The northern province of Dien Bien will have the first parish after the provincial People’s Committee issued a decision allowing the Bishop Office of Hung Hoa Diocese to set up the parish.

The northern province of Dien Bien will have the first parish after the provincial People’s Committee issued a decision allowing the Bishop Office of Hung Hoa Diocese to set up the parish.

The Decision was announced at a ceremony on September 28^th.

Local authorities grant operation license to the first Catholic parish ​in Dien Bien Province. (Photo: VNA)

The Dien Bien parish has 576 parishioners living in Dien Bien, Tua Chua and Muong Ang districts.

The parish currently does not have its own church and praying house, so all worshiping activities temporarily take place at local parishioners’ houses in Noong Het commune, Dien Bien district.

Le Huu Khang, director of the Dien Bien Department of Home Affairs, said the establishment of the Dien Bien parish is an important event in the religious life of Catholic followers in the province.

He asked the Dien Bien parish to operate in line with the law and encourage parishioners to develop production and join in the building of new-style rural areas.

Dien Bien currently has over 50,000 followers of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Buddhism.

The local government has granted operation licences to 12 groups of Protestants. The province has also allowed the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam to establish a chapter in Dien Bien./.

( VNF/VNA )