Members of the Congregation of Mission in Vietnam will have a happy reunion at the end of this lunar year. Vincentians will have a very special Tet holiday (lunar year festival), a memorable spring. This Vice-Province in Vietnam will become a new Province. Rev. Tomaž Mavrič, CM, Superior General, approved the establishment of the New Province on February 8, 2018. At the same time, Rev. Father Nguyen Cong Tuan, C.M, was inaugurated as the new provincial. This will be a joyful and important event of special significance for Vietnam. After 63 years since the first missionaries set foot in Vietnam, now the Congregation in Vietnam has an independent and official entity in the local mission.

Throughout history with so many ups and downs, there are times when it seemed wiped out, but the hands of Divine Providence sheltered it lovingly and so today Vincentians of Vietnam is receiving this great joy. With 63 years living and integrating in Vietnam, foreign missionaries and now Vietnamese missionaries have built the missionary spirit of St. Vincent de Paul. The footsteps of Vietnam’s Missionary have gone farther and wider. Anyone who entered the Congregation is reminded that they come into the Congregation for evangelization.

The missionary spirit is the spiritual heritage of St. Vincent de Paul. We as Vincentians must strive to preserve this noble fortune and make it richer. The Congregation in Vietnam has received and preserved that property until today with the increasing number of members and communities that have expressed the spirit of mission of the Vietnam Province.  That development will go along with the missionary spirit. Members will be more committed to the “peripheries” of the Vietnamese mission field. They will go anywhere and do anything as long as the Word of God is preached and people, especially the poor in the country are proclaimed the Word of God.

This occasion also allows the Congregation to express its gratitude to the generations that have gone before and have maintained their missionary spirit so that the Congregation grows and develops. The Congregation express deep gratitude to the Paris Province that supported and took care of the Congregation in Vietnam for many years, from the beginning to now. Vietnam Province also wishes to express deep gratitude to the French missionaries who strengthened and developed the Congregation in silence and sacrifice. These feelings are so beautiful that the Congregation see that God loves forever. The Congregation also would like to thanks Rev. Father Augustine Nguyen Huu Gia, Superior of the Vice-Province, in recent years has always been awake and serving the Vice- Province. Surely this event is the great spiritual gift God gave through the Congregation.

Since this time, Vietnam Province has turned to its new history. Surely the Province will have new plans, dreams and challenges. There are also new responsibilities for the New Province. But if we always listen to God’s will, unite our love for one another, and work together for the will of God, then every attempt will be successful. New missions are awaiting the footsteps of missionaries. It is hoped that the New Province will renew the spirit of the Founder and adapt itself to the missionary environment of Vietnam so that the Kingdom of God can be expanded continually and the poor will hear the evangelization.

May Virgin Mary of the Miraculous Medal, the saints and the blessed of the Vincentian family intercede with God to the Vietnam Province as well as accompany all the missionaries of the Congregation.