One day after Vietnam Prime Minister has attacked Hanoi Archbishop; Vietnam high ranking officials echo his voice accusing the prelate of damaging Church-state relation, and threatening "extreme actions" against looming mass protests.
The Deputy Minister of Public Security has reiterated Vietnam Prime Minister accusations against Hanoi Archbishop claiming that the prelate and Catholic protestors have “poor awareness of law.” He has also gone further stating that “Leaders of the Hanoi archdiocese have abused the policy of freedom of religious belief of the Party and the State to claim unjust and illegal interest.”
The attack occurred on Thursday in an interview with state-controlled Vietnam News Agency. Echoing the PM’s viewpoint, Nguyen Van Huong, a Senior Lieutenant General police, maintained that the prelate "has challenged the state, damaged the nation, and shown disdain toward the position and status of Vietnamese citizens in their relations with the world", in addition to violating "the constitution and the law."
Repeating false accusations against the honest archbishop whose statement was altered and used as a substance for a widespread propaganda in a negative way, Huong suggested that “Kiet himself has lost his prestige due to those acts and statement.”
Relating to the relation between Vietnam and Vatican, he stressed that: “It is Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet who has triggered difficulties in relations between the Vatican and Vietnam.”
However, Fr. Joseph Nguyen from Hanoi did not share his point. "No, it's not true. It is the persecution against the Church by this government which has caused a heap of obstacles in Vatican-Vietnam relations," he insisted.
Going into more details of the dispute, Huong claimed that: “In the last century when the country was under the colonial regime, the French-occupied land that was maybe originally owned by Buddhists.”
The argument in which the Catholic Church occupied land of Buddhists, with the help of the French colonials, is actually not new. It already surfaced in February.
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, claimed the ownership of the land.
The Buddhist leader's letter was written soon after Le Quang Vinh, a former chief of Religious-Affairs, had 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 nunciature, 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 rulers 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 government seized and gave it to Bishop Puginier”, he stated.
The argument was discredited by a series of government documents identifying that Bao Thien pagoda had been located far away from the area in dispute. Also, 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. 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.”
The UBCV claiming to represent 80% of the Buddhists in Vietnam was outlawed in 1981 because of its refusal to follow the dictates of the government. Venerable Khong Tanh, himself, spent 15 years in prison for his human-rights efforts. While the government-approved Buddhist group claimed that the Bao Thien pagoda was built on that land, he stated 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 titles to the land.
On Feb. 27, Tran Dinh Phung, chief of Religious Affairs even criticised those who involve in the move raising the concern that this development might force Catholics to cooperate with the Unified Buddhist Church.
Huong re-surfaced the argument in order to state that due to the complexity of land issues “once the country gained independence, Vietnam’s law states clearly that all land belongs to the people, under the unified management of the State.”
“Under that pretence,” said Fr. Paul Van Chu Chi, Director of Gospel and Peace Radio, Sydney Australia, “the Vietnam government has openly trembled the right to own private property as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and numerous international laws that it has signed and pledged to obey. It has robbed numerous properties of individuals and religions in general and of the Catholic Church in particular to enrich the Party and state officials.”
For Fr. Joseph Nguyen, “Huong’s argument is also an evidence of how this government is very effective in spreading doubts and mistrust among religions and social groups instead of bridging the nation with mutual understanding and unification,” he emphasized.
He also frankly denied Huong’s claim in which Catholic leaders and their protestors have “poor awareness of law”. “It is the government officials who don't know, don't care and don't honor the state law,” he argued.
“The dispute at Thai Ha is a typical example. According to current land law, Catholics have the chance to protest the government decisions up to three times. And after that if our petition is still rejected we still have another chance to solve the dispute at a court. Why did the local government announce the decision to convert it into a park and immediately carry out its plan when we have only been rejected for the first time, and we are still protesting lawfully?”
“Why the Vietnam government did not dare to solve the disputes peacefully at court according to its own law? Why to build ‘a public playground’, it had to deploy hundreds of police armed to the teeth, aided by professionally trained dogs; and was prepared to attack anyone who dared to disclose its plot to the outside world?" Fr. Paul Chi asked referring to Ben Stocking, an American reporter, the Hanoi bureau chief for the Associated Press who was shoved away, punched, choked, and hit over the head with a camera by police when he was taking photos at the nunciature on Sep. 19.
"It knew for sure its deed was against people’s legitimate aspiration,” he concluded.
