A short summary on the Catholics’ fight for justice in Vietnam
Human rights and religious freedom repression in Vietnam continues to escalate at an alarming rate. Vietnam's Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States, and its admission to both the World Trade Organization and the United Nations as an observer seem not to help improve its religious freedom conditions.
A short history
Vietnam was divided into two quite distinct states for most of the 17th and 18th centuries, and again between 1954 and 1975. The division has deeply affected the Catholic Church in the two areas. With the flight of hundreds of thousands of Catholics to south in the mid-'50s, the Church in the North lost between one third and one half of its membership. Those who remained lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime. They were denied access to education and decent jobs, and treated as second-class citizens. Seminaries were closed. The ordination, appointment and transfer of priests were severely restricted. Many Church properties have been seized. Consequently, church-going became all but impossible in many regions, resulting in many people abandoning their faith.
The Church in South Vietnam, meanwhile, enjoyed much more freedom and experienced an unprecedented growth. It ran prestigious institutions of education from kindergarten to tertiary level. Many prominent hospitals were run under Catholic Church auspices. There was a tide of vocations to the priesthood and religious life flourishing in all dioceses. All these underwent significant changes in 1975.
From 1975 until roughly the early 1990s, there continued to be severe discrimination against Christian believers. The Church's ministries were severely hampered, seminaries could not function, and many dioceses remained without bishops. Many Church properties were confiscated or transferred to the State under coercive conditions. The atheist government seized all Catholic schools and hospitals. At least 265 churches were confiscated. Some of them were destroyed for new constructions. The rest were converted into state-owned buildings, distributed or sold to officials.
Current situation
With the introduction to open market, the gradual opening to the West, especially to the United States, beginning with the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo in February 1994, the normalization of relations in July 1995, and the accession into WTO in November 2006; there has been a number of positive developments in religious liberty. The situation of the Church in Vietnam was improved due in good part to the persistent efforts of the Holy See to maintain an official dialogue with the authorities, including a more or less annual visit to Vietnam of a Vatican delegation.
However, there can be no denying that religious freedom is severely limited in today's Vietnam. It is fair to say that persecutions are still on their way especially in the rural areas such as in the North and in the Central Highlands. There are severe restraints on religious freedom, which Catholic bishops in Vietnam repeatedly speak out on, calling for the government to relax specific restrictions. After each meeting of the episcopal conference, the bishops typically send a memorial of the meeting to the Prime Minister, in which they list the areas of great concerns. One of outstanding issues is Church properties that the government has seized illegally or under coercive conditions.
Many properties that once belonged to the Church have been administered by the State on the grounds that they were needed for social purposes. Even when their purposes are no longer met, they are seldom returned to their owners. Recently, it is reported that they have been used as financial resources for government officials. Needless to say, activities held in these premises often disrupt religious services in the nearby churches.
For more than thirty years, bishops, priests, religious and lay people in Vietnam have called for the return of these properties. But their petitions have gone unanswered.
It worths to note that their requests are within the framework of the laws in Vietnam. The Catholics, recalling that the constitution safeguards religious freedom and places of worship, have underlined in particular directive 379/TTG, which specifies that places of worship borrowed by the authorities must be returned to the churches or their owners when their use is no longer justified. Added to this there is decree 26/1999/ND- which provides that church properties must be kept under the management of the state, and the state should not let these places of worships be transgressed, as well as ordinance 21/2004/PL-UBTVQH11 of June 18, 2004 regarding Religious Belief and Religious Organizations, which elaborates that the legal property of places of religious belief and of religious organizations is protected by law; any violation of this right is forbidden.
Vietnam laws regarding disputed properties state that neither side has the right to build on them or change their status before a final legal decision. However, some bureaus have authorised constructions and modifications despite protests.
The basic problem is one of justice. It lies in the partisan silence by the concerned agencies which have not upheld the rights of the people and given instead a free rein to those who violated them. This provocative and cavalier attitude by local government agencies has greatly irritated Vietnamese Catholics.
Some typical Church property disputes
Hanoi apostolic delegate’s office
Since 18 December 2007, thousands of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Hanoi have been organising peaceful demonstrations outside the former apostolic delegate’s office in Hanoi to ask for the return of the building to the archdiocese.
