Thanks to Catholic News Agencies and other media outlets, the international community has paid a good attention to Catholic protests in Vietnam and beyond them - the plight of Catholics under an atheist government.
This article is an attempt to present a short history of the Church in Vietnam, its sufferings and persecutions in the past and presence, and enormous challenges it still has to face.
The persecutions from 17th to 19th centuries
Catholicism reached Vietnam in the 16th century, thanks to the work of missionaries from France, Spain and Portugal. At that time, the country was divided into two parts. The North known as Tonkin or Bắc Kỳ (ruled by the Trinh Lords), and the South known as Cochin China, or Nam Kỳ (ruled by the Nguyễn Lords).
In 1580, a group of Franciscans from the Philippines arrived in Cochin China. However, the Mission in there officially began with the arrival of Jesuits Francesco Buzoni and Diego Carvalho in 1615.
In Tonkin, Father Alessandro de Rhodes, S.J., arrived in 1627. He played an important role in the Mission in Vietnam. He invented a written system of Vietnamese language using the Roman alphabet - that is still being used. Prior to that, through more than a thousand years of being colonized by the Chinese, Vietnamese written language was similar to Chinese characters (with some modifications). His invention allowed people to learn how to read and write much faster. It contributed not only to the Church mission but also to the progress of the society in general.
In particular, since 1650, Father de Rhodes repeatedly suggested Propaganda to send Bishops and create a local Vietnamese clergy.
The Church grew so fast in both the North and the South that it caused great concerns in the Trịnh and the Nguyễn Lords. In 1625, the first edict was issued by Trịnh Tráng decreeing persecutions against the Catholics.
Vietnam Catholic Church history reports that 53 edicts were signed by the Trịnh, the Nguyễn Lords and the Kings of Nguyễn dynasty, one worse than the previous one, for 261 years from 1625 to 1886. During that time, there were approximately 130,000 victims to these persecutions, spread all over the country. The Church suffered the worst persecutions under the kingdom of Minh Mạng (1820-1840), the “Nero of Indochina”.
Since its very first outset, the seed of Faith in Vietnam soil was mixed with the abundant blood of the martyrs, belonging to the missionary clergy as much as to the local clergy and the Christian people of Vietnam.
In the beginning of the 20th century, and since then, 117 of this immense multitude of Heroes, whose sufferance was of cruel indeed, were chosen and raised to the Altars by the Holy See, in four separate beatifications:
On June 19th, 1988, despite the protest of Vietnam government, with a solemn celebration on St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II presided over the solemn canonization of the Martyrs of Vietnam (+1745-1862):
The persecutions in the 20th century
The North after 1954
The Church in Vietnam has even suffered more since the communists took control the North in 1954 and later the South in 1975.
In 1954, when Vietnam was divided into North and South, many priests of the North followed the exodus and flight of hundreds of thousands of Catholics to South. The Church in the North lost between one third and one half of its membership and a similar ratio of priests. For a long time, this engendered a lack of priests in the North. Furthermore, for many years, the government forbade the opening of the Seminaries.
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 confiscated and administered by the State on the grounds that they were needed for social purposes. Consequently, church-going became all but impossible in many regions, resulting in many people abandoning their faith.
At first, the North government did follow its Chinese counterpart in religion policies. Soon after they took control the North, The “Liaison Committee for Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics” was born in March 1955. But that committee could not create a state-owned Catholic Church as in China. In Vietnam, there was not official Church, nor underground Church. There has been only one Catholic Church loyal to the Pope.
The government could lure some priests and lay persons into selling their soul for it. But most the clergy and faithful in Vietnam have preserved their faithfulness to Christ and the Church even at the price of grave sufferings. As a result, an alternative policy was applied – the clergy eradication policy. The North government tried to eradicate the clergy as much as they could.
