Pope praises loyal secretary

POPE JOHN Paul II has paid tribute to a Vietnamese cleric who served as his personal secretary and who died last week aged 84.
The Pope said Mgr Vincent Tran Ngoc Thu, generously served the Holy See and was his "diligent collaborator".
The priest's funeral was celebrated in St Peter's Basilica on July 20 by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and a colleague of Mgr Tran when both worked in the Vatican Secretariat of State.
In a July 20 message, Pope John Paul asked Archbishop Francesco Marchisano, archpriest of St Peter's Basilica, to extend his apostolic blessing to all those who loved and esteemed the monsignor, who had been expelled from Vietnam in 1976 after the communists captured the city then called Saigon.