Facing the fear that Hanoi Catholics may soon resume mass protests, Huong threatened that “when a number of religious dignitaries and parishioners violate laws, the administrations and police must deal with them accordingly to ensure justice for all people.”
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| Large crowd at Hanoi Cathedral |
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| Thousands pray at Thai Ha every night |
The attack occurred on Thursday in an interview with state-controlled Vietnam News Agency. Echoing the PM’s viewpoint, Nguyen Van Huong, a Senior Lieutenant General police, maintained that the prelate "has challenged the state, damaged the nation, and shown disdain toward the position and status of Vietnamese citizens in their relations with the world", in addition to violating "the constitution and the law."
Repeating false accusations against the honest archbishop whose statement was altered and used as a substance for a widespread propaganda in a negative way, Huong suggested that “Kiet himself has lost his prestige due to those acts and statement.”
Relating to the relation between Vietnam and Vatican, he stressed that: “It is Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet who has triggered difficulties in relations between the Vatican and Vietnam.”
However, Fr. Joseph Nguyen from Hanoi did not share his point. "No, it's not true. It is the persecution against the Church by this government which has caused a heap of obstacles in Vatican-Vietnam relations," he insisted.
Going into more details of the dispute, Huong claimed that: “In the last century when the country was under the colonial regime, the French-occupied land that was maybe originally owned by Buddhists.”
The argument in which the Catholic Church occupied land of Buddhists, with the help of the French colonials, is actually not new. It already surfaced in February.
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, claimed the ownership of the land.
The Buddhist leader's letter was written soon after Le Quang Vinh, a former chief of Religious-Affairs, had 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 nunciature, 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 rulers 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 government seized and gave it to Bishop Puginier”, he stated.
The argument was discredited by a series of government documents identifying that Bao Thien pagoda had been located far away from the area in dispute. Also, 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. 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.”
The UBCV claiming to represent 80% of the Buddhists in Vietnam was outlawed in 1981 because of its refusal to follow the dictates of the government. Venerable Khong Tanh, himself, spent 15 years in prison for his human-rights efforts. While the government-approved Buddhist group claimed that the Bao Thien pagoda was built on that land, he stated 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 titles to the land.
On Feb. 27, Tran Dinh Phung, chief of Religious Affairs even criticised those who involve in the move raising the concern that this development might force Catholics to cooperate with the Unified Buddhist Church.
Huong re-surfaced the argument in order to state that due to the complexity of land issues “once the country gained independence, Vietnam’s law states clearly that all land belongs to the people, under the unified management of the State.”
“Under that pretence,” said Fr. Paul Van Chu Chi, Director of Gospel and Peace Radio, Sydney Australia, “the Vietnam government has openly trembled the right to own private property as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and numerous international laws that it has signed and pledged to obey. It has robbed numerous properties of individuals and religions in general and of the Catholic Church in particular to enrich the Party and state officials.”
For Fr. Joseph Nguyen, “Huong’s argument is also an evidence of how this government is very effective in spreading doubts and mistrust among religions and social groups instead of bridging the nation with mutual understanding and unification,” he emphasized.
He also frankly denied Huong’s claim in which Catholic leaders and their protestors have “poor awareness of law”. “It is the government officials who don't know, don't care and don't honor the state law,” he argued.
“The dispute at Thai Ha is a typical example. According to current land law, Catholics have the chance to protest the government decisions up to three times. And after that if our petition is still rejected we still have another chance to solve the dispute at a court. Why did the local government announce the decision to convert it into a park and immediately carry out its plan when we have only been rejected for the first time, and we are still protesting lawfully?”
“Why the Vietnam government did not dare to solve the disputes peacefully at court according to its own law? Why to build ‘a public playground’, it had to deploy hundreds of police armed to the teeth, aided by professionally trained dogs; and was prepared to attack anyone who dared to disclose its plot to the outside world?" Fr. Paul Chi asked referring to Ben Stocking, an American reporter, the Hanoi bureau chief for the Associated Press who was shoved away, punched, choked, and hit over the head with a camera by police when he was taking photos at the nunciature on Sep. 19.
"It knew for sure its deed was against people’s legitimate aspiration,” he concluded.
Facing the fear that Hanoi Catholics may soon resume mass protests, Huong threatened that “when a number of religious dignitaries and parishioners violate laws, the administrations and police must deal with them accordingly to ensure justice for all people.”