begin their meeting which lasts to Oct. 8.
Among other things, bishops have discussed on the agenda of the General Assembly of People of God from Nov. 21 to Nov. 25, 2010 in Saigon and the closing ceremony of the Jubilee Year on Jan. 6 at the Marian shrine of La Vang, Hue.
The Plenary Gathering has largely devoted to discussion of proposals, suggestions, and even criticisms from priests who attended recent assemblies in Hanoi, Hue and Saigon.
There have been concerns for restoring unity pertaining to the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike after turmoils following the removal of Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi in April this year. During recent months, a number of bishops have been publicly criticised by priests and lay people on Web sites run by Vietnamese Catholics, “an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of the Church in Vietnam,” said Bishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, vice President of the Vietnamese Episcopal conference.
Catholics have expressed their concerns on the “great silence” of bishops on social injustice, and on the widespread social acceptance of abortion and other immoral acts, as well as their weak resistance against the ongoing persecutions against Catholic faithful, and unending demands of the atheist government on Church’s properties and land.
Another major issue concerns Vietnamese bishops is the inefficiency in missionary. Recent statistics show that although Catholicism is relatively common in Vietnam and the Church has a strong group of active lay faithful, in recent decades, the growth of Catholics has fallen behind population growth. In 2007 Catholics were about 6,087,700 out of a total 85,154,900 inhabitants, about 7.15%. A decline compared to 7.2% in 1933 and 7.6% in 1939.
The principal reason remains the oppressive policy of the Government towards the Church. In many areas of the Central Highlands and northern mountainous provinces, pastoral activities have been hampered by government bureaucracy and increasing ill-treatment. In these areas, missionary activity is always described as "an offence against national security" and local officials make no effort to hide their hostility towards the Church.
On the very first day of their meeting, two delegates of The Committee for Religious Affairs of the Vietnamese Communist Party took turn to “pay a visit” to bishops, a move seen by many as “extraordinary”.
During their visits, government officials asked the bishops to join them in “The 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi festival” held from Oct. 1 to Oct.10, a celebration largely condemned by Vietnamese people as a waste of tax payers’ money. State media give an estimate of more than 4 billion US dollars for the cost of the festival hold despite floods that devastated large areas of central Vietnam over recent days.
In Ha Tinh alone, the heavy rains and rising waters have inundated at least 8400 hectares of crops while damaging nearly 27,000 houses, the provincial flood and storm control department said. The death toll from floods has reached at least 26 meanwhile thousands of cars and trucks were stuck on the main national Highway 1 which had been damaged.
Two bishops were reportedly designated to attend the festival.
A shocking report from Hanoi informs that at least three people were killed and 10 were wounded on Wednesday after an explosion rocked the national stadium of My Dinh in Hanoi, one of the sites of the festival, at 11:30 AM. Investigations have revealed that buildings, vehicles and other assets that were within about hundreds of meters from the stadium were severely damaged due to the explosion of containers fully packed with fireworks and explosives.