Earlier this month, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states and international organizations, wrapped up a six-day working trip to Vietnam in anticipation of a rumored visit by Pope Francis later in the year.

Gallagher, the papacy's top diplomat, met with Vietnam's prime minister and foreign minister and expressed the Vatican's "gratitude" for the progress made to improve the relationship between the two states, including Hanoi's decision last year to allow the Vatican to send its first resident papal representative to Vietnam in decades.

A joint working group was established in 2009 to repair relations that were severed in 1975 after the Vietnamese Communist Party, which is nominally atheist, established its rule over the entire country following the end of the Vietnam War.

Dialogue culminated last July in a visit to the Holy See by Vietnam's now former president, Vo Van Thuong, who also met with Pope Francis. In December, the Vatican appointed its first permanent representative to Vietnam in decades.

Hanoi has also invited Pope Francis to visit Vietnam, which was believed to have been discussed during Gallagher's visit this month and when the pope met a visiting delegation from Vietnam's Communist Party in January.

But Thuong's resignation as president last month amid a nationwide anti-corruption campaign may have complicated negotiations over the pope's visit, although it is still expected to take place later this year.

While Catholics account for just 6% of Vietnam's population, they represent around half of all Vietnamese who identify as being religious, according to a 2019 census.

But Vietnam has been accused of flagrantly violating the rights of........

© Deutsche Welle