THE REDEMPTORIST PROVINCE OF VIETNAM
38 Ky Dong St 3rd District, Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
Dear Confreres in Christ,
Today Sep. 14 marks one month anniversary of the explosive incident at Thai Ha (Aug. 14), and more than 8 months has passed since the day we have been publicly initiated our continuous prayers for peace and justice. We have also made known to the world of our faith and hope in the issue at hand. On the same day, 12 years ago our
elderly priest, Reverend Father Joseph Vu Ngoc Bich started his quest for justice in his own way.
Coincidentally, today is the day that the Church celebrates the Feast of Exultation of the Holy Cross. Jesus, the Son of God, came down from heaven, became incarnate to be a witness to the truth. His whole life was devoted to telling the truth until his triumph over the liars, the deceitful, the wicked, the cunning and ultimately, death. He won them all when he walked up to the Cross. To pay homage to the Cross is for us to determine our fates and our missions, where "No servants are greater than their master" (Jn 15:20)
On the cross, Jesus affirmed his faith and entrusted his life to God the Father. Also on the cross, Jesus became closer to Virgin Mary than ever before. Last, but not least, he had observed the solidarity his beloved disciples were staunchly displaying.
During the last one month of ordeal, we have experienced how strong our faith and trust we have in our Vietnam Province, and all the love and solidarity we have received from one another, Thai Ha in particular and the global Church on a larger scale.
We are grateful to have our fathers such as the Archbishop of Hanoi, and other diocesan bishops who came to visit, pray, celebrate Masses, give homilies, to share our concerns and offer their support. We were grateful for Cardinal John the Baptist and other bishops who issued pastoral letters, letters in communion, notices and so on to support, speak out, and witness to the truth.
We appreciate the Colleges of Priests of dioceses and deaneries, and scores of priests as well as religious congregations and communities throughout the country who have visited, offered prayers and Mass or spoke out on our behalf.
We are thankful for the support of our global Christian community as a whole. They are brave, resilient, trustworthy, kind, and full of love for one another. They are the pioneer in letting the witness speak out the truth and be heard. They had sacrificed a great deal in order for justice to be triumphed, and they were relentless in their quest for fairness. They have been offering us their staunch support, and courageously speaking out in the news media to demand the honesty.
Let us give thanks to God and pray for our shepherds, and our people. Not forgotten in my mind are our innocent confreres and sisters who are currently being unjustly detained and interrogated, please offer them thoughts and prayers. I also ask of you to pray more for those who were severely beaten, sprayed on with harmful gas while praying in communion with us. I believe in God our protector who will bless those benefactors.
During this period of ordeal, I have been in touch on a regular basis with our Father General Superior and other Redemptorists all over the world. In my duty, I have reported in detail our situation and our stance to the General Superior and other Redemptorist provinces, from whom I have received many letters of console and support, not only from father General Superior but also from other Redemptorist confreres. I find it comforting to learn that we're not alone in this crusade, in search of justice. We know that we have the entire congregation in the world walking side by side with us. It's our duty to pray for father General Superior and the entire congregation.
Information from abroad has shown tremendous amount of support from Catholic communities. They had rallied to offer candle-vigil prayers in solidarity with us, and sign many petitions to the world leaders expressing their view and their desire to see peace be restored and justice be served in our matter. Let us pray that this solidarity among our Church communities be strong as it's always been.
We met with the top leaders of the nation who are in charge of Committees (the Committee of Religious Affairs) and Ministries (Ministry of Public Safety) to express our thirst for justice and peace. We also affirmed our determination to search for the truth. We laid out our plan to achieve our goal by conducting peaceful praying vigils and we asked them to stop publishing articles, information, broadcasting episodes that were distortional, insulting, defaming to us. We asked them to release those who are arrested during Thai Ha incident, either on Thai Ha's premise or elsewhere. We suggested that we would sit down and have serious dialogue on Thai Ha issue in Congregation for the disputed land to be return to its rightful owner. Regrettably, our simple, reasonable request has never been responded properly except mere promises, even the simple promise to stop the assault of state-run media against us has never been respected!
Dear Confreres,
As we are not to take matters in our own hand, we look up to God for his blessing, I therefore ask you to increase our prayers.
- Please keep reciting continuously Nine-day Novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
- I respectfully ask the Superiors of the communities to send their priests to Thai Ha to help with pastoral duties.
- I respectfully ask the Superiors to keep yourselves being informed of Thai Ha on a regular basis, not only from the Internet but also from direct contact with our confreres at Thai Ha.
Dear Confreres,
This is the opportunity God has granted us to brighten our vocation to be his witnesses among men, to be the salt of the earth. We have to take advantage of this opportunity to be the sacrificial holocaust offer to the Lord.
I invoke Saint Alphonsus Liguori, all Redemptorist Saints and Blesseds, in particular, Blesseds Ivan Ziatyk, Dominik Trechka, Vasil Velechkovskyi, Nicholas Charnetsky, Zenon Kowalyk - witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century to intercede before God for us in this difficult time.
Let us follow in the footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ and be always under the protection of our Mother of Perpetual Help.
Our confreres here at Thai Ha and the Christian community at Thai Ha will always be in my daily prayers,
Provincial Superior,
Fr. Vincent Pham Trung Thanh, C.Ss.R.
