In December 18th, 2007, for the first time Hanoi’s Catholics had taken to the streets. More than two thousand people peacefully held a torchlight protest to ask the government to restore a building that once housed the offices of the apostolic nuncio. By late January the daily demonstrations had grown into major events, with government officials - apparently frustrated by the peaceful protests - threatening both military and legal actions against the archbishop, his clergy, and Catholic activists.
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. Diplomatic pressures have stopped Vietnam showing its hand and forced them to dialogue peacefully with the Church.
This article is an attempt to present a concise background of Church property issues in Vietnam and enormous challenges the Church has to face to regain its properties seized illegally by the communist government.
A history of persecutions and Martyrs
Catholicism reached Vietnam in the 16th century, thanks to the work of missionaries from France, Spain and Portugal. 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.
Vietnam Catholic Church history reports that in the period of 261 years from 1625 to 1886, 53 edicts were signed by the Trinh, the Nguyen Lords and the Kings of Nguyen dynasty, one worse than the previous one. 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 Mang (1820-1840), the “Nero of Indochina”.
117 of this immense multitude of Heroes, whose sufferance was of cruel indeed, were chosen and raised to the Altars by the Holy See.
The Church in Vietnam has even suffered more than ever since the communists took control the North in 1954 and later the South in 1975.
The North after 1954
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. 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.
At first, the North government did follow its Chinese counterpart in religion policies: it tried its best to set up a state-controlled Catholic Church. Soon after they took control the North, a few months later, the “Liaison Committee for Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics” was born in March 1955.
The initial intention of the committee was to establish a Patriotic Church loyal to the Party. But it failed thanks to the fidelity to Christ and His Church of Bishops, priests, religious and the laity. While other religions were divided into an official (or state-approved) one and an underground one, there has been only one Catholic Church in Vietnam completely loyal to Christ and His Church even at the price of grave sufferings. As a result, alternative policies were applied, typically – the clergy eradication and the Church property confiscation policies.
In the land reform campaign which spread to most of the villages of North Vietnam from mid-1955 to mid-1956, many Catholic leaders were falsely labelled as landlords and subjected to the confiscation of their land, which actually was Church land. In an official document[1], the government reported that the land reform campaign was conducted at 3,563 villages with more than half a million people charged as landlords. Among them 172,008 were executed. Vietnam government admitted 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 Mass and sacraments for decades.
In successive years, the clergy and faithful were also jailed for other various reasons or even for no reasons at all. The plight of Redemptorists in the North was a typical example[2].
In 1954, when most Redemptorists moved to the South of Vietnam, Fr. Joseph Vu Ngoc Bich, Fr. Denis Paquette, Fr. Thomas Côté, Br. Clement Pham Van Dat and Br. Marcel Nguyen Tan Van remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. On May 7th, 1955, Br. Marcel Nguyen was arrested for no reason. Four year later, on July 9th, 1959, he died in the communist jail. Fr. Denis Paquette faced deportation on October 23rd, 1958. One year later, Fr. Thomas Côté faced the same fate. Less than three years later, on October 9th, 1962, Br. Clement Pham was jailed. He died later in the communist jail on October 7th, 1970 in a rural area of Yen Bai. This left Fr. Joseph Vu 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 clergy eradication and the Church property confiscation policies have resulted in many congregations of faithful in the upper north provinces of Vietnam have been without churches and priests for more than half a century. Miraculously, some congregations have preserved the seed of their faith and even transmit it to the descendant generations.
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.
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.[3]
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.
As a result, a wave of millions people tried to escape the country by any means. They were prepared to risk everything. Many took to the ocean in tiny overcrowded ships. At least half of the "boat people", as they were commonly known, never reached to their destination.
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.
Soon after the communists took control Vietnam, a “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was also born in the South with its “Catholics and People” magazine first published on July 10th, 1975. This was seen as the second attempt of the government to set up a state-run Church.
At first, 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.
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.
Also, Catholics in the South became more vigilant at the ploy of the atheist government to create a Catholic schism as the “Catholics and People” magazine, which, despite its name, is controlled by the Communist party rather than the Church – has carried a series of anti-Vatican articles to lay harsh criticisms on Vatican and the Pope.
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 when the letter was published in 1985.
While the Vietnamese government claims that everyone in Vietnam has the right to believe or not believe in any religion, in practice, only those who follow state-approved churches are looked upon favourably. Others can quickly find themselves suffered overt persecutions. A series of Church properties in South Vietnam were seized after the government recognised its failure to set up a “Patriotic Catholic Church”.
