NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      HANOI (CWNews.com) - The government of Communist Vietnam said on Thursday that they have no immediate plans to invite Pope John Paul II to the country.

      Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told reporters, "We do not have any intention yet to invite the Pope." The Vatican news agency Fides had reported that the country's bishops had asked the government to invite the Pontiff to visit next year and that the Holy Father was willing to make the trip if invited by Hanoi.

      Dung said the government had recently received a letter from the bishops but would not reveal the contents. The Communist government had previously said they had not received a request from the bishops to invite the Holy Father. The trip next August would coincide with the 200th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of La Vang.