Demonstrations began after the release of a pastoral letter from Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt, in which he told Catholics in Hanoi that his petition to the Communist government for the return of the building seemed to go nowhere. In the letter, dated on December 15, he asked the Catholic community to pray intensively that finally justice would prevail.
Here is a brief history of the issue:
On 18 Oct 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Archbishop John Jarlath Dooley, S.S.C.M.E (1906 – 1999) as the Apostolic Delegate to Indochina.
On arrival to Vietnam, Archbishop John Dooley decided to move the Indochina Apostolic Delegate’s residence from Hue to Hanoi due to the political importance of the latter.
His office was set temporarily inside Hanoi Archbishopric complex. The Apostolic Delegate’s Office had the same address as that of Hanoi Archbishop’s Palace: 40 Phố Nhà Chung, Hanoi.
When Vietnam was divided into two distinct states in 1954, he remained in Hanoi.
In March, 1959 he had to leave Hanoi for medical treatment. Before leaving Vietnam, he wrote a letter in which he thanked Bishop Joseph Marie Trịnh Như Khuê (1898-1978) of Hanoi to allow him to use the building for a long time.
Father Terence O'Driscoll, an Irish priest, undertook the office temporarily while waiting for the Holy See’s instructions. However, within 2 weeks after Archbishop John Dooley left Vietnam, Hanoi deported Fr. O'Driscoll and all staff of the Apostolic Delegation.
After the deportation of the Apostolic Delegation, despite the protest of Bishop Joseph Marie Trinh, the communist government occupied the Apostolic Delegate’s Office, built a wall to separate it with the rest of the Archbishopric complex, and created a new address: 42 Phố Nhà Chung.
Since then, the former Apostolic Delegate’s Office has been used for various purposes, including those as means to torture Hanoi Catholic leaders and staff who lived nearby with loudly music played late into midnight. Needless to say, the music and other activities from the building disrupt badly church services in the nearby Hanoi Cathedral.
In 1980s, Cardinal Joseph-Marie Trịnh Văn Căn (1921-1990), the then Archbishop of Hanoi, had repeatedly reported the issue but the government kept torturing him with loudly music until his death.
In 2000, Cardinal Paul Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng requested the return of the building to the archdiocese.
For many years, Archbishop Joseph Ngô, his predecessors, and the bishops’ conference have called for the return of the building. So, it is disputed property and neither side has the right to build on it or change its status before a final legal decision. This year the apostolic delegation compound was constantly violated when the agency that is momentarily managing it built a two-storey Tonkinese restaurant. Some bureau authorised the construction.
Despite a request made by the archbishop on 4 December 2007 to maintain the status quo, the roof and floor of the main building were removed. And despite further protests, the courtyard was turned into a parking lot.
In the evening of December 18, more than 2,000 Catholics in Hanoi-- priests, religious, and laity-- gathered outside the building with candles praying for the justice. The government responded by deploying more police to intimidate the protestors. Nevertheless, every day hundreds of people have been coming to the building. They stand outside it, quietly praying.
On Christmas Eve, a crowd of about 4,000 candle-holders sang and prayed in front of the building.
On December 30 there was a meeting between the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng and the archbishop of Hanoi, but so far nothing has been done.
Catholics in Hanoi made a resolution that they will pray and light candles in front of the building until it is returned to the Catholic Church.
Thái Hà parish land
While peaceful demonstrations for the restitution of the old building of the apostolic delegation in Hanoi continue, police have forcibly intervened in an analogues protest in the parish of Thái Hà.
Thái Hà parish is run by Redemptorists. The order arrived in Vietnam in 1925. Since then, Redemptorists have taken the Good News to many provinces in the North of the country. In 1928, they bought 6 hectares at Thái Hà, Hanoi to build a convent and a church. Mass for the Inauguration of the convent was held on 7th May 1929. The church was inaugurated 6 years later, in 1935.
