It now uses a Latin alphabet, or "chữ Quốc ngữ," that is based on the French alphabet. It was created by European Jesuit missionaries so that the Bible and other Catholic books could be quickly translated into Vietnamese. For many centuries, only Vietnamese Catholics and Catholic missionaries to Vietnam used the Vietnamese-Latin alphabet until 1910, when the French-controlled government made the Vietnamese-Latin alphabet the only official script, or the writing system of government.