Vietnamese Catholic Nuns - Catholic Stock Photo

This photo was taken in 1968.

Catholicism was introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century and was firmly established by Jesuits missionaries (mainly Portuguese and Italian) in the 17th centuries from nearby Portuguese Macau. French missionaries (from the Paris Foreign Missions Society) together with Spanish missionaries (from the Dominican Order of the neighboring Spanish East Indies) actively sought converts in the 18th, 19th, and first half of the 20th century.

The Catholic Church in Vietnam today consists of 27 dioceses organized in 3 ecclesiastical provinces of Hanoï, Hue and Saïgon. The government census of 2019 shows that Catholicism, for the first time, is the largest religious denomination in Vietnam, surpassing Buddhism. Ecclesiastical sources report there are about 7 million Catholics, representing 7.0% of the total population.

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