Communist-ruled Vietnam is expected to host the next assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC).
“Church leaders throughout Asia have decided to hold the 10th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in our country,” Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City told ucanews.com.
Cardinal Man said the FABC Central Committee made the decision two weeks ago during a meeting in Bangkok, which he and Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Bishops’ Conference, attended.
The FABC’s plenary assembly is held every four years, the last being in Manila in 2009. The next is scheduled for the third week of November 2012, at the archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Ho Chi Minh City, the cardinal said.
“We are very happy to welcome the next plenary assembly to the country for the first time since the establishment of FABC in 1970,” said Cardinal Man.
He said the Church in Vietnam expects to receive the list of participants one or two months prior to the assembly to seek government approval. After receiving the authorization, participants can then apply for their visas, he added.
Cardinal Man said he hopes the event will foster solidarity, fraternity and communion among the Churches in Asia.
The FABC is a voluntary association of episcopal conferences to foster among its members solidarity and co-responsibility for the welfare of Church and society in Asia. The Plenary Assembly is the supreme body of the FABC; all committees and officers are answerable to it.
FABC has 15 bishops’ conference members – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos-Cambodia, Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
It also has 10 associate members – Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Siberia (Russia), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and East Timor.
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