In 1941, there were up to 66 members including 17 priests, 12 brothers, 26 seminarians, and 11 novices living in the convent. The number of members kept increasing steadily until 1954, when Vietnam was divided into two distinct states. In 1954, most Redemptorists moved to the South of Vietnam. Fr. Joseph Vũ Ngọc Bích, Fr. Denis Paquette, Fr. Thomas Côté, Br. Clement Phạm Văn Đạt and Br. Marcel Nguyễn Tấn Văn remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. On 7th May 1955, Br. Marcel Nguyễn was arrested. Four year later, on 9th July 1959, he died in the communist jail. Fr. Denis Paquette faced deportation on 23rd October 1958. One year later, Fr. Thomas Côté faced the same fate. Less than three years later, on 9th October 1962, Br. Clement Phạm was jailed. He died later in the communist jail on 7th October 1970 in a rural area of Yên Bái. Since 1962, Fr. Joseph Vũ has run the church alone. Despite Fr. Joseph Vũ’s persistent protests, local authorities have managed to nibble bite by bite the parish’s land. The original area of 60,000 square meters was reduced to 2,700 square meters. The communist government converted the convent into Đống Đa hospital, and government officials.
Priests, religious and the laity of Thái Hà parish have repeatedly requested for the return of the land seized by the government. In support of their demands they note that the Redemptorists hold the legal land deeds and have never signed agreements to offer any part of the land to the government even under coercive conditions.
Despite all of this, the local authorities of Đống Đa district persist in their attempts to take even more land away from the parish. At the start of the year, fences went up and security officials were called in to protect the Chiến Thắng Sewing Company which had begun to build. Irritated, some parishioners began to protest.
In a message sent last January 7 to all the Redemptorists in the country, the provincial superior Fr Joseph Cao Đình Trị says the local government has illegally confiscated land belonging to their monastery at Thái Hà, Hanoi and is supporting a construction project there. The previous day, the government had sent security forces to the spot, to allow the Chiến Thắng Sewing Company to build on the land in question.
The Redemptorists in Hanoi, Fr Cao continues, "have responded by gathering people to pray at the construction site, asking the government to respect fairness and put justice into practice. I would earnestly implore all of you, the whole province of Vietnam, to be in solidarity with our brother Redemptorists in Hanoi, in order to pray for our common apostolate".
In the afternoon of 7 January the authorities came to allay the concerns of the crowd, promising that construction work would end. Instead the next day the Hanoi People’s Committee issued an official order authorising the company in question to continue its work. Angered by the turn of event, people realised that government institutions have made a mockery of their own words and of people’s sentiments in order to protect those who break the law. This is why, not knowing to whom they should turn to, they turned to prayer.
Hà Ðông parish presbytery
After Hanoi and Thái Hà, protests have reached Hà Ðông, a city with about 200,000 residents located some 40 kilometres from the Vietnamese capital. Here Catholics have peacefully protested demanding the return of their parish building which the authorities illegally seized claiming that it had been donated.
The protest began 6 January and since then has seen hundreds of faithful meeting in front of what was once their parish building to pray for justice to be done.
The faithful were provoked into action by a statement made by government officials rejecting their demand that the building be returned to its owners after it was seized 30 years to house the Hà Ðông People’s Committee. Parishioners have repeatedly forwarded petitions demanding the building’s return but to no avail.
However, Hà Ðông was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded the parish vicar, Fr Joseph Nguyễn Ngọc Hinh, to try again to get the building back.
This time however he got an astonishing answer. He was told that a “parish leader” had donated the building to the government in 1977.
Father Nguyễn responded saying that no parishioner has the right to do such a thing.
Even more astonishing was the fact that the “parish leader” who made the donation was in fact a member of the Communist Party appointed by the government to the parish council who in turn donated the property to the government.
In Hà Ðông the protest continues.
Saigon Major Seminary
In a related development, Cardinal Jean Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn of Saigon has also criticised the government for its failure to resolve a dispute over confiscated church property. The cardinal had made a request more than 3 years ago for the use of a building on the property of the Saigon seminary; the government finally respected to his request-- negatively-- in November 2007. In a letter that was sent in December, but only recently made public, the Vietnamese cardinal said that he was "shocked at both reasons for the rejection of his request, and at the long waiting time."