Altogether more or less 2250 Church properties in both the North and the South of Vietnam have been seized. Some of them were turned into factories, movie theatres, restaurants, or government offices. Some simply were destroyed. Others were sold or gave to government officials.
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[4].
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 Son La province is a typical example[5].
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 Son La province.
Local Catholics in Son 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 Nguyen Tan Dung, an entire of Catholic village fled into a jungle to avoid persecutions. They travelled 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 Son 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 Son La’s Committee of Population Propaganda issued a document urging officials to take active measures to “resolutely subdue” the growth of Christianity because “Son 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.
Hanoi protest prayers
A short history
On Oct 18th,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. In Hanoi, his office was set temporarily inside the Archbishopric complex.
When Vietnam was divided into two distinct states in 1954, he remained in Hanoi. However, five years later, 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 Trinh Nhu Khue (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. But, within 2 weeks after Archbishop John Dooley left Vietnam, Hanoi deported Fr. O'Driscoll and all staff of the Apostolic Delegation.
Soon, the communist government occupied the Nuncio’s office, built a wall to separate it with the rest of the Archbishopric complex, despite strong protests of Bishop Joseph Marie Trinh.
Since then, the former Nuncio’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 Trinh Van Can (1921-1990), 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 Pham Dinh Tung requested the return of the building to the archdiocese. Vietnam Conference of Catholic Bishops has also sent petitions to the authorities for the return of the building. Yet, their petitions have gone unanswered.
Protests erupted
In a letter, released on December 15th, 2007, Archbishop Joseph Ngo told his congregation that the Nuncio’s office within the premises of his palace was seized illegally by the government since 1959. He asked the congregation to pray for the return of the building.
On December 18th, a rally was held drawing thousands Catholics to the street. The daily demonstrations quickly grew into major events when more and more Catholics gathered day and night praying in front of the building. Every day, priests and Catholic followers lit candles, placed flowers and sang at the iron fence. These events have attracted attentions of international Catholic and secular media, and through them of the international community.
Hanoi Catholics prayer protests pose great threats to Vietnam government. This is the first time it has to deal with the protests – bolder than ever - from Catholics as a religious community. Also, these protests occurred just a few months after Vietnam created a watershed, especially for the US, through a wave of harassments, arrests and criminal charges against human rights and democracy advocates engaged in peaceful and perfectly legal activities[6]. Vietnam had been put back on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) since May 2007. Apparently, it did not want to suffer more economic measures from US and other Western countries.
On December 30th, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the site and met Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet during a prayer meeting with thousands of followers pledging to consider the issue seriously.
Thai Ha parish protests
While peaceful demonstrations for the restitution of the old building of the apostolic delegation in Hanoi continue, police forcibly intervened in an analogues protest in the parish of Thai Ha.
On January 6th parishioners gathered to ask for the restitution of 60 thousand square metres of parish grounds that have been occupied by state buildings. Recently, a sewing factory backed by local authorities has also built its workshops on the parish’s land.
Police in mass clashed with protestors. This was seen as a message that Vietnam’s government was not be prepared for any agreements on land disputes that satisfy the legitimate aspiration of Hanoi’s Catholics. The protest, however, seems so far to have stopped further appropriation of parish lands.
Thai Ha 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 Thai Ha, Hanoi to build a convent and a church. Mass for the Inauguration of the convent was held on 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 Vu Ngoc Bich and other 4 Redemptorists remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. Since 1962, after other Redemptorists were jailed or deported, Fr. Joseph Vu had run the church alone. Despite Fr. Joseph Vu’s persistent protests, local authorities had 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 Dong Da hospital, and distributed or sold illegally large parts of the land to state-owned companies, and government officials.
Priests, religious and the laity of Thai Ha 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.
For more than ten years the Redemptorist Fathers have been demanding the return of the land belonging to them. Their petitions have gone unanswered. But at the start of the year fences went up and security officials were called in to protect the Chiến Thắng Company which had begun to build.
In the afternoon of January 7th, 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.
In a message sent last January 7th, to all the Redemptorists in the country, the provincial superior Fr Joseph Cao Dinh Tri says the local government has illegally confiscated land belonging to their monastery at Thai Ha, Hanoi and is supporting a construction project there. The previous day, the government had sent security forces to the spot, to allow the Chien Thang 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".
