Phạm Minh Mẫn

Early life

Phạm Minh Mẫn was born in Cà Mau, Cochinchina, French Indochina on 5 March 1934. His great-grandfather was an emigrant from Guangdong.^[1] He is the eldest son of a family of seven children, the youngest of whom is also a priest of the Diocese of Cần Thơ.^[2] One of his sisters settled in Australia, while another sister settled in the United States.^[3]

When he was five, his first cousin once removed, Blessed Francis Xavier Trương Bửu Diệp,^[4] encouraged him to enroll at Institution Taberd in Saigon, then run by the De La Salle Brothers, the next year, which would make him eligible to attend the minor seminary once he turned ten.^[5] Diệp also encouraged Mẫn's mother to let him learn Latin prayers and allow him to become an altar boy.^[6]

Education

The family immediately followed Diệp's advice. Mẫn later recalled that he would go alone the next morning to serve as an altar boy when Diệp would celebrate Mass.^[7] He went to Taberd and eventually Cù Lao Giêng Minor Seminary until the seminary was burned down during the First Indochina War.^[6] He was ordained a priest on 25 May 1965 by Bishop Jacques Nguyễn Ngọc Quang, for the Diocese of Cần Thơ. After studying in the United States at Loyola University of Los Angeles, Mẫn taught at the Saint Quý Minor Seminary until he was appointed rector of the minor seminary in 1974 and of the local major seminary in 1988.^[8]

Episcopal career

Mẫn was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Mỹ Tho in 1993 and promoted to Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City in 1998.

In August 1999, he celebrated a Mass at La Vang for the closing of the jubilee year commemorating the 200th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. The Mass was part of a three-day pilgrimage that was the largest Catholic event in Vietnam, with an estimated three hundred thousand people attending.^[9][10]

He was made a cardinal in the consistory of 21 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. On 7 March 2013, Mẫn was the last of the cardinal electors to arrive to attend the 2013 papal conclave,^[11] which elected Pope Francis.

On 28 September 2013, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Paul Bùi Văn Đọc, who had served as the Bishop of Mỹ Tho since 1999, as Coadjutor Archbishop with the right to succeed Mẫn.^[12] On 22 March 2014, Pope Francis accepted Mẫn's resignation as archbishop.^[13]

Death

Mẫn died at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center of Sài Gòn, on 22 March 2026, at the age of 92. He was surrounded by archdiocesan representatives, family, Archbishop Joseph Nguyễn Năng, and Bishop Joseph Bùi Công Trác. He was also visited by the papal representative to Vietnam, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, shortly before his death.^[14]