Along with the letter from Cardinal Jean Baptiste Phạm, Saigon archdiocese also published a statement in which the Cardinal stated that the building "was seized illegally by the local government". The building had been used to house French missionaries until it was confiscated in 1976 when all missionaries were deported.
The government argued that the building was a foreign property. But, "French missionaries were only the resident", the statement of Saigon archdiocese argued back, "they were not the owner of the building. Therefore, when they left Vietnam, the building remained a property of the archdiocese, of the Church in Vietnam".
The Church in Vietnam needs your help
For more than a month now, thousands of faithful have held prayer vigils in and around Hanoi, representing the faith's largest challenge so far to the communist government. While tensions mount as the issue of illegally-seized Church properties is not solved, Hanoi authorities accuse Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt and Catholic activists of taking advantage of religious freedom to stir up protests against the government - hinting that a crackdown was likely.
On January 11, Ms Ngô Thị Thanh Hằng, deputy chairman of the capital’s People’s Committee released a statement falsely accusing the prelate, priests, religious and the laity of Hanoi of “causing public disorder, adverse effect on good and cooperative relations among Vietnamese Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archbishop’s Office and the local government, creating opportunities for dissidents to ignite, distort, propagandise, and sow divisions between the laity and local government, rifting the good image of Catholicism within the community, and affecting the ongoing relations that are being improved between Vietnam and the Vatican”.
Threatening words like these referring to abuses of religious freedom have been used in the past as a warning about possible repression.
To remain silent in front of the violations by the agency charged with managing the apostolic delegation, to ignore the legitimate aspirations of Hanoi Catholics, to brazenly protect the Chiến Thắng Company and blame the Catholics is proof of an extremely partisan spirit of Vietnam government, and of its discrimination to the Catholics in Vietnam.
Please pray for the Church in Vietnam and put some actions to stop persecutions that it has been suffered since 1954. All Vietnamese Catholics are demanding is for the government to be impartial, to respect its own laws, and to stop the persecutions on the Church in Vietnam so that the population can go back to a quite life and live happily in peace.
Human rights and religious freedom repression in Vietnam continues to escalate at an alarming rate. Vietnam's Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States, and its admission to both the World Trade Organization and the United Nations as an observer seem not to help improve its religious freedom conditions.
A short history
Vietnam was divided into two quite distinct states for most of the 17th and 18th centuries, and again between 1954 and 1975. The division has deeply affected the Catholic Church in the two areas. With the flight of hundreds of thousands of Catholics to south in the mid-'50s, the Church in the North lost between one third and one half of its membership. Those who remained lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime. They were denied access to education and decent jobs, and treated as second-class citizens. Seminaries were closed. The ordination, appointment and transfer of priests were severely restricted. Many Church properties have been seized. Consequently, church-going became all but impossible in many regions, resulting in many people abandoning their faith.
The Church in South Vietnam, meanwhile, enjoyed much more freedom and experienced an unprecedented growth. It ran prestigious institutions of education from kindergarten to tertiary level. Many prominent hospitals were run under Catholic Church auspices. There was a tide of vocations to the priesthood and religious life flourishing in all dioceses. All these underwent significant changes in 1975.
From 1975 until roughly the early 1990s, there continued to be severe discrimination against Christian believers. The Church's ministries were severely hampered, seminaries could not function, and many dioceses remained without bishops. Many Church properties were confiscated or transferred to the State under coercive conditions. The atheist government seized all Catholic schools and hospitals. At least 265 churches were confiscated. Some of them were destroyed for new constructions. The rest were converted into state-owned buildings, distributed or sold to officials.
Current situation
With the introduction to open market, the gradual opening to the West, especially to the United States, beginning with the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo in February 1994, the normalization of relations in July 1995, and the accession into WTO in November 2006; there has been a number of positive developments in religious liberty. The situation of the Church in Vietnam was improved due in good part to the persistent efforts of the Holy See to maintain an official dialogue with the authorities, including a more or less annual visit to Vietnam of a Vatican delegation.
