Issues of the rites to ancestors in the families of Catholic followers (the case of Kẻ Sặt parish, Hải Dương)

Abstract

After 3 centuries banning the Christian to carry out the rites to the ancestors, in 1939, Pope Pius XII ratified the instruction Plane Compertum Est – the first breakthrough to partial accept the ‘Chinese Rites’ of the Catholic Church, and to remove the tenssion over centuries. In 1964, this instruction was allowed by the Church to implement in Vietnam. The Pastoral Letter in 1980 with approach of ‘to live in the gospel in the heart of the nation’ has opened many activities of Vietnam Catholic Church in new era, the era of integrating national culture. Thus, in recent years, the Catholic followers in a certain number of places have rebuilt the ancestor’s altars in their home and also rehabilitated family, ancestor churches and made family annals. The article introduces this integration in the Kẻ Sặt parish (Hải Dương) via the carrying  out the rites to ancestors at family level. It indicates that the rites to ancestors of the Catholic followers don’t impact to their religious faith, even enrich the religious activities in the Catholic community.