In the land reform campaign which spread to most of the villages of North Vietnam from mid-1955 to mid-1956, many Catholic leaders falsely labeled as landlords and subjected to the confiscation of their land, which actually was Church land. In an official document [1], the government reports that the land reform campaign were conducted at 3,563 villages with more than half a million people charged as landlords. Among them 172,008 were executed. The government admits that among those who were killed 123,226 were actually victims of injustice. A significant number of priests and lay leaders were killed in this campaign resulting in so many congregations living without sacraments for decades.
The clergy and faithful were also jailed for other various reasons. The plight of Redemptorists in the North is a typical example[2].
In 1954, when 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 for no reason. 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. This left Fr. Joseph Vũ to run the church by himself. Despite his persistent protests, local authorities gradually seized the parish’s land one section at a time. Consequently, the plot of land was reduced from its original 15 acres to its present-day size of little more than half an acre.
The policy of eradication of priests has resulted in many congregations of faithful in the upper north provinces of Vietnam have been without a priest for more than half a century. Miraculously, some congregations have preserved the seed of their faith even without a priest for years.
Up to this point of time, in the north, due to the lack of priests, the spirit of the second Vatican Council has still not reached the minds and religious practices of the Christian people in rural areas.
The South after 1975
After the fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese people, from former officers in the armed forces to religious leaders were rounded up in re-education camps in rural areas. All Catholic army chaplains were arrested.
Prisoners, who were poorly nourished and received little or no medical care, had to work in the hot tropical sun. The poor health, combined with hard work, mandatory confessions and political indoctrination, made life very difficult for prisoners in Vietnam, and contributed to a high death rate in the camps.
One of these prisoners, well known to the world, was Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (1928-2002). On April 24th, 1975, The Holy Father Paul VI appointed him Archbishop Coadjutor of Saigon. On August 15th, 1975, 3 months after the communists took control Vietnam, he was imprisoned. The communists said his appointment was a plot of the Vatican.
At 47 years old; with only a rosary in his pocket as his luggage, he was sent to a communist re-education camp, where he spent 13 long years, nine in absolute solitary confinement. Released on November 21st, 1988, and expelled from his Country, he came to Vatican, where he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. After having preached the Lent Spiritual Exercises for the Pope and the Roman Curia during the Year of the Great Jubilee, during the following Consistory, on February 21st, 2001, he was appointed Cardinal. Only a year later, on September 16th, 2002, he died after a long a painful sickness.
The re-education camp policy with more than a million people jailed and among them more than 100,000 died, shed a cloud of fear all over Vietnam especially in the South. In that context, many Church properties were confiscated or transferred to the State under coercive conditions. The Church's ministries were severely hampered, seminaries could not function, and many dioceses remained without bishops.
The Archdiocese of Saigon was vacant for five years after the death of Archbishop Paul Nguyễn Văn Bình. The logjam was only broken in 1998 with the installation of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn who was made a cardinal in October 2003.
The Archdiocese of Huế had been vacant for six years when Archbishop Stephen Nguyễn Văn Thể was re-appointed Administrator in 1994 and was later able to be installed as archbishop.
Soon after the communists took control Vietnam, a “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was also born in the South with its first publication on July 10th 1975. Some priests and religious actively joined the committee as they believed it might be a good way to serve the country which had been torn by successive wars. But most of them joined it out of fear.
The first job that the government assigned to the committee was to organize demonstrations outside the nunciature in Saigon calling for the government to deport the Aspostolic Delegate. They did it successfully.
However, tables were turned after the first meeting of the so-called “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” in December 1976. Priests and religious who attended the meeting in Hanoi were shocked when the celebrants deliberately ignored the prayer for the Pope in the Mass on the last day of the meeting.
The fate of “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was decided after a letter from The Holy See warning the clergy who involved in the committee. Most of priests withdrew from the committee after the letter.
Present limitations on religious freedom
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. The persecutions against the Catholics in Sơn La province is a typical example [3].