The Redemptorists in Saigon immediately held a prayer protest at their Redemptorist convent drawing more than 4,000 Catholics. It was the largest, and probably the first, anti-government protest held in the city since the communists took power in 1975.
Demonstrators have been camped out at the site to pray day and night in front of dozens of crosses and icons of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which are hanging on the fence that surrounds the confiscated property.
Ha Dong parish protests
Prayer protests soon reached Ha Dong, 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 January 6th, 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 Ha Dong People’s Committee. Parishioners have repeatedly forwarded petitions demanding the building’s return but to no avail.
However, Ha Dong was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded the parish vicar, Fr Joseph Nguyen 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 Nguyen 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.
Ultimatum of the government for Catholics to stop protesting.
Early in the morning of January 25th, more than two thousands of Catholics gathered in the streets of Hanoi to show their opposition to the government’s refusal to hand over the Nuncio’s office.
The morning protest was followed by a Mass for the birthday of Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Dinh Tung, the former archbishop of Hanoi. Following the celebration, a second peaceful demonstration began which became violent.
During the protest, a Hmong woman had climbed over a gate to place flowers on a statue of the Virgin Mary inside the building.
Discovered by security personnel, the woman was chased around the garden of the building. Disregarding the woman's explanations for her venturing into the building, the guards kicked and slapped her severely. In the witness of more than 2,000 Catholics, a security commander even loudly ordered his subordinates to beat to death the woman.
Lawyer Le Quoc Quan, a Catholic, intervened telling the security officials that their acts were unlawful and that they should stop beating the woman. However, they turned to attack him and dragged him to an office where he was beaten cruelly.
Catholics occupied the nuncio's office
Seeing all this brutality, in order to rescue Mr. Quan and the woman, the protestors had no other choice than breaking through the gate to confront the security officers. They occupied the building, erected a giant cross and sit-in protested on the garden of the building despite cold rains and biting winds.
Large numbers of security police, in uniform and in plain-clothes, were on the site, surrounding the protestors and mingling in their ranks, taking photos and filming with video cameras.
The next day, the city's governing body issued an ultimatum giving the protestors until 5 p.m. Sunday January 27th to leave the premises and to remove statues of the Virgin Mary and the cross that they had erected on Friday.
Also, the government-controlled media, which had remained silence about the protests, jumped in describing the protestors as "naive people," and charged that the Catholic clergy had been 'lying to their flock" and inciting them against the government. The media campaign led to fears that a police crackdown was imminent.
Despite all of measures of intimidation, the archbishop did not disperse protestors. None of the government instructions were followed. On the contrary, he challenged the order saying that “Praying is a basic human right protected by laws. I'm prepared to go to jail for my flock should the government jail them.”
More than 3,000 Catholics gathered in the garden of the building that once housed the apostolic nuncio for a prayer vigil on Sunday, January 27th, in defiance of a government order to vacate the site.
Not daring to show its hand and challenge the international community, the government tried to seek a way to escape from the deadlock. On February 1st, the government agreed to turn the building over to Church leaders.
The concession by the Vietnamese government came just hours after the publication of a letter from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, urging Hanoi's Catholics to avoid confrontation with police. In his January 30th letter to Hanoi's Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, Cardinal Bertone had promised to press the government to restore use of the building. Diplomatic initiatives by the Vatican evidently produced an immediate effect. The government agreed to allow the Catholic archdiocese to resume use of the building, in exchange for a promise that the daily prayer vigils would stop.
Hollow promise?
Two weeks after the agreement was struck, however, the Catholic activists who organized the public protests- and drew international attention to the situation, prompting the government's concession- questioned whether the government would keep its promise.
Public workers have repainted the fence surrounding the building. The gates have been strengthened, and new panels have been set in place, carrying Communist symbols and slogans, underlining the point that the building is state-owned.
Although Archbishop Ngo had said that the building would be turned over to the Church in a series of steps, the latest moves by government officials suggest that a quick transfer is out of the question.
In a sudden, Catholics in Hanoi now face a serious complication in their quest, as a state-approved Buddhist Church has claimed ownership of the land.
In a letter sent to Vietnam Prime Minister - dated February 16th - Thich Trung Hau, a leader of the Vietnam Buddhist Church set up by the Communist government in 1981, stated that all the settlements regarding the former nuncio's office must be approved by his church, since he claims that his Church is the authentic owner of the land.
