In 2007 many Catholics were ethnic Vietnamese, concentrated in major urban centers and surrounding areas along the Mekong River in the central and southern regions of the country; the Catholic Church had an established presence in five of the most populous central and southern provinces, and Catholics are able to worship openly. where there were four bishops, two located in Vientiane and others located in the cities of
Thakhek and Pakse. One of the two bishops resident in Vientiane oversaw the Vientiane Diocese and was responsible for the central part of the country while the second bishop resident in Vientiane was the Bishop of Luang Prabang - he was assigned to the northern part of the country, but while the Government did not permit him to take up his post, it did permit him to travel to visit church congregations in the north. Relationship between the Church and government has been strained since 1950s, a time when the Church was openly opposed to
Pathet Lao. The relationship after 1975 is categorised as mutually suspicious within each other. The church's property in Luang Prabang was seized after the 1975 Communist takeover, and there is no longer a parsonage in that city. In 2007 an informal Catholic training center in Thakhek prepared a small number of priests to serve the Catholic community while several foreign nuns temporarily serve in the Vientiane diocese. ==2020s==