The event, held at Nhan Hoa Church in Tan Phu district, also saw the presence of President of the municipal Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Committee Tô Thị Bích Châu and other officials of HCM City.

Chairing the ceremony, Priest Vũ Đình Thái, head of the Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics in Tan Phu district, said the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on property, claimed lives, and affected the mental and physical health of many people.

In their daily rituals, Catholics always say prayers for those who have died of COVID-19, regardless of their religions. Many parishes across the city have also organised requiems for the deceased, prayed for good health and comforted the bereaved families.

The commemoration and requiem is also an occasion for people to pay tribute to frontliners who have devoted themselves, even their lives, to saving people in the pandemic, Thái noted.

In response to a ceremony held by the Central VFF Committee and the HCM City Party Committee in commemoration of the people and frontliners who lost their lives in the COVID-19 pandemic, all churches and chapels in the Archdiocese of HCM City rang their bells in five minutes, at 8:30pm on November 19, to say prayers for the deceased’s souls./.

Source: en.vietnamplus.vn