Dear friends and colleagues,
This year though Christmas seems to arrive with much concerns and worries about a bleak economy, but to us here at the Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media, this Christmas has brought a whole new perspective of working in collaboration with the international media community in order to bring out the truth to every corners of the world.
As you might have known, the Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media has been trying to provide accurate, up to date accounts of what's truly happening behind the iron curtain in Vietnam, where ordinary people of Vietnam as a whole and Catholics in particular have been quietly suffering for so long under the iron grip of the communist government. As their fellow countrymen and Christians we owe it to them and would try with all our might to sneak-out news the state-owned media giant in Vietnam would do anything to block.
Sometimes in our lowest moments, when bad news after bad news of governmental abuse from Vietnam reached us, we feel as if we were eggs being thrown at a boulder in trying to prevent it from coming at defenseless human beings. It might sound unbelievable to some of you but among more than 600 news broadcasters and newspapers currently being circulated in Vietnam, none is privately owned. And almost all of them are under scrutiny of governmental censorship. Numerous editors and journalist have been either fired, removed or their license be revoked for what the government described as" Revealing national classified information". As we are writing this letter to you, some of them namely Nguyen Viet Chien and Nguyen Van Hai were just sent to prison for exposing a major corruption scheme involving top government officials and ended in foreign governments such as Japan to halt funding for Vietnam's infrastructural projects.
This year the Catholics in Vietnam are welcoming Christmas with mixed emotions. They have been through a lot. However, their troubles have not come to an end yet. Just a few days ago, after incidents at Thai Ha and the former nunciature in Hanoi, a series of attacks have just happened at An Bang (Hue), at St Paul Monastery (Vinh Long), and at the House of St. Vincent De Paul (Saigon).
No matter how hard we tried, our voice may not be as effective as it is now had it not been for your contribution and dedication. You have taken the burden from our small, weak shoulders and carried it on just like your own, you have cried and laughed with us the way only God understands how.
Your effort has paid off. If you were the witness to what was going on the street, inside the court room you would notice the subtle change in terms of societal transformation, from a culture of fear and obedience to being fearless and taking courage to demand justice and honoring the truth. The results might not be as optimal as everyone hoped for, but the lessons most ordinary people learned from each experience were priceless. To mention that would make us feel ecstatic. When you wrote and posted accounts of what were truly happening in Vietnam, little did you know that the impact of your actions would have much more weight on the issue than the desperate pleas from the victims, in this case, the priests and the parishioners from Hanoi. We can't tell you enough how much the multilingual media had helped their cause. It saved lives and eased people's suffering.
For that, the people of Vietnam in general and Catholics in particular would be forever grateful. And for that we would like to express our heartfelt thank you for a tremendous contribution you have put in.
The Vietnamese people believe in what is usually said in English “as you sow, so shall you reap”. The fruit of your labor had brought both courage and protection to the unarmed people of Vietnam in such a way people just have to keep talking about it as a reminder of how powerful the media can be in supporting their relentless fight for justice and freedom of religion, freedom to live beyond fear of being retaliated against by the authority, therefore, it will come back to you and your loved ones when you least expected.
We wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with joy and success. We also wish you will maintain a good health so you can accomplish as much as you wish in your performance.
May God bless you all.
In Christ,
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 Tran
Director of VietCatholic News Agency
435 Berkeley Ave
Claremont, CA 91711, USA
Tel (909) 581-8888
Email: conggiao@gmail.com
Fr. Joachim Viet-Chau Nguyen Duc
Director of People Of God Magazine in America
PO Box 1419 Gretna,
LA 70053-5440, USA.
Email: danchuausa@yahoo.com
Fr. Anthony Quang Huu Nguyen
Director of People Of God Magazine in Australia
715 Sydney Rd. Brunswick Vic 3056
Australia
Email: danchuaucchau@gmail.com
Fr. Stephen Luu Thuong Bui
Director of People Of God Magazine 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
This year though Christmas seems to arrive with much concerns and worries about a bleak economy, but to us here at the Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media, this Christmas has brought a whole new perspective of working in collaboration with the international media community in order to bring out the truth to every corners of the world.
As you might have known, the Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media has been trying to provide accurate, up to date accounts of what's truly happening behind the iron curtain in Vietnam, where ordinary people of Vietnam as a whole and Catholics in particular have been quietly suffering for so long under the iron grip of the communist government. As their fellow countrymen and Christians we owe it to them and would try with all our might to sneak-out news the state-owned media giant in Vietnam would do anything to block.
Sometimes in our lowest moments, when bad news after bad news of governmental abuse from Vietnam reached us, we feel as if we were eggs being thrown at a boulder in trying to prevent it from coming at defenseless human beings. It might sound unbelievable to some of you but among more than 600 news broadcasters and newspapers currently being circulated in Vietnam, none is privately owned. And almost all of them are under scrutiny of governmental censorship. Numerous editors and journalist have been either fired, removed or their license be revoked for what the government described as" Revealing national classified information". As we are writing this letter to you, some of them namely Nguyen Viet Chien and Nguyen Van Hai were just sent to prison for exposing a major corruption scheme involving top government officials and ended in foreign governments such as Japan to halt funding for Vietnam