However, there can be no denying that religious freedom is severely limited in today's Vietnam. It is fair to say that persecutions are still on their way especially in the rural areas such as in the North and in the Central Highlands. There are severe restraints on religious freedom, which Catholic bishops in Vietnam repeatedly speak out on, calling for the government to relax specific restrictions. After each meeting of the episcopal conference, the bishops typically send a memorial of the meeting to the Prime Minister, in which they list the areas of great concerns. One of outstanding issues is Church properties that the government has seized illegally or under coercive conditions.
Many properties that once belonged to the Church have been administered by the State on the grounds that they were needed for social purposes. Even when their purposes are no longer met, they are seldom returned to their owners. Recently, it is reported that they have been used as financial resources for government officials. Needless to say, activities held in these premises often disrupt religious services in the nearby churches.
For more than thirty years, bishops, priests, religious and lay people in Vietnam have called for the return of these properties. But their petitions have gone unanswered.
It worths to note that their requests are within the framework of the laws in Vietnam. The Catholics, recalling that the constitution safeguards religious freedom and places of worship, have underlined in particular directive 379/TTG, which specifies that places of worship borrowed by the authorities must be returned to the churches or their owners when their use is no longer justified. Added to this there is decree 26/1999/ND- which provides that church properties must be kept under the management of the state, and the state should not let these places of worships be transgressed, as well as ordinance 21/2004/PL-UBTVQH11 of June 18, 2004 regarding Religious Belief and Religious Organizations, which elaborates that the legal property of places of religious belief and of religious organizations is protected by law; any violation of this right is forbidden.
Vietnam laws regarding disputed properties state that neither side has the right to build on them or change their status before a final legal decision. However, some bureaus have authorised constructions and modifications despite protests.
The basic problem is one of justice. It lies in the partisan silence by the concerned agencies which have not upheld the rights of the people and given instead a free rein to those who violated them. This provocative and cavalier attitude by local government agencies has greatly irritated Vietnamese Catholics.
Some typical Church property disputes
Hanoi apostolic delegate’s office
Since 18 December 2007, thousands of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Hanoi have been organising peaceful demonstrations outside the former apostolic delegate’s office in Hanoi to ask for the return of the building to the archdiocese.
Demonstrations began after the release of a pastoral letter from Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt, in which he told Catholics in Hanoi that his petition to the Communist government for the return of the building seemed to go nowhere. In the letter, dated on December 15, he asked the Catholic community to pray intensively that finally justice would prevail.
Here is a brief history of the issue:
On 18 Oct 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Archbishop John Jarlath Dooley, S.S.C.M.E (1906 – 1999) as the Apostolic Delegate to Indochina.
On arrival to Vietnam, Archbishop John Dooley decided to move the Indochina Apostolic Delegate’s residence from Hue to Hanoi due to the political importance of the latter.
His office was set temporarily inside Hanoi Archbishopric complex. The Apostolic Delegate’s Office had the same address as that of Hanoi Archbishop’s Palace: 40 Phố Nhà Chung, Hanoi.
When Vietnam was divided into two distinct states in 1954, he remained in Hanoi.
In March, 1959 he had to leave Hanoi for medical treatment. Before leaving Vietnam, he wrote a letter in which he thanked Bishop Joseph Marie Trịnh Như Khuê (1898-1978) of Hanoi to allow him to use the building for a long time.
Father Terence O'Driscoll, an Irish priest, undertook the office temporarily while waiting for the Holy See’s instructions. However, within 2 weeks after Archbishop John Dooley left Vietnam, Hanoi deported Fr. O'Driscoll and all staff of the Apostolic Delegation.
After the deportation of the Apostolic Delegation, despite the protest of Bishop Joseph Marie Trinh, the communist government occupied the Apostolic Delegate’s Office, built a wall to separate it with the rest of the Archbishopric complex, and created a new address: 42 Phố Nhà Chung.
Since then, the former Apostolic Delegate’s Office has been used for various purposes, including those as means to torture Hanoi Catholic leaders and staff who lived nearby with loudly music played late into midnight. Needless to say, the music and other activities from the building disrupt badly church services in the nearby Hanoi Cathedral.
