Hanoi, Jan. 30, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Police in Hanoi have launched a criminal investigation into Catholic protests over the government's refusal to return the former office of the apostolic nuncio.
The police newspaper Capital Security has reported that the Vietnamese government is seeking legal action against Hanoi’s Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet and other clergymen. They are accused of abusing their influence to incite followers to confront the Communist government, destroying state-owned properties and attacking public officials.
Church leaders in Hanoi consider the investigation as a new form of intimidation, aiming at individuals after failed attempts to intimidate the Catholic community as a whole.
Since December 18, the former residence of the Vatican nuncio in the Vietnamese capital has been the focus of gatherings for thousands of Catholics who demand the building, seized by the government in 1959, be returned to the Church.
The charges of destroying state-owned properties and attacking public officials are related to a clash on January 25 when protestors scuffled with police and threw away commercial billboards on the fence of the nunciature.
In an article published on VietCatholic News on Wednesday, Bishop Francis Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh diocese, who witnessed the January 25 episode, decried the press coverage in the state-controlled media as a “shameful distortion of the facts” and an attempt “trying to turn crime victims into criminals”
Since last Friday, hundreds of religious together with many lay faithful have been camping in the garden of the former nunciature in prayer. There are also a great number of police in uniform and in plain clothes.
The police newspaper Capital Security has reported that the Vietnamese government is seeking legal action against Hanoi’s Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet and other clergymen. They are accused of abusing their influence to incite followers to confront the Communist government, destroying state-owned properties and attacking public officials.
Church leaders in Hanoi consider the investigation as a new form of intimidation, aiming at individuals after failed attempts to intimidate the Catholic community as a whole.
Since December 18, the former residence of the Vatican nuncio in the Vietnamese capital has been the focus of gatherings for thousands of Catholics who demand the building, seized by the government in 1959, be returned to the Church.
The charges of destroying state-owned properties and attacking public officials are related to a clash on January 25 when protestors scuffled with police and threw away commercial billboards on the fence of the nunciature.
In an article published on VietCatholic News on Wednesday, Bishop Francis Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh diocese, who witnessed the January 25 episode, decried the press coverage in the state-controlled media as a “shameful distortion of the facts” and an attempt “trying to turn crime victims into criminals”
Since last Friday, hundreds of religious together with many lay faithful have been camping in the garden of the former nunciature in prayer. There are also a great number of police in uniform and in plain clothes.