The beginnings of the beatification process of Vietnamese Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân has been welcomed by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Archbishop Martin worked with the cardinal for seven years at the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace and has credited him with a significant role in the 1998 announcement of his own appointment as bishop.
He recalled how, shortly before the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces in 1975, the cardinal had been appointed coadjutor bishop and was immediately arrested and imprisoned by forces taking the city.
Bishop Van Thuân remained in captivity for 13 years during which he continued his writings on spiritual matters, which were smuggled out. He also, clandestinely, distributed the Eucharist around prison camps.
Amnesty International mounted a campaign for his release and one of those who visited him in prison was the late Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, former Inspector of Prisons in Ireland, recalled Archbishop Martin.
Cardinal Van Thuân was never charged with anything, Archbishop Martin said.
On his release in 1988 it was indicated by the Vietnamese authorities that he should "go away". He went to Rome and remained in exile there for the rest of his life. He was completely without rancour or bitterness, Archbishop Martin said.
When the position of vice-president of the Council for Justice and Peace became available in 1994 Archbishop Martin, who had been working at the council since 1985, recalled how the late Pope John Paul II insisted the post be filled by a living witness of injustice and the then Bishop Van Thuân (he became Cardinal in 2001) was appointed.
In 1998 he became the council's president. In that role he began preparation of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in October 2004. He died in 2002.
Pope Benedict XVI last week described him as a "man of hope" and noted that it was this virtue that enabled him to endure physical and moral difficulties, including 13 years spent in a Vietnamese prison.