The Buddhist leader's letter was written soon after Le Quang Vinh, the Vietnamese government's former religious-affairs chief, suggested that the Buddhist group was the lawful owner of the plot of land on which the archbishop's residence, the city's Catholic cathedral, and St. Joseph seminary are located. The office of the papal nuncio, which was seized by the government in 1959, is on the same property.
Vinh argued that the land was seized from the original Buddhist owners by French colonial rules and transferred to the Catholic Church. Hau, the Buddhist official, backed that argument, claiming that on the land in dispute there had been a pagoda named Bao Thien which was built in 1054. In 1883, “The French colonists seized and gave it to Bishop Puginier”, he stated.
Also, the state-run “Catholics and People” magazine opened fire on Hanoi Catholics. On February 15 and since then, it has carried a series of articles supporting Thich Trung Hau’s claim to the building, charging that Catholic activists have violated property laws, and accusing the demonstrators of harming the public reputation of Catholic citizens. It argued that the nuncio's office became public property by default when the papal envoy left the country in 1959.
Catholic activists in Hanoi, already worried about the willingness of the government to restore the property, see these episodes as a government excuse for reneging on the promise made to Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet on February 1st.
The UBCV
In an interview with BBC, a spokesman for the outlawed Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, disputed the claims of Thich Trung Hau and the state-run “Catholics and People” magazine. He charged that the government had encouraged the rival Buddhist group to stake a claim to the property.
“It is clear that the government is reluctant to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of Catholics," the Buddhist leader told the BBC. "Now they want to use Buddhists to confront the Catholics for them.”
Thich Khong Tanh, whose UBCV claims to represent 80% of the Buddhists living in Vietnam, said that the rival Buddhist group is "a tool of the Communist party." The UBCV was outlawed in 1981 because of its refusal to follow the dictates of the government; he himself has spent 15 years in prison for his human-rights efforts.
The underground Buddhist leader said that there is no doubt that the Catholic Church owned legal title to the disputed property in Hanoi. While the government-approved Buddhist group claimed that the Bao Thien pagoda was built on that land, Thich Khong Tanh says that the pagoda was actually at a separate location - and in an event, was destroyed in 1426, more than four centuries before the Catholic Church gained titled to the land.
He underlines that the UBCV “has nothing to deal with the nunciature” calling for greater attentions to two key UBCV institutions that have been seized by the government: the Vietnam Quoc Tu Pagoda and the Quang Duc Cultural Centre in Saigon.
Some government officials have already criticised those who involve in the latest moves raising the concern that this development may force Catholics to cooperate with the Unified Buddhist Church.
In some sense, prayer protests from the Buddhists may cause more concerns than those of Catholics as most Vietnamese are Buddhist. Also, Buddhists protests may follow with a ritual in which a monk burns himself alive to express his strong protest.
In addition, state-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church in Hanoi is going to host the upcoming international celebrations of the 2008 Vesak Festival – the Anniversary of the Birth of Buddha. So far, celebrations have taken place in Thailand. This year, Vietnam asked the Thai government to allow Hanoi to host the Vesak festival in 2008. The government does not want any troubles from the UBCV.
Conclusion
Many buildings and plots of land that once belonged to religious communities 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. They have been used as financial resources for the Party, distributed or sold to government officials.
Vietnam has no concrete rule to solve issues relating to properties of religious communities. Its government also has no willingness to deal with the issues on the basis of justice, fairness and in the honour of its own laws. This policy will soon result in dramatic social unrest in Vietnam.
[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] One of these prisoners, well known to the world, was Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen 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, including nine in absolute solitary confinement where he saw nothing other than a thick darkness. 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 due to the hardship that he had suffered before.
[4] While all religious activities remain under state control, the government started a dialogue with Catholics in the 1990s which led to a milestone visit to the Vatican almost a year ago by Prime Minister Dung.
Hanoi had tense relations with Pope John Paul II, deemed a contributor to the defeat of Soviet communism, but congratulated his successor Benedict XVI soon after he became pontiff in 2005, saying it wanted closer relations.
[5] VietCatholic News Agency, Vietnam: Hmong Catholics face severe persecutions, http://vietcatholic.net/News/Html/50872.htm
[6] One of these human rights and democracy advocates is Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly who was sentenced on March 30th, 2007 for eight years in prison. Father Ly, a prisoner of conscience, began his dissident activities as early as the 1970s. He spent a year in prison from 1977 to 1978, and an additional nine from May 1983 to July 1992 for "opposing the revolution and destroying the people's unity."