In 1980s, Cardinal Joseph-Marie Trịnh Văn Căn (1921-1990), the then Archbishop of Hanoi, had repeatedly reported the issue but the government kept torturing him with loudly music until his death.
In 2000, Cardinal Paul Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng requested the return of the building to the archdiocese.
For many years, Archbishop Joseph Ngô, his predecessors, and the bishops’ conference have called for the return of the building. So, it is disputed property and neither side has the right to build on it or change its status before a final legal decision. This year the apostolic delegation compound was constantly violated when the agency that is momentarily managing it built a two-storey Tonkinese restaurant. Some bureau authorised the construction.
Despite a request made by the archbishop on 4 December 2007 to maintain the status quo, the roof and floor of the main building were removed. And despite further protests, the courtyard was turned into a parking lot.
In the evening of December 18, more than 2,000 Catholics in Hanoi-- priests, religious, and laity-- gathered outside the building with candles praying for the justice. The government responded by deploying more police to intimidate the protestors. Nevertheless, every day hundreds of people have been coming to the building. They stand outside it, quietly praying.
On Christmas Eve, a crowd of about 4,000 candle-holders sang and prayed in front of the building.
On December 30 there was a meeting between the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng and the archbishop of Hanoi, but so far nothing has been done.
Catholics in Hanoi made a resolution that they will pray and light candles in front of the building until it is returned to the Catholic Church.
Thái Hà parish land
While peaceful demonstrations for the restitution of the old building of the apostolic delegation in Hanoi continue, police have forcibly intervened in an analogues protest in the parish of Thái Hà.
Thái Hà parish is run by Redemptorists. The order arrived in Vietnam in 1925. Since then, Redemptorists have taken the Good News to many provinces in the North of the country. In 1928, they bought 6 hectares at Thái Hà, Hanoi to build a convent and a church. Mass for the Inauguration of the convent was held on 7th May 1929. The church was inaugurated 6 years later, in 1935.
In 1941, there were up to 66 members including 17 priests, 12 brothers, 26 seminarians, and 11 novices living in the convent. The number of members kept increasing steadily until 1954, when Vietnam was divided into two distinct states. In 1954, most Redemptorists moved to the South of Vietnam. Fr. Joseph Vũ Ngọc Bích, Fr. Denis Paquette, Fr. Thomas Côté, Br. Clement Phạm Văn Đạt and Br. Marcel Nguyễn Tấn Văn remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. On 7th May 1955, Br. Marcel Nguyễn was arrested. Four year later, on 9th July 1959, he died in the communist jail. Fr. Denis Paquette faced deportation on 23rd October 1958. One year later, Fr. Thomas Côté faced the same fate. Less than three years later, on 9th October 1962, Br. Clement Phạm was jailed. He died later in the communist jail on 7th October 1970 in a rural area of Yên Bái. Since 1962, Fr. Joseph Vũ has run the church alone. Despite Fr. Joseph Vũ’s persistent protests, local authorities have managed to nibble bite by bite the parish’s land. The original area of 60,000 square meters was reduced to 2,700 square meters. The communist government converted the convent into Đống Đa hospital, and government officials.
Priests, religious and the laity of Thái Hà parish have repeatedly requested for the return of the land seized by the government. In support of their demands they note that the Redemptorists hold the legal land deeds and have never signed agreements to offer any part of the land to the government even under coercive conditions.
Despite all of this, the local authorities of Đống Đa district persist in their attempts to take even more land away from the parish. At the start of the year, fences went up and security officials were called in to protect the Chiến Thắng Sewing Company which had begun to build. Irritated, some parishioners began to protest.
In a message sent last January 7 to all the Redemptorists in the country, the provincial superior Fr Joseph Cao Đình Trị says the local government has illegally confiscated land belonging to their monastery at Thái Hà, Hanoi and is supporting a construction project there. The previous day, the government had sent security forces to the spot, to allow the Chiến Thắng Sewing Company to build on the land in question.
The Redemptorists in Hanoi, Fr Cao continues, "have responded by gathering people to pray at the construction site, asking the government to respect fairness and put justice into practice. I would earnestly implore all of you, the whole province of Vietnam, to be in solidarity with our brother Redemptorists in Hanoi, in order to pray for our common apostolate".
