The beatification cause of Venerable Francis-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan is receiving renewed attention from the Vatican 50 years after he was first imprisoned by the communist government of Vietnam, according to the cardinal’s sister. Source: CNA.
Elisabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Cardinal Van Thuan’s youngest sister and last living sibling, says the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is encouraging Catholics to revive their efforts toward the cause as it launches a new web page devoted to the Vietnamese cardinal, whose meditations on hope and forgiveness have inspired Catholics for decades.
The next stage in the canonisation process “is up to the faithful … to pray to God through the intercession of the cardinal to get an approved miracle,” Ms Nguyen said during a visit to Rome last week.
An official at the dicastery for saints confirmed the department was working on Cardinal Van Thuan’s cause and reiterated the importance of a verified miracle for the process to proceed.
Cardinal Van Thuan – declared venerable, the step before beatification, in 2017 – was a prisoner of the communist government of Vietnam for 13 years, spending nine of those in solitary confinement. His spiritual messages, smuggled out during his imprisonment, were collected and published in the book The Road of Hope: A Gospel from Prison.
After he was freed, the then Bishop Van Thuan was forced to leave his home country, spending his final years in Rome where he served at the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. In 2001, Pope John Paul II made Van Thuan a cardinal.
Cardinal Van Thuan was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer soon after, but four months before his death on September 16, 2002, he made a final visit to Australia to see his family for his mother’s 100th birthday.
Ms Nguyen, the youngest of Van Thuan’s nine siblings, has written about her brother’s witness in the book Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan: Man of Joy and Hope, coauthored by Fr Stefaan Lecleir and published by Ignatius Press in April.
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Vatican urges faithful to revive efforts for sainthood cause of Cardinal Van Thuan (By Hannah Brockhaus, CNA)
