Native name Giuse Ngo Quang Kiet In office 2005-2010 Name Joseph Quang | Church Roman Catholic Appointed 19 February 2005 Successor Peter Nguyen Van Nhon | |
 | ||
Vietnam: Archbishop of Hanoi resigns under government pressure
Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt (born 4 September 1952 in Lạng Sơn Province, Vietnam) is the Archbishop Emeritus of Hanoi. In 1993, he studied at the Institut Catholique de Paris, France. He was appointed archbishop of Hanoi in 2005, succeeding Paul Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng. Prior to his appointment as archbishop, he served as apostolic administrator in the Vietnamese capital.
Contents
- Vietnam Archbishop of Hanoi resigns under government pressure
- Ruoc Thanh Gia ve Toa Giam Muc
- Quote
- References
In early 2010, then 57-year-old Archbishop Ngô submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI. The archbishop reportedly had been suffering from stress and insomnia. Ngô denied rumors that he had been pressured to step down after he asked Catholics in 2007 to pray for the government to return the former apostolic nunciature to the church. He also had criticized Hanoi city authorities for building a flower garden on the premises without local church approval. “I am personally under no pressure from any side,” the archbishop said in the interview, which was reported by UCA News, the Asian Catholic news agency. In 2008, the mayor of Hanoi had previously asked that the archbishop be removed from office.
AsiaNews, a Rome-based Catholic news agency, reported May 11 that the archbishop would step down and hypothesized that he would do so because Vietnam’s communist government made his ouster a condition for launching full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. For at least two years, AsiaNews said, Ngo “has been the focus of a regime campaign to have him removed. Indeed, the prelate has always supported the requests and the prayers of the faithful of Hanoi who suffer oppression, expropriation of land, churches and cemeteries, along with gratuitous violence.”
On 22 April 2010, 72-year-old Pierre Nguyễn Văn Nhơn, formerly bishop of Đà Lạt, was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Hanoi by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict accepted Archbishop Ngô Quang Kiệt's resignation on 13 May 2010.
Archbishop Nguyên Van Nhon succeeded to the see on 13 May 2010
Ruoc Thanh Gia ve Toa Giam Muc
Quote