Months immediately preceding the visit from President George W. Bush, and the WTO accession, Vietnam issued several decrees and ordinances that outlawed forced renunciations of faith, and relaxed restrictions on religious freedom. However, things seem to return back to previous status, at least with Hmong Catholics in Sơn La province.
Local Catholics in Sơn La report that many Hmong Catholics have been threatened to force them to cease religion activities. Those who refused to do so were detained, interrogated, arrested, imprisoned, beat, and harassed. In some cases, their rice fields were set on fire and land confiscated. Last year, soon after the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, an entire of Catholic village fled into a jungle to avoid persecutions. They traveled South far to Thanh Hóa province.
Local authorities responded by setting up border guard stations within ethnic villages to prevent further runaways. There have been reports in which security officials pressured Hmong Catholics to sign pledges agreeing to abandon “Christianity and politics”, and to construct traditional animistic altars in their homes. These practices were outlawed in a February 2005 decree. However, so far, no security officials have been punished for these actions.
The local government of Sơn La has long connected Hmong Christianity with the “receive the king” tradition of Hmong culture. This tradition was interpreted as a harbinger of political secession, a serious national security threat.
In June 2006, the Sơn La’s Committee of Population Propaganda issued a document urging officials to take active measures to “resolutely subdue” the growth of Christianity because “Sơn La people have no ‘genuine need’ for religion”, “Christians spend so much time for worship, and on Sunday, they rest from work”. This “undermines the revolution”.
The document brazenly contradicts to decrees and ordinances from Vietnam Prime Minister in 2005 and 2006.
There are more 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. Among these, typically are the following:
1) The long delays in securing the appointment of bishops and diocesan administrators. This has always been a central point on the agenda in the bilateral meetings between the Vatican and the Vietnam government.
2) The restrictions on the ordination, appointment and transfer of priests. This is a major sticking point. Even after completing all requisite studies for ordination, candidates are often made to wait years before beginning their ministry.
3) The carrying out of the Church's normal activities, involving travel, holding meetings, developing new pastoral initiatives, are all subjected to approval by the civil authorities.
4) Recruitment of seminarians is severely restricted; only a certain number may be enrolled in the diocesan seminaries each year, and candidates and even their families are subjected to scrutiny.
5) Publications and other media are severely restricted. The Church has no access to the mass media.
6) Many buildings 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, the buildings 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.
7) Local governments are still pursuing policies of religious persecution for the ethnic minorities, especially the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and the Thai, Hmong and Muong in the Northern Mountains.
8) The communist government has severely restricted all the Church activities in education and keeps pursuing an anti-Christian education policy. In text books, the Church has been systematically described as ‘evil’ and ‘obstacles’ to the progress of the society. Also, relations between the Catholic Church and the government remain tense due partly to ongoing efforts from the government to distort history in order to falsely accuse the Church of being ally to foreign invaders in 19th and 20th centuries.
References
[1] The history of Vietnam economics from 1945 to 2000, Vol. 2, Vietnam Bureau of Economic Affairs, Hanoi, 2004.
[2] Asia-News, Hanoi Catholics demonstrate for parish land, http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11195&geo=53&size=A
[3] VietCatholic News Agency, Vietnam: Hmong Catholics face severe persecutions, http://vietcatholic.net/News/Clients/ReadArticle.aspx?Id=50872
This article is an attempt to present a short history of the Church in Vietnam, its sufferings and persecutions in the past and presence, and enormous challenges it still has to face.
The persecutions from 17th to 19th centuries
Catholicism reached Vietnam in the 16th century, thanks to the work of missionaries from France, Spain and Portugal. At that time, the country was divided into two parts. The North known as Tonkin or Bắc Kỳ (ruled by the Trinh Lords), and the South known as Cochin China, or Nam Kỳ (ruled by the Nguyễn Lords).
In 1580, a group of Franciscans from the Philippines arrived in Cochin China. However, the Mission in there officially began with the arrival of Jesuits Francesco Buzoni and Diego Carvalho in 1615.
