Cardinal van thuan prayer request

How can a life of great suffering produce a man of great joy? Van Thuan told us how, leaving 10 rules of life he lived by — rules that can be incarnated in every Christian life, just like they were in the life of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was a member of the Vatican curia as the third millennium began.

“He was almost always smiling or laughing, but never in a superficial or happy-go-lucky way,” said Kishore Jayabalan, who worked with him, in the National Catholic Register. “You could tell his joy came through his suffering and identification with Christ.”

Behind the smile were a dozen years as a prisoner in communist Vietnam — more than two thirds of that time in solitary confinement.

He died in Rome at age 74 in 2002, and his cause for canonization began soon after. He was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2017.

Van Thuan’s rules began with the Catholic community that nurtured him.

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