Vietnam Religion

The Constitution of Vietnam provides for a general freedom of Religion. Precise data on religion in Vietnam is just not available. The vast majority of Vietnamese people are atheist (81%). 7.6 million are Buddhists and 6 million are Catholics. Other denominations are Cao Dai (2 million followers), Hoa Hao (1 million), Protestantism (500,000) and Islam (50,000).

In the religious understanding of the Vietnamese, there is no strict separation of different denominations. The religion is mostly a historical blend with many aspects of different religious origins. It is not uncommon to regularly visit Buddhist pagodas and worship their ancestors.

The religious life, or rather the way of life, is generally most influenced by the Theravada and/or Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and an animism and ancestor worship in particular, also, without these creating dogmas.

Ritual action elements of the different influences can occur depending on the everyday situation. The Catholic faith was first apparent in the 16th Century, with French, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries in the country.

It was laid out under pressure from the French colonial rule and expanded at the beginning of the U.S. war in Vietnam as a means of power. Catholicism was actively discouraged in the early years of communist rule, when the government saught to improve relations with the Holy See with the visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung with Pope Benedict XVI.