Sydney, September 24, 2008 – The Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media (FVCMM) would like to report to the international community about the critical situation concerning mistreatment of the Catholic clergies and faithful by the Vietnamese communist government.

As this Press Release being published, numerous Catholics are still being detained indefinitely in jail, the Archbishop of Hanoi and several leaders of the Redemptorist Congregation in Hanoi have been subjects of a governmental campaign of public defamation. They have also been threatened of legal actions against them for what the government accused of as inciting their faithful to protest in order to gain public sympathy with their cause.

Since Dec. 18, 2007, Hanoi Catholics have been organizing daily prayer vigils outside the former nunciature in Hanoi, pleading for the return of the building that had been confiscated unlawfully by the communist regime since 1959. The protests only came to a halt when the government agreed to return the property on Feb. 1, 2008. As understood by both sides, this returning process by the Vietnamese government was to be carried out in steps. Regrettably, it managed to delay the process through various bureaucratic maneuvers.

Without warning, on Sept. 19, 2008, the government announced the demolition of the nunciature to “make room for a playground” and the plan was immediately carried out with the back of its armed forces. This action is clearly contradicting with the policy of dialogue that the Catholic Church and Vietnam government have pursued. It in fact insults the legitimate aspirations of the Hanoi Catholic community, ridicules the law written by their own party, and fails to honor the words they had with the Catholic Church in Vietnam on the issue at hand.

Also in Thai Ha parish, the Redemptorists and their faithful have always been persistent in requesting for their land which had been illegally seized by the state since the migration of people from North Vietnam to the South in 1954– all to no avail. The public outcry and protests came as a result after Thai Ha parishioners discovered that local government officials had secretly sold their land to private entities. These victims in their desperation were left with no choice other than holding peaceful protests completely complying with Vietnam law to call out for justice from the authorities since Jan. 5, 2008.

Vietnamese government has not listened to them and repeatedly attempted to silence them by using great mass of police and security forces, militiamen, and even street gang members to achieve what their terroristic and hostile agenda was set for.

Just last month, the communist government launched a terrorizing campaign against Hanoi Catholics, starting with a threat to use "extreme actions" against Catholic priests. It was followed by a series of mockeries and distortions against Catholics and the Church. In addition with effort to ignite public outrage and negative sentiment against Hanoi clergies and the Church as a whole, the campaign had gone further with a series of arrests and violence. Numerous priests and lay people were kicked and beaten brutally by police when they peacefully requested for the release of detainees on Aug. 28.

At the Redemptorist monastery, known as the center of a property dispute, police threw tear gas into faithful who were attending a religious procession on Sunday Aug. 31. More than 30 faithful, most of them were women and children, suffered badly from tear gas inhalation. 20 were hospitalized. Even worse, street gang members attacked a chapel at the church from late Sunday night Sept. 21 through early Monday morning Sept. 22 under indifferent eyes of police and city officials.

On the evening of the same day, a gang of more than 200 youths wearing the blue shirts of the Youth Communist League, came to Thai Ha church to harass and spit on the face of our priests, religious and faithful. This was to follow a series of event last week when another group of thugs came to dump used-motor oil and foul-smelling liquid on to the altar which was adorned with religious icons and a statue of Our Lady.

Hanoi’s People Committee also joined the chorus of power abuse by tailoring and taking out of context the statement made by Hanoi’s archbishop. It then went on with using state owned media systems to question his patriotism in an obvious attempt to deceit and incite socially negative sentiments against the archbishop and the Church who have no means to tell their side of the story.

A series of attacks against Catholics, as a result of the government’s general hate campaign against the Church was then broken out. Gang ransacked churches, destroyed statues and books while shouting death threats against the clergy and religious, Catholic faithful, and the Archbishop of Hanoi in particular. These acts of violence happened boldly in clear view and in front of a large number of public officials and police. But they did nothing to protect Catholics as these actions were attributed for “the fury of people”.

The Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media (FVCMM) thus denounces these actions and asks that Vietnam government:

1. Stop the media campaign against the Catholic clergy, their faithful, and the Church as a whole.
2. Stop persecutions of Catholic clergy and their faithful, also leave their religious items intact.
3.Respect its own law and return the property at the nunciature and the Redemptorist monastery in Thai Ha, Hanoi to its rightful owner.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.Vietcatholic.net

Contacts:

Mons. Peter Tai Van Nguyen
Director of Radio Veritas Asia
Buick St. North Fairview,
Quezon City, Philippines
P.O. Box 2642
Email: rvaprogram@rveritas-asia.org

Fr. John Nghi Cong Tran
Director of VietCatholic News Agency
Our Lady of the Assumption Church
435 Berkeley Ave
Claremont, CA 91711, USA
Tel (909) 450 -1535
Email: conggiao@gmail.com

Fr. Joachim Viet-Chau Duc Nguyen
Director of People Of God in America
PO Box 1419 Gretna,
LA 70053-5440, USA.
Email: danchuausa@yahoo.com

Fr. Anthony Quang Huu Nguyen
Director of People Of God in Australia
715 Sydney Rd. Brunswick Vic 3056
Australia
Email: quangsdb@yahoo.com

Fr. Stephen Luu Thuong Bui
Director of People Of God in Europe
Magazine Catholique
Katholische Monatszeitschrift
Monthly Catholic Magazine
Email: info@danchua.de

Fr. Paul Van Chi Chu
Director of Gospel and Peace Radio, Sydney Australia
92 The River Rd - Revesby
NSW 2212
Australia
Email: paulvanchi@yahoo.com