Prime Minister hosts reception for Vatican Secretary of State

Pham welcomed Arbishop Gallagher's first visit to Viet Nam as Vatican Secretary of State, expressing his belief that the visit would help further boost the relations between Viet Nam and the Vatican.

Viet Nam is a multi-religion country with 27 million religious followers, accounting for 27 percent of its population, said Pham, adding that Catholicism has about 7.2 million followers, ranking second in the number of religious followers in the nation.

He affirmed that the State of Viet Nam consistently pursue the policy of respecting and ensuring freedom of belief and religion, calling on the Vietnamese Catholic community to continue contributions to further consolidate the national solidarity block and solidarity of religions.

Pham expressed his pleasure to witness the growth of the Viet Nam-Vatican relations over the past time and spoke highly of the two sides' efforts in actively maintaining high-level exchanges and contacts.

He described both sides' decision to lift the bilateral ties from the status of Non-Resident Papal Representative to the Resident Papal Representative as an "important milestone" which reflects the sense of mutual respect, cooperation and mutual understanding.

During his six-day tour to Viet Nam, Arbishop Gallagher had separate meetings with Minister of Forein Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra. He will also visit Archdioceses of Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hue./.