Why Hanoi Apostolic Delegate’s Office must be returened to the Catholic Church in Vietnam?
On 18 Oct 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Archbishop John Jarlath Dooley, S.S.C.M.E (1906 – 1999) as the Apostolic Delegate to Indochina. On arrival to Vietnam, Archbishop John Dooley decided to move the Indochina Apostolic Delegate’s residence from Hue to Hanoi due to the political importance of the latter. His office was set temporarily inside Hanoi Archbishopric complex. The Apostolic Delegate’s Office had the same address as that of Hanoi Archbishop’s Palace: 40 Pho Nha Chung, Hanoi. When Vietnam was divided into two distinct states in 1954, he remained in Hanoi. In March, 1959 he had to leave Hanoi for medical treatment. Before leaving Vietnam, he wrote a letter in which he thanked Bishop Joseph Marie Trinh Nhu Khue (1898-1978) of Hanoi to allow him to use the building for a long time. Father Terence O’Driscoll, an Irish priest, undertook the office temporarily while waiting for the Holy See’s instructions. However, within 2 weeks after Archbishop John Dooley left Vietnam, Hanoi dep
