Pope Francis received a delegation from Vietnam’s Communist Party on January 18, a month after the Pontiff named the first resident representative there since 1975.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, said that he would visit Vietnam in April. Asked about the possibility of a papal visit to the Southeast Asian nation, Archbishop Gallagher said that “the Pope is keen to go, certainly the Catholic community is keen for the Pope to go.”
“We are, of course, hoping to encourage them along lines of greater religious freedom, which they have in their constitution and that they are practicing, but it’s obviously a work in progress,” Archbishop Gallagher added.