Hanoi, Sep. 15, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Tensions between government officials and Catholic protestors in Hanoi continued to rise over the weekend, with thousands of the faithful joining in public protests, and the provincial superior of the Redemptorist order revealing that talks with government officials had failed to resolve a heated property dispute.
The protests in Hanoi centered on two sites that have been confiscated by the government: the former office of the apostolic nuncio and the Redemptorist monastery at Thai Ha parish.
Father Vincent Nguyen Trung Thanh, the Redemptorist superior, disclosed that officials of the order had spoken with local government leaders "to present our aspiration for justice and peace." They also asked the officials to stop attacks on the Catholic protestors in the state-controlled mass media. Despite promises from the government leaders, those requests have been ignored, he said.
On Sunday, September 14, the director of Hanoi's police force was on hand at the Thai Ha monastery site along with a crew filming the protests-- a move that the demonstrators saw as an intimidation tactic. An estimated 15,000 Catholics had participated in the protests. They were joined on Sunday by Bishop Jean Marie Henri Legrez of St. Claude, France: the first foreign bishop to join in the public demonstrations.
The previous day, a procession through the streets of Hanoi, following a ceremony in which 32 nuns took their solemn vows, turned into a protest at the building that once housed the nuncio's office. In February, after daily protests there, the government had promised to return that building to Church ownership. But the transfer has not yet taken place. Hanoi's Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet complained of the "numerous obstacles" raised by government officials in talks about restoration of the building.
The protests in Hanoi centered on two sites that have been confiscated by the government: the former office of the apostolic nuncio and the Redemptorist monastery at Thai Ha parish.
Father Vincent Nguyen Trung Thanh, the Redemptorist superior, disclosed that officials of the order had spoken with local government leaders "to present our aspiration for justice and peace." They also asked the officials to stop attacks on the Catholic protestors in the state-controlled mass media. Despite promises from the government leaders, those requests have been ignored, he said.
On Sunday, September 14, the director of Hanoi's police force was on hand at the Thai Ha monastery site along with a crew filming the protests-- a move that the demonstrators saw as an intimidation tactic. An estimated 15,000 Catholics had participated in the protests. They were joined on Sunday by Bishop Jean Marie Henri Legrez of St. Claude, France: the first foreign bishop to join in the public demonstrations.
The previous day, a procession through the streets of Hanoi, following a ceremony in which 32 nuns took their solemn vows, turned into a protest at the building that once housed the nuncio's office. In February, after daily protests there, the government had promised to return that building to Church ownership. But the transfer has not yet taken place. Hanoi's Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet complained of the "numerous obstacles" raised by government officials in talks about restoration of the building.