In November 2000, he gained global and official attention when members of the US Committee for Religious Freedom visited him in his village, during the visit of U.S. president Clinton to Vietnam.
On May 17th, 2001, he was arrested again at An Truyen church, and received in October 2001 another prison sentence of 15 years for activities linked to the defense of free expression. The sentence was later reduced several times and he was finally released in February 2004. On February 19th, 2007, security police surrounded and raided Hue Archdiocese to ransack the office, confiscate computers and arrested him.
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. Diplomatic pressures have stopped Vietnam showing its hand and forced them to dialogue peacefully with the Church.
This article is an attempt to present a concise background of Church property issues in Vietnam and enormous challenges the Church has to face to regain its properties seized illegally by the communist government.
A history of persecutions and Martyrs
Catholicism reached Vietnam in the 16th century, thanks to the work of missionaries from France, Spain and Portugal. 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.
Vietnam Catholic Church history reports that in the period of 261 years from 1625 to 1886, 53 edicts were signed by the Trinh, the Nguyen Lords and the Kings of Nguyen dynasty, one worse than the previous one. 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 Mang (1820-1840), the “Nero of Indochina”.
117 of this immense multitude of Heroes, whose sufferance was of cruel indeed, were chosen and raised to the Altars by the Holy See.
The Church in Vietnam has even suffered more than ever since the communists took control the North in 1954 and later the South in 1975.
The North after 1954
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. 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.
At first, the North government did follow its Chinese counterpart in religion policies: it tried its best to set up a state-controlled Catholic Church. Soon after they took control the North, a few months later, the “Liaison Committee for Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics” was born in March 1955.
The initial intention of the committee was to establish a Patriotic Church loyal to the Party. But it failed thanks to the fidelity to Christ and His Church of Bishops, priests, religious and the laity. While other religions were divided into an official (or state-approved) one and an underground one, there has been only one Catholic Church in Vietnam completely loyal to Christ and His Church even at the price of grave sufferings. As a result, alternative policies were applied, typically – the clergy eradication and the Church property confiscation policies.
In the land reform campaign which spread to most of the villages of North Vietnam from mid-1955 to mid-1956, many Catholic leaders were falsely labelled as landlords and subjected to the confiscation of their land, which actually was Church land. In an official document[1], the government reported that the land reform campaign was conducted at 3,563 villages with more than half a million people charged as landlords. Among them 172,008 were executed. Vietnam government admitted 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 Mass and sacraments for decades.
In successive years, the clergy and faithful were also jailed for other various reasons or even for no reasons at all. The plight of Redemptorists in the North was a typical example[2].
In 1954, when most Redemptorists moved to the South of Vietnam, Fr. Joseph Vu Ngoc Bich, Fr. Denis Paquette, Fr. Thomas Côté, Br. Clement Pham Van Dat and Br. Marcel Nguyen Tan Van remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. On May 7th, 1955, Br. Marcel Nguyen was arrested for no reason. Four year later, on July 9th, 1959, he died in the communist jail. Fr. Denis Paquette faced deportation on October 23rd, 1958. One year later, Fr. Thomas Côté faced the same fate. Less than three years later, on October 9th, 1962, Br. Clement Pham was jailed. He died later in the communist jail on October 7th, 1970 in a rural area of Yen Bai. This left Fr. Joseph Vu 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 clergy eradication and the Church property confiscation policies have resulted in many congregations of faithful in the upper north provinces of Vietnam have been without churches and priests for more than half a century. Miraculously, some congregations have preserved the seed of their faith and even transmit it to the descendant generations.
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.
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.[3]
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.
As a result, a wave of millions people tried to escape the country by any means. They were prepared to risk everything. Many took to the ocean in tiny overcrowded ships. At least half of the "boat people", as they were commonly known, never reached to their destination.
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.
Soon after the communists took control Vietnam, a “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” was also born in the South with its “Catholics and People” magazine first published on July 10th, 1975. This was seen as the second attempt of the government to set up a state-run Church.
At first, 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.
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.
Also, Catholics in the South became more vigilant at the ploy of the atheist government to create a Catholic schism as the “Catholics and People” magazine, which, despite its name, is controlled by the Communist party rather than the Church – has carried a series of anti-Vatican articles to lay harsh criticisms on Vatican and the Pope.
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 when the letter was published in 1985.