(signed and sealed)
38 Ky Dong St 3rd District, Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
Dear Confreres in Christ,
Today Sep. 14 marks one month anniversary of the explosive incident at Thai Ha (Aug. 14), and more than 8 months has passed since the day we have been publicly initiated our continuous prayers for peace and justice. We have also made known to the world of our faith and hope in the issue at hand. On the same day, 12 years ago our
elderly priest, Reverend Father Joseph Vu Ngoc Bich started his quest for justice in his own way.
Coincidentally, today is the day that the Church celebrates the Feast of Exultation of the Holy Cross. Jesus, the Son of God, came down from heaven, became incarnate to be a witness to the truth. His whole life was devoted to telling the truth until his triumph over the liars, the deceitful, the wicked, the cunning and ultimately, death. He won them all when he walked up to the Cross. To pay homage to the Cross is for us to determine our fates and our missions, where "No servants are greater than their master" (Jn 15:20)
On the cross, Jesus affirmed his faith and entrusted his life to God the Father. Also on the cross, Jesus became closer to Virgin Mary than ever before. Last, but not least, he had observed the solidarity his beloved disciples were staunchly displaying.
During the last one month of ordeal, we have experienced how strong our faith and trust we have in our Vietnam Province, and all the love and solidarity we have received from one another, Thai Ha in particular and the global Church on a larger scale.
We are grateful to have our fathers such as the Archbishop of Hanoi, and other diocesan bishops who came to visit, pray, celebrate Masses, give homilies, to share our concerns and offer their support. We were grateful for Cardinal John the Baptist and other bishops who issued pastoral letters, letters in communion, notices and so on to support, speak out, and witness to the truth.
We appreciate the Colleges of Priests of dioceses and deaneries, and scores of priests as well as religious congregations and communities throughout the country who have visited, offered prayers and Mass or spoke out on our behalf.
We are thankful for the support of our global Christian community as a whole. They are brave, resilient, trustworthy, kind, and full of love for one another. They are the pioneer in letting the witness speak out the truth and be heard. They had sacrificed a great deal in order for justice to be triumphed, and they were relentless in their quest for fairness. They have been offering us their staunch support, and courageously speaking out in the news media to demand the honesty.
Let us give thanks to God and pray for our shepherds, and our people. Not forgotten in my mind are our innocent confreres and sisters who are currently being unjustly detained and interrogated, please offer them thoughts and prayers. I also ask of you to pray more for those who were severely beaten, sprayed on with harmful gas while praying in communion with us. I believe in God our protector who will bless those benefactors.
During this period of ordeal, I have been in touch on a regular basis with our Father General Superior and other Redemptorists all over the world. In my duty, I have reported in detail our situation and our stance to the General Superior and other Redemptorist provinces, from whom I have received many letters of console and support, not only from father General Superior but also from other Redemptorist confreres. I find it comforting to learn that we're not alone in this crusade, in search of justice. We know that we have the entire congregation in the world walking side by side with us. It's our duty to pray for father General Superior and the entire congregation.
Information from abroad has shown tremendous amount of support from Catholic communities. They had rallied to offer candle-vigil prayers in solidarity with us, and sign many petitions to the world leaders expressing their view and their desire to see peace be restored and justice be served in our matter. Let us pray that this solidarity among our Church communities be strong as it's always been.
We met with the top leaders of the nation who are in charge of Committees (the Committee of Religious Affairs) and Ministries (Ministry of Public Safety) to express our thirst for justice and peace. We also affirmed our determination to search for the truth. We laid out our plan to achieve our goal by conducting peaceful praying vigils and we asked them to stop publishing articles, information, broadcasting episodes that were distortional, insulting, defaming to us. We asked them to release those who are arrested during Thai Ha incident, either on Thai Ha's premise or elsewhere. We suggested that we would sit down and have serious dialogue on Thai Ha issue in Congregation for the disputed land to be return to its rightful owner. Regrettably, our simple, reasonable request has never been responded properly except mere promises, even the simple promise to stop the assault of state-run media against us has never been respected!
Dear Confreres,
As we are not to take matters in our own hand, we look up to God for his blessing, I therefore ask you to increase our prayers.
- Please keep reciting continuously Nine-day Novenas to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
- I respectfully ask the Superiors of the communities to send their priests to Thai Ha to help with pastoral duties.
- I respectfully ask the Superiors to keep yourselves being informed of Thai Ha on a regular basis, not only from the Internet but also from direct contact with our confreres at Thai Ha.
Dear Confreres,
This is the opportunity God has granted us to brighten our vocation to be his witnesses among men, to be the salt of the earth. We have to take advantage of this opportunity to be the sacrificial holocaust offer to the Lord.
I invoke Saint Alphonsus Liguori, all Redemptorist Saints and Blesseds, in particular, Blesseds Ivan Ziatyk, Dominik Trechka, Vasil Velechkovskyi, Nicholas Charnetsky, Zenon Kowalyk - witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century to intercede before God for us in this difficult time.
Let us follow in the footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ and be always under the protection of our Mother of Perpetual Help.
Our confreres here at Thai Ha and the Christian community at Thai Ha will always be in my daily prayers,
Provincial Superior,
Fr. Vincent Pham Trung Thanh, C.Ss.R.
(signed and sealed)