Some 600 sisters from various congregations volunteered to provide support and essential services for crowds of pilgrims attending the 31st anniversary of the Marian Congress here. The gathering was held on Assumption weekend in mid-August at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang in the Hai Lang District of Quang Tri Province, central Vietnam.
More than 200,000 pilgrims, including people of other faiths from inside and outside Vietnam, attended the triennial "Living the Spirit of Fatima's Message" congress to celebrate the feast of the Assumption on Aug. 15. During the congress, which ran Aug. 13-15 this year, pilgrims attended Masses, joined a eucharistic adoration procession, went to confession, prayed the rosary and watched cultural performances.
Sisters offered health care to those who fell ill, worked with volunteers to clean up the shrine, gave prayerful and cultural performances, served at the Eucharist procession, sold Catholic items to pilgrims and helped record people's prayer requests for the clergy.
The 219-year-old shrine was ruined in a battle in 1972 during the Vietnam War. After 1975, the communist government confiscated most of the 21 hectares, or 52 acres, of land at the shrine site.
After the government returned about 32 acres of the land in 2008, construction began on a new basilica with a 5,000-person capacity.
[Joachim Pham is a correspondent for Global Sisters Report based in Vietnam.]