While the Vietnamese government claims that everyone in Vietnam has the right to believe or not believe in any religion, in practice, only those who follow state-approved churches are looked upon favourably. Others can quickly find themselves suffered overt persecutions. A series of Church properties in South Vietnam were seized after the government recognised its failure to set up a “Patriotic Catholic Church”.
Altogether more or less 2250 Church properties in both the North and the South of Vietnam have been seized. Some of them were turned into factories, movie theatres, restaurants, or government offices. Some simply were destroyed. Others were sold or gave to government officials.
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[4].
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 Son La province is a typical example[5].
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 Son La province.
Local Catholics in Son 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 Nguyen Tan Dung, an entire of Catholic village fled into a jungle to avoid persecutions. They travelled 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 Son 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 Son La’s Committee of Population Propaganda issued a document urging officials to take active measures to “resolutely subdue” the growth of Christianity because “Son 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.
Hanoi protest prayers
A short history
On Oct 18th,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. In Hanoi, his office was set temporarily inside the Archbishopric complex.
When Vietnam was divided into two distinct states in 1954, he remained in Hanoi. However, five years later, 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 Trinh Nhu Khue (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. But, within 2 weeks after Archbishop John Dooley left Vietnam, Hanoi deported Fr. O'Driscoll and all staff of the Apostolic Delegation.
Soon, the communist government occupied the Nuncio’s office, built a wall to separate it with the rest of the Archbishopric complex, despite strong protests of Bishop Joseph Marie Trinh.
Since then, the former Nuncio’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 Trinh Van Can (1921-1990), 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 Pham Dinh Tung requested the return of the building to the archdiocese. Vietnam Conference of Catholic Bishops has also sent petitions to the authorities for the return of the building. Yet, their petitions have gone unanswered.
Protests erupted
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| Prayer protest ouside the nuncio's office |
On December 18th, a rally was held drawing thousands Catholics to the street. The daily demonstrations quickly grew into major events when more and more Catholics gathered day and night praying in front of the building. Every day, priests and Catholic followers lit candles, placed flowers and sang at the iron fence. These events have attracted attentions of international Catholic and secular media, and through them of the international community.
Hanoi Catholics prayer protests pose great threats to Vietnam government. This is the first time it has to deal with the protests – bolder than ever - from Catholics as a religious community. Also, these protests occurred just a few months after Vietnam created a watershed, especially for the US, through a wave of harassments, arrests and criminal charges against human rights and democracy advocates engaged in peaceful and perfectly legal activities[6]. Vietnam had been put back on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) since May 2007. Apparently, it did not want to suffer more economic measures from US and other Western countries.
On December 30th, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the site and met Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet during a prayer meeting with thousands of followers pledging to consider the issue seriously.
Thai Ha parish protests
While peaceful demonstrations for the restitution of the old building of the apostolic delegation in Hanoi continue, police forcibly intervened in an analogues protest in the parish of Thai Ha.
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| Protest at Thai Ha |
Police in mass clashed with protestors. This was seen as a message that Vietnam’s government was not be prepared for any agreements on land disputes that satisfy the legitimate aspiration of Hanoi’s Catholics. The protest, however, seems so far to have stopped further appropriation of parish lands.
Thai Ha 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 Thai Ha, Hanoi to build a convent and a church. Mass for the Inauguration of the convent was held on 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 Vu Ngoc Bich and other 4 Redemptorists remained in Hanoi. They lived under extremely harsh treatment by the atheist regime, and soon faced brutal persecutions. Since 1962, after other Redemptorists were jailed or deported, Fr. Joseph Vu had run the church alone. Despite Fr. Joseph Vu’s persistent protests, local authorities had 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 Dong Da hospital, and distributed or sold illegally large parts of the land to state-owned companies, and government officials.
Priests, religious and the laity of Thai Ha 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.
For more than ten years the Redemptorist Fathers have been demanding the return of the land belonging to them. Their petitions have gone unanswered. But at the start of the year fences went up and security officials were called in to protect the Chiến Thắng Company which had begun to build.
In the afternoon of January 7th, 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.
In a message sent last January 7th, to all the Redemptorists in the country, the provincial superior Fr Joseph Cao Dinh Tri says the local government has illegally confiscated land belonging to their monastery at Thai Ha, Hanoi and is supporting a construction project there. The previous day, the government had sent security forces to the spot, to allow the Chien Thang 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".
The Redemptorists in Saigon immediately held a prayer protest at their Redemptorist convent drawing more than 4,000 Catholics. It was the largest, and probably the first, anti-government protest held in the city since the communists took power in 1975.
