By Jude Webber
ROME, May 9, 2000 (Reuters) - The Vatican came back largely empty- handed from its recent trip to communist Vietnam and there was no progress on the delicate issue of diplomatic relations, the Holy See's missionary news agency, Fides, said on Tuesday.
``This is a step back five years,'' the agency's editor, Father Bernardo Cevellera, told Reuters.
``The delegation...left on April 30 with a series of problems to discuss with the Vietnamese authorities...According to Fides sources in the capital, the reply was 'disappointingly scant','' Fides said in an hard-hitting statement.
Fides said that one of the questions on the table was the nomination of new bishops for the dioceses of Hung Hoa, which has been vacant since 1992, Haiphong and Bui Chu, both of which have been vacant since 1999.
In addition, other dioceses including Hanoi, Da Nang and Vinh Long need substitute bishops since the incumbents are too old and ill, or need assistants, Fides said.
Fides said Hanoi had also stalled on opening a new seminary, and attributed some of the government's reserve to divisions in the party between reformers and hardliners.
Fides said the Vatican had sent generous aid to Vietnam for disaster relief, schools and hospitals in the last six years.