Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Mân, 69, today joined a capacity crowd at the French colonial-era Notre Dame Cathedral that was filled with cheers and applause.
Several of the congregants were in wheelchairs and the audience also included U.S. Cardinal Bernard Law from Boston and a deputy head of the Church in South Korea.
«The cardinal position which I have undertaken is the joy of the people of God and of the Vietnam nation,» Cardinal Mân told the Mass in Vietnamese.