Demonstrators have been camped out at the site to pray day and night in front of dozens of crosses and icons of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which are hanging on the fence that surrounds the confiscated property.
Ha Dong parish protests
Prayer protests soon reached Ha Dong, 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.
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| Prayer protest at Ha Dong |
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 Ha Dong People’s Committee. Parishioners have repeatedly forwarded petitions demanding the building’s return but to no avail.
However, Ha Dong was recently elevated to the status of city and so the Committee was moved. This persuaded the parish vicar, Fr Joseph Nguyen 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 Nguyen 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.
Ultimatum of the government for Catholics to stop protesting.
Early in the morning of January 25th, more than two thousands of Catholics gathered in the streets of Hanoi to show their opposition to the government’s refusal to hand over the Nuncio’s office.
The morning protest was followed by a Mass for the birthday of Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Dinh Tung, the former archbishop of Hanoi. Following the celebration, a second peaceful demonstration began which became violent.
During the protest, a Hmong woman had climbed over a gate to place flowers on a statue of the Virgin Mary inside the building.
Discovered by security personnel, the woman was chased around the garden of the building. Disregarding the woman's explanations for her venturing into the building, the guards kicked and slapped her severely. In the witness of more than 2,000 Catholics, a security commander even loudly ordered his subordinates to beat to death the woman.
Lawyer Le Quoc Quan, a Catholic, intervened telling the security officials that their acts were unlawful and that they should stop beating the woman. However, they turned to attack him and dragged him to an office where he was beaten cruelly.
Catholics occupied the nuncio's office
Seeing all this brutality, in order to rescue Mr. Quan and the woman, the protestors had no other choice than breaking through the gate to confront the security officers. They occupied the building, erected a giant cross and sit-in protested on the garden of the building despite cold rains and biting winds.
Large numbers of security police, in uniform and in plain-clothes, were on the site, surrounding the protestors and mingling in their ranks, taking photos and filming with video cameras.
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| Police filming |
Also, the government-controlled media, which had remained silence about the protests, jumped in describing the protestors as "naive people," and charged that the Catholic clergy had been 'lying to their flock" and inciting them against the government. The media campaign led to fears that a police crackdown was imminent.
Despite all of measures of intimidation, the archbishop did not disperse protestors. None of the government instructions were followed. On the contrary, he challenged the order saying that “Praying is a basic human right protected by laws. I'm prepared to go to jail for my flock should the government jail them.”
More than 3,000 Catholics gathered in the garden of the building that once housed the apostolic nuncio for a prayer vigil on Sunday, January 27th, in defiance of a government order to vacate the site.
Not daring to show its hand and challenge the international community, the government tried to seek a way to escape from the deadlock. On February 1st, the government agreed to turn the building over to Church leaders.
The concession by the Vietnamese government came just hours after the publication of a letter from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, urging Hanoi's Catholics to avoid confrontation with police. In his January 30th letter to Hanoi's Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, Cardinal Bertone had promised to press the government to restore use of the building. Diplomatic initiatives by the Vatican evidently produced an immediate effect. The government agreed to allow the Catholic archdiocese to resume use of the building, in exchange for a promise that the daily prayer vigils would stop.
Hollow promise?
Two weeks after the agreement was struck, however, the Catholic activists who organized the public protests- and drew international attention to the situation, prompting the government's concession- questioned whether the government would keep its promise.
Public workers have repainted the fence surrounding the building. The gates have been strengthened, and new panels have been set in place, carrying Communist symbols and slogans, underlining the point that the building is state-owned.
Although Archbishop Ngo had said that the building would be turned over to the Church in a series of steps, the latest moves by government officials suggest that a quick transfer is out of the question.
In a sudden, Catholics in Hanoi now face a serious complication in their quest, as a state-approved Buddhist Church has claimed ownership of the land.
In a letter sent to Vietnam Prime Minister - dated February 16th - Thich Trung Hau, a leader of the Vietnam Buddhist Church set up by the Communist government in 1981, stated that all the settlements regarding the former nuncio's office must be approved by his church, since he claims that his Church is the authentic owner of the land.
The Buddhist leader's letter was written soon after Le Quang Vinh, the Vietnamese government's former religious-affairs chief, suggested that the Buddhist group was the lawful owner of the plot of land on which the archbishop's residence, the city's Catholic cathedral, and St. Joseph seminary are located. The office of the papal nuncio, which was seized by the government in 1959, is on the same property.
