Cardinal in Church 'top 10'

Sydney
16 February 2003

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Cardinal in Church 'top 10'

Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan (pictured), former president of the Pontifical Council for Justice, Development and Peace, who died last September, has been named one of the top 10 Catholics of 2002 in the monthly magazine Inside the Vatican.

The magazine said the cardinal was "one of the great witnesses to the faith of our time".

Cardinal Van Thuan is best remembered for the 13 years he spent in a Vietnamese prison, including nine in solitary confinement, after he was arrested as the Archbishop of Saigon in 1975 by the new Communistgovernment.

His sister, Anne Nguyen Thi Ham-Thi, lobbied for his release from her home in Australia, with support from the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and Amnesty International.

She still lives in Sydney, as does the cardinal's mother, Elizabeth.

The cardinal was the nephew of the first president of South Vietnam, President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was assassinated in 1963.

Cardinal Thuan made many visits to Australia, and counted Australian bishops and priests among his close friends.

He is ranked seven on the top 10 list, which is headed by Mons Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation lay movement begun in Milan.

Belorussian Catholic journalist Viktor Taresevich, who was murdered last year, is placed second; Genoa Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at No 3; Sr Callista Cozzi, Comboni missionary in the Sudan, in fourth place; Antonia Willemsen, secretary-general of Aid to the Church in Need, fifth; andSr Margherita Marchione, leading scholar on the life of Pope Pius XII, sixth ahead of Cardinal Van Thuan.

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is ranked eighth; Thomas Monaghan, US Catholic millionaire benefactor, ninth; then, in 10th place, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, personal secretary of Pope John Paul II.