Vatican City - A Vatican delegation will meet with Vietnamese officials in Hanoi next week as the Holy See strives for diplomatic relations with the Communist-run country, Vatican officials said Thursday. Monsignor Pietro Parolin, an undersecretary of state, will lead the delegation, which departs Sunday.
The visit is part of periodic talks between both sides, but this appointment follows by a few weeks a meeting at the Vatican between Pope Benedict XVI and Vietnam's prime minister.
The Jan. 25 audience at the Vatican was the highest-level meeting between both sides and was hailed by the Holy See as an important step toward establishing diplomatic relations.
For decades there have been tensions between the Vietnamese government and the Roman Catholic Church, particularly over Hanoi's insistence on having the final say in most church appointments.
But the Vatican said after the talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that there has been "concrete progress" for religious freedom for the church in Vietnam.
Vietnam's 6 million Catholics are Southeast Asia's second-largest Catholic population after the Philippines.
Other positive signs for the church included the ordination in 2005 in Vietnam of dozens of priests in a ceremony led by a top Vatican cardinal.
The Vatican has indicated that official ties between the Holy See and Hanoi could lead to Catholic assistance in medical care and other social services for the Vietnamese people.