Vinh argued that the land was seized from the original Buddhist owners by French colonial rules and transferred to the Catholic Church. Hau, the Buddhist official, backed that argument, claiming that on the land in dispute there had been a pagoda named Bao Thien which was built in 1054. In 1883, “The French colonists seized and gave it to Bishop Puginier”, he stated.
Also, the state-run “Catholics and People” magazine opened fire on Hanoi Catholics. On February 15 and since then, it has carried a series of articles supporting Thich Trung Hau’s claim to the building, charging that Catholic activists have violated property laws, and accusing the demonstrators of harming the public reputation of Catholic citizens. It argued that the nuncio's office became public property by default when the papal envoy left the country in 1959.
Catholic activists in Hanoi, already worried about the willingness of the government to restore the property, see these episodes as a government excuse for reneging on the promise made to Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet on February 1st.
The UBCV
In an interview with BBC, a spokesman for the outlawed Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, disputed the claims of Thich Trung Hau and the state-run “Catholics and People” magazine. He charged that the government had encouraged the rival Buddhist group to stake a claim to the property.
“It is clear that the government is reluctant to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of Catholics," the Buddhist leader told the BBC. "Now they want to use Buddhists to confront the Catholics for them.”
Thich Khong Tanh, whose UBCV claims to represent 80% of the Buddhists living in Vietnam, said that the rival Buddhist group is "a tool of the Communist party." The UBCV was outlawed in 1981 because of its refusal to follow the dictates of the government; he himself has spent 15 years in prison for his human-rights efforts.
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| A strong Buddhist protest |
He underlines that the UBCV “has nothing to deal with the nunciature” calling for greater attentions to two key UBCV institutions that have been seized by the government: the Vietnam Quoc Tu Pagoda and the Quang Duc Cultural Centre in Saigon.
Some government officials have already criticised those who involve in the latest moves raising the concern that this development may force Catholics to cooperate with the Unified Buddhist Church.
In some sense, prayer protests from the Buddhists may cause more concerns than those of Catholics as most Vietnamese are Buddhist. Also, Buddhists protests may follow with a ritual in which a monk burns himself alive to express his strong protest.
In addition, state-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church in Hanoi is going to host the upcoming international celebrations of the 2008 Vesak Festival – the Anniversary of the Birth of Buddha. So far, celebrations have taken place in Thailand. This year, Vietnam asked the Thai government to allow Hanoi to host the Vesak festival in 2008. The government does not want any troubles from the UBCV.
Conclusion
Many buildings and plots of land that once belonged to religious communities 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. They have been used as financial resources for the Party, distributed or sold to government officials.
Vietnam has no concrete rule to solve issues relating to properties of religious communities. Its government also has no willingness to deal with the issues on the basis of justice, fairness and in the honour of its own laws. This policy will soon result in dramatic social unrest in Vietnam.
[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] One of these prisoners, well known to the world, was Cardinal François Xavier Nguyen 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, including nine in absolute solitary confinement where he saw nothing other than a thick darkness. 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 due to the hardship that he had suffered before.
[4] While all religious activities remain under state control, the government started a dialogue with Catholics in the 1990s which led to a milestone visit to the Vatican almost a year ago by Prime Minister Dung.
Hanoi had tense relations with Pope John Paul II, deemed a contributor to the defeat of Soviet communism, but congratulated his successor Benedict XVI soon after he became pontiff in 2005, saying it wanted closer relations.
[5] VietCatholic News Agency, Vietnam: Hmong Catholics face severe persecutions, http://vietcatholic.net/News/Html/50872.htm
[6] One of these human rights and democracy advocates is Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly who was sentenced on March 30th, 2007 for eight years in prison. Father Ly, a prisoner of conscience, began his dissident activities as early as the 1970s. He spent a year in prison from 1977 to 1978, and an additional nine from May 1983 to July 1992 for "opposing the revolution and destroying the people's unity."
In November 2000, he gained global and official attention when members of the US Committee for Religious Freedom visited him in his village, during the visit of U.S. president Clinton to Vietnam.
On May 17th, 2001, he was arrested again at An Truyen church, and received in October 2001 another prison sentence of 15 years for activities linked to the defense of free expression. The sentence was later reduced several times and he was finally released in February 2004. On February 19th, 2007, security police surrounded and raided Hue Archdiocese to ransack the office, confiscate computers and arrested him.