Inspired by the protest in Hanoi, Catholics in Hà Ðông hold another demonstration of large scale to demand for the return of their parish building.
Catholics in Hà Ðông, a city with about 200,000 residents located some 40 kilometres from the Vietnamese capital, made another mass prayer vigil on Friday night. The protest was the largest to date yet in a confrontation erupted on 6 January. On that day and since then they have demonstrated daily in front of their old parish building which the authorities illegally seized claiming that it had been donated.
Fr Joseph Nguyễn Ngọc Hinh, the parish vicar, and his assistant priest carrying a large cross, led a procession of more than a thousand religious and lay people from the parish church to the building where they prayed for hours in the cold rain.
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.
Nevertheless, Hà Ðông was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded Fr Nguyễn, 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.
Through peaceful prayer protests, the Church in Vietnam is challenging the atheist government more boldly than ever since the communists took power over five decades ago.
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| Fr. Nguyễn led the procession |
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| Praying for the triumph of justice |
Fr Joseph Nguyễn Ngọc Hinh, the parish vicar, and his assistant priest carrying a large cross, led a procession of more than a thousand religious and lay people from the parish church to the building where they prayed for hours in the cold rain.
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.
Nevertheless, Hà Ðông was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded Fr Nguyễn, 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.
Through peaceful prayer protests, the Church in Vietnam is challenging the atheist government more boldly than ever since the communists took power over five decades ago.