In Tonkin, Father Alessandro de Rhodes, S.J., arrived in 1627. He played an important role in the Mission in Vietnam. He invented a written system of Vietnamese language using the Roman alphabet - that is still being used. Prior to that, through more than a thousand years of being colonized by the Chinese, Vietnamese written language was similar to Chinese characters (with some modifications). His invention allowed people to learn how to read and write much faster. It contributed not only to the Church mission but also to the progress of the society in general.
In particular, since 1650, Father de Rhodes repeatedly suggested Propaganda to send Bishops and create a local Vietnamese clergy.
The Church grew so fast in both the North and the South that it caused great concerns in the Trịnh and the Nguyễn Lords. In 1625, the first edict was issued by Trịnh Tráng decreeing persecutions against the Catholics.
Vietnam Catholic Church history reports that 53 edicts were signed by the Trịnh, the Nguyễn Lords and the Kings of Nguyễn dynasty, one worse than the previous one, for 261 years from 1625 to 1886. During that time, there were approximately 130,000 victims to these persecutions, spread all over the country. The Church suffered the worst persecutions under the kingdom of Minh Mạng (1820-1840), the “Nero of Indochina”.
Since its very first outset, the seed of Faith in Vietnam soil was mixed with the abundant blood of the martyrs, belonging to the missionary clergy as much as to the local clergy and the Christian people of Vietnam.
In the beginning of the 20th century, and since then, 117 of this immense multitude of Heroes, whose sufferance was of cruel indeed, were chosen and raised to the Altars by the Holy See, in four separate beatifications:
- In 1900, by Pope Leo XIII, 64 people.
- In 1906, by Pope St. Pious X, 8 people.
- In 1909, by Pope St. Pious X, 20 people.
- In 1951, by Pope Pious XII, 25 people.
- Vietnamese: 96, 37 Priests (including 11 Dominicans), 59 Christians (including 1 Seminarian, 16 Catechists, 10 Dominican Tertiaries and 1 woman).
- Spanish: 11, all belonging to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans): 6 Bishops, 5 Priests.
- French: 10, all belonging to the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris: 2 Bishops, 8 Priests.
- 2 fallen under the kingdom of Lord Trịnh Doanh (1740-1767)
- 2 fallen under the kingdom of Lord Trịnh Sâm (1767-1782)
- 2 fallen under the kingdom of Lord Cảnh Thịnh (1782-1802)
- 58 fallen under the kingdom of King Minh Mạng (1820-1840)
- 3 fallen under the kingdom of King Thiệu Trị (1840-1847)
- 50 fallen under the kingdom of King Tự Đức (1847-1883)
On June 19th, 1988, despite the protest of Vietnam government, with a solemn celebration on St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II presided over the solemn canonization of the Martyrs of Vietnam (+1745-1862):
- Andrew Dũng-Lac, Priest.
- Tommaso Thiện and Emmanuele Phụng, lay people.
- Girolamo Hermosilla,Valentino Berrio Ochoa, O.P., and 6 other Bishops.
- Teofano Venard, Priest, M.E.P., and 105 Companions, Martyrs.
The persecutions in the 20th century
The North after 1954
The Church in Vietnam has even suffered more since the communists took control the North in 1954 and later the South in 1975.
In 1954, when Vietnam was divided into North and South, many priests of the North followed the exodus and flight of hundreds of thousands of Catholics to South. The Church in the North lost between one third and one half of its membership and a similar ratio of priests. For a long time, this engendered a lack of priests in the North. Furthermore, for many years, the government forbade the opening of the Seminaries.
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 confiscated and administered by the State on the grounds that they were needed for social purposes. Consequently, church-going became all but impossible in many regions, resulting in many people abandoning their faith.