In the afternoon of 7 January the authorities came to allay the concerns of the crowd, promising that construction work would end. Instead the next day the Hanoi People’s Committee issued an official order authorising the company in question to continue its work. Angered by the turn of event, people realised that government institutions have made a mockery of their own words and of people’s sentiments in order to protect those who break the law. This is why, not knowing to whom they should turn to, they turned to prayer.
Hà Ðông parish presbytery
After Hanoi and Thái Hà, protests have reached Hà Ðông, a city with about 200,000 residents located some 40 kilometres from the Vietnamese capital. Here Catholics have peacefully protested demanding the return of their parish building which the authorities illegally seized claiming that it had been donated.
The protest began 6 January and since then has seen hundreds of faithful meeting in front of what was once their parish building to pray for justice to be done.
The faithful were provoked into action by a statement made by government officials rejecting their demand that the building be returned to its owners after it was seized 30 years to house the Hà Ðông People’s Committee. Parishioners have repeatedly forwarded petitions demanding the building’s return but to no avail.
However, Hà Ðông was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded the parish vicar, Fr Joseph Nguyễn Ngọc Hinh, to try again to get the building back.
This time however he got an astonishing answer. He was told that a “parish leader” had donated the building to the government in 1977.
Father Nguyễn responded saying that no parishioner has the right to do such a thing.
Even more astonishing was the fact that the “parish leader” who made the donation was in fact a member of the Communist Party appointed by the government to the parish council who in turn donated the property to the government.
In Hà Ðông the protest continues.
Saigon Major Seminary
In a related development, Cardinal Jean Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn of Saigon has also criticised the government for its failure to resolve a dispute over confiscated church property. The cardinal had made a request more than 3 years ago for the use of a building on the property of the Saigon seminary; the government finally respected to his request-- negatively-- in November 2007. In a letter that was sent in December, but only recently made public, the Vietnamese cardinal said that he was "shocked at both reasons for the rejection of his request, and at the long waiting time."
Along with the letter from Cardinal Jean Baptiste Phạm, Saigon archdiocese also published a statement in which the Cardinal stated that the building "was seized illegally by the local government". The building had been used to house French missionaries until it was confiscated in 1976 when all missionaries were deported.
The government argued that the building was a foreign property. But, "French missionaries were only the resident", the statement of Saigon archdiocese argued back, "they were not the owner of the building. Therefore, when they left Vietnam, the building remained a property of the archdiocese, of the Church in Vietnam".
The Church in Vietnam needs your help
For more than a month now, thousands of faithful have held prayer vigils in and around Hanoi, representing the faith's largest challenge so far to the communist government. While tensions mount as the issue of illegally-seized Church properties is not solved, Hanoi authorities accuse Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt and Catholic activists of taking advantage of religious freedom to stir up protests against the government - hinting that a crackdown was likely.
On January 11, Ms Ngô Thị Thanh Hằng, deputy chairman of the capital’s People’s Committee released a statement falsely accusing the prelate, priests, religious and the laity of Hanoi of “causing public disorder, adverse effect on good and cooperative relations among Vietnamese Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archbishop’s Office and the local government, creating opportunities for dissidents to ignite, distort, propagandise, and sow divisions between the laity and local government, rifting the good image of Catholicism within the community, and affecting the ongoing relations that are being improved between Vietnam and the Vatican”.
Threatening words like these referring to abuses of religious freedom have been used in the past as a warning about possible repression.
To remain silent in front of the violations by the agency charged with managing the apostolic delegation, to ignore the legitimate aspirations of Hanoi Catholics, to brazenly protect the Chiến Thắng Company and blame the Catholics is proof of an extremely partisan spirit of Vietnam government, and of its discrimination to the Catholics in Vietnam.
Please pray for the Church in Vietnam and put some actions to stop persecutions that it has been suffered since 1954. All Vietnamese Catholics are demanding is for the government to be impartial, to respect its own laws, and to stop the persecutions on the Church in Vietnam so that the population can go back to a quite life and live happily in peace.