MS Vietnam 2020

“Catholic Youth as a Good Citizen Contributing to Collaboration of Religions and Civil Society for Betterment of the Society in Vietnam”

Dr. Paul Hwang/ Director of ALL Forum

Purpose

The “Moving School” for young Vietnamese people focuses on Catholic youths fostering their capacity. It seeks ways of dialogue and cooperation between various religions and ethnic groups, especially Buddhism and ethnic religion, including Cao Dai(高臺), Catholicism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and offers a place to learn what the Catholic youth can do for the common good and betterment of the country. It also puts emphasis on strengthening the Christian identity of young Vietnamese people including young church workers in Vietnam through the Church’s social doctrines, especially the documents of the Second Vatican Council and those of Pope Francis.

Asian Lay Leaders (ALL) Forum (ALL Forum) plans to hold a “moving school” in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, in February 2020, followed by the moving schools in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in August and in Kerala, southern India, in October in the same year. The Ignite the Fire of Love Group (IFLG) as the local host will organize the mobile school in Ho Chi Minh. The main themes of the mobile school include freedom of religion, Catholic youth for the realization of the kingdom of God, Catholics as mature citizens working for the better world, and spirituality getting over materialism, individualism and “globalization of indifference” strongly criticized by Pope Francis.To achieve this goal, ALL Forum seeks to provide various training programs, especially for young Catholic, to help their leaders become peacemakers. Using Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs) as the main tool, follow faithfully the principles and methods of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) such as “Methodology from Below”, “Triple Dialogue” and “Pastoral Spiral” that start from specific Asian experiences. As an effective youth formation program, the moving school cares about programs to strengthen the religious identity of Christian youth in the era of “global village,” the time when everything has been being mixed up. On the one hand, however, the program encourages young people to take deep root in the Vietnamese culture and emphasizes the role they can actively serve in society. The following is the general purpose of moving schools:

1. Witnessing the Gospel through Interreligious Collaboration for Common Good as Efficient Evangelization Method:
   Young lay leaders are invited to learn and become vibrant actors for promoting interfaith harmony led to peace for ethnic groups and the country. Considering the situation of predominant Buddhist or Islamic culture and or political uncertainty, that how Christian young workers could accomplish their evangelizing mission works coupled with “double” tasks has always been a great challenge to them. They have tried hard to show their loyalty to the nation and its people on the one hand. At the same time they also want to protect and develop their Christian identity and faith which leads to a tension sometimes between the Christians and the government or majority Buddhist or Moslem followers. One way to solve the task is to promote interreligious dialogue and cooperation among Christians, followers of other religions and the governments. For this Christian youth should be equipped with a better and deeper knowledge of Christian tradition and the meaning of being a Christian today. We have often witnessed that many young church workers working for social ministries have some knowledge in those fields while little knowledge of the church teachings including Vatican II and FABC which is a serious weakness to overcome. The other is for the youth to be given a new and big picture of socio-cultural situation in their countries so that they could figure out what they have been doing and will do in the future. The following program is for the next year’s moving school.
2. Providing a New Vision and Spirit for Lay leaders based on FABC & CSTs:
   The moving school is a youth forum which will be based on “integral human development” often expressed in the Pope Francis’ documents like Joy of the Gospel(2013), Laudato Si(2015). And the recent papal exhortation titled “Gaudete et Exsultate”(2018). On the other hand, it stresses the “spiritual dimension” in human development by placing more emphasis on respecting local people’s spirituality based on various cultures peculiar in Asia in building their communities where the Spirit of God works. It has a close relationship with practicing interreligious dialogue and collaborations as “dialogue in daily life” suggested by the Vatican document “Dialogue and Proclamation” (1991) which must be “the whole People of God-centered” simply because like what Pope Francis said all the people of God should be “missionary disciples” who live out actual lives at every corner of lives in the world.
3. Providing “Asian Theologies and spirituality” based on the Context of specific countries in Asia: The program will encourage lay people to become good church workers and activists by reflecting their concrete lives in the light of the Bible, their concrete lives reflected in the dialogues with the poor, diverse cultures and religions. Therefore, the theologies we mention should be localized and contextualized. It could be a momentum for lay workers to become “contemplative actors” equipped with “praying in action”. It is so that the Church of Asia could get great help from them in her mission. Church workers should work together with theologians, scholars on religions, experts on cultures and many others in various fields, to make Christian theology relevant to the concrete realities in Asia.
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Program

Keywords or main themes of the 2019 moving school are as follows: Realities in Asia, Asian Churches, Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs), Vatican II, FABC, Evangelizing Mission, Triple dialogue and Interreligious/Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation, Ecological Sustainability, and Climate Change.

Provisional Schedule February 2020

Day 1: Arrival/ Orientation

Day 2: Opening Mass / “Exposure-Immersion” (Field Visit)

Day 3: Workshop 1 – Realities in Asia, Asian Churches, Efforts for Sustainability of the Earth and Peoples
Morning session: “Socio-economic Analysis of the Unsustainability of the Global Economy: Extreme gap between the Rich and the Poor esp. in Asia” By Local Speaker
Afternoon session: “Vatican II and Asian Churches: “Triple Dialogue” and Spirituality on Diversity” By Speaker from ALL Forum

Day 4: Workshop 2 – Vietnamese Catholics as Good Citizens Working for Integral Human Development and Betterment of the Society in Vietnam
Morning session: “Catholic Youth as Advocate for Collaboration of Religions and Civil Society for Integral Human Development” By a Local Speaker
Afternoon session: Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation among Religions for Common Good” By Local Speaker

Day 5 : Workshop 3 – Pope Francis’ Teachings on Integral Ecology; Vocation and Virtues Responding to God’s Calling & Synthesis
Morning Session: “Integral Ecology, Vocation and Virtues Responding to God’s Calling in Light of Laudato Si and Gaudete et Exsultate” By Speaker from ALL Forum
“Synthesis and Integration of the Program” By Ms. Felicia Dian (ALL Forum)
Afternoon – Evaluation and Cultural Night