At first, the North government did follow its Chinese counterpart in religion policies. Soon after they took control the North, The “Liaison Committee for Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics” was born in March 1955. But that committee could not create a state-owned Catholic Church as in China. In Vietnam, there was not official Church, nor underground Church. There has been only one Catholic Church loyal to the Pope.
The government could lure some priests and lay persons into selling their soul for it. But most the clergy and faithful in Vietnam have preserved their faithfulness to Christ and the Church even at the price of grave sufferings. As a result, an alternative policy was applied – the clergy eradication policy. The North government tried to eradicate the clergy as much as they could.
In the land reform campaign which spread to most of the villages of North Vietnam from mid-1955 to mid-1956, many Catholic leaders falsely labeled as landlords and subjected to the confiscation of their land, which actually was Church land. In an official document [1], the government reports that the land reform campaign were conducted at 3,563 villages with more than half a million people charged as landlords. Among them 172,008 were executed. The government admits that among those who were killed 123,226 were actually victims of injustice. A significant number of priests and lay leaders were killed in this campaign resulting in so many congregations living without sacraments for decades.
The clergy and faithful were also jailed for other various reasons. The plight of Redemptorists in the North is a typical example[2].
In 1954, when 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 for no reason. 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. This left Fr. Joseph Vũ to run the church by himself. Despite his persistent protests, local authorities gradually seized the parish’s land one section at a time. Consequently, the plot of land was reduced from its original 15 acres to its present-day size of little more than half an acre.
The policy of eradication of priests has resulted in many congregations of faithful in the upper north provinces of Vietnam have been without a priest for more than half a century. Miraculously, some congregations have preserved the seed of their faith even without a priest for years.
Up to this point of time, in the north, due to the lack of priests, the spirit of the second Vatican Council has still not reached the minds and religious practices of the Christian people in rural areas.
The South after 1975
After the fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese people, from former officers in the armed forces to religious leaders were rounded up in re-education camps in rural areas. All Catholic army chaplains were arrested.
Prisoners, who were poorly nourished and received little or no medical care, had to work in the hot tropical sun. The poor health, combined with hard work, mandatory confessions and political indoctrination, made life very difficult for prisoners in Vietnam, and contributed to a high death rate in the camps.
One of these prisoners, well known to the world, was Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (1928-2002). On April 24th, 1975, The Holy Father Paul VI appointed him Archbishop Coadjutor of Saigon. On August 15th, 1975, 3 months after the communists took control Vietnam, he was imprisoned. The communists said his appointment was a plot of the Vatican.
At 47 years old; with only a rosary in his pocket as his luggage, he was sent to a communist re-education camp, where he spent 13 long years, nine in absolute solitary confinement. Released on November 21st, 1988, and expelled from his Country, he came to Vatican, where he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. After having preached the Lent Spiritual Exercises for the Pope and the Roman Curia during the Year of the Great Jubilee, during the following Consistory, on February 21st, 2001, he was appointed Cardinal. Only a year later, on September 16th, 2002, he died after a long a painful sickness.
The re-education camp policy with more than a million people jailed and among them more than 100,000 died, shed a cloud of fear all over Vietnam especially in the South. In that context, many Church properties were confiscated or transferred to the State under coercive conditions. The Church's ministries were severely hampered, seminaries could not function, and many dioceses remained without bishops.
The Archdiocese of Saigon was vacant for five years after the death of Archbishop Paul Nguyễn Văn Bình. The logjam was only broken in 1998 with the installation of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn who was made a cardinal in October 2003.
The Archdiocese of Huế had been vacant for six years when Archbishop Stephen Nguyễn Văn Thể was re-appointed Administrator in 1994 and was later able to be installed as archbishop.
Soon after the communists took control Vietnam, a “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was also born in the South with its first publication on July 10th 1975. Some priests and religious actively joined the committee as they believed it might be a good way to serve the country which had been torn by successive wars. But most of them joined it out of fear.
The first job that the government assigned to the committee was to organize demonstrations outside the nunciature in Saigon calling for the government to deport the Aspostolic Delegate. They did it successfully.
However, tables were turned after the first meeting of the so-called “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” in December 1976. Priests and religious who attended the meeting in Hanoi were shocked when the celebrants deliberately ignored the prayer for the Pope in the Mass on the last day of the meeting.
The fate of “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was decided after a letter from The Holy See warning the clergy who involved in the committee. Most of priests withdrew from the committee after the letter.
Present limitations on religious freedom
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. The persecutions against the Catholics in Sơn La province is a typical example [3].
Months immediately preceding the visit from President George W. Bush, and the WTO accession, Vietnam issued several decrees and ordinances that outlawed forced renunciations of faith, and relaxed restrictions on religious freedom. However, things seem to return back to previous status, at least with Hmong Catholics in Sơn La province.
Local Catholics in Sơn La report that many Hmong Catholics have been threatened to force them to cease religion activities. Those who refused to do so were detained, interrogated, arrested, imprisoned, beat, and harassed. In some cases, their rice fields were set on fire and land confiscated. Last year, soon after the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, an entire of Catholic village fled into a jungle to avoid persecutions. They traveled South far to Thanh Hóa province.
Local authorities responded by setting up border guard stations within ethnic villages to prevent further runaways. There have been reports in which security officials pressured Hmong Catholics to sign pledges agreeing to abandon “Christianity and politics”, and to construct traditional animistic altars in their homes. These practices were outlawed in a February 2005 decree. However, so far, no security officials have been punished for these actions.
The local government of Sơn La has long connected Hmong Christianity with the “receive the king” tradition of Hmong culture. This tradition was interpreted as a harbinger of political secession, a serious national security threat.
In June 2006, the Sơn La’s Committee of Population Propaganda issued a document urging officials to take active measures to “resolutely subdue” the growth of Christianity because “Sơn La people have no ‘genuine need’ for religion”, “Christians spend so much time for worship, and on Sunday, they rest from work”. This “undermines the revolution”.
The document brazenly contradicts to decrees and ordinances from Vietnam Prime Minister in 2005 and 2006.
There are more 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. Among these, typically are the following:
1) The long delays in securing the appointment of bishops and diocesan administrators. This has always been a central point on the agenda in the bilateral meetings between the Vatican and the Vietnam government.
2) The restrictions on the ordination, appointment and transfer of priests. This is a major sticking point. Even after completing all requisite studies for ordination, candidates are often made to wait years before beginning their ministry.
3) The carrying out of the Church's normal activities, involving travel, holding meetings, developing new pastoral initiatives, are all subjected to approval by the civil authorities.
4) Recruitment of seminarians is severely restricted; only a certain number may be enrolled in the diocesan seminaries each year, and candidates and even their families are subjected to scrutiny.
5) Publications and other media are severely restricted. The Church has no access to the mass media.
6) Many buildings 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, the buildings 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.
7) Local governments are still pursuing policies of religious persecution for the ethnic minorities, especially the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and the Thai, Hmong and Muong in the Northern Mountains.
8) The communist government has severely restricted all the Church activities in education and keeps pursuing an anti-Christian education policy. In text books, the Church has been systematically described as ‘evil’ and ‘obstacles’ to the progress of the society. Also, relations between the Catholic Church and the government remain tense due partly to ongoing efforts from the government to distort history in order to falsely accuse the Church of being ally to foreign invaders in 19th and 20th centuries.
References
[1] The history of Vietnam economics from 1945 to 2000, Vol. 2, Vietnam Bureau of Economic Affairs, Hanoi, 2004.
[2] Asia-News, Hanoi Catholics demonstrate for parish land, http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11195&geo=53&size=A
[3] VietCatholic News Agency, Vietnam: Hmong Catholics face severe persecutions, http://vietcatholic.net/News/Clients/ReadArticle.aspx?Id=50872