This year’s Solemnity of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary had a particularly important meaning for the Vicariate of the Congregation of Marian Fathers in Vietnam. Three seminarians renewed their temporary vows, and five novices made their first religious profession at the hands of the Superior of the Vicariate, Fr. Bogusław Gil, MIC. The Vietnamese newly professed are: Br. John the Baptist Trần Xuân Đại, Br. Joseph Nguyễn Văn Đường, Br. Joseph Vũ Văn Mười, Br. Peter Trần Văn Thăng and Br. Joseph Trần Quốc Vũ. All of them had already completed a two-year course in philosophy before the novitiate and from September they will begin their theological studies in preparation for ordination to the priesthood. The liturgical rite of religious profession was enriched this year by the act of receiving the white habit of the Marians by the Vietnamese professed and newly professed Marians. All the members of the Vicariate received this habit with great joy and emotion as a clear and, at the same time, simple sign of the charism of the Congregation. This joy and enthusiasm of the young Vietnamese Marians in receiving the habit in which our Father and Founder, Saint Stanislaus Papczyński, saw a special sign of the identity of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, expresses their love and affection for the person of Father Founder and for the charism of his Congregation. Although this charism was “engraved in the Founder’s soul” 350 years ago it loses nothing of its relevance even in a country with a culture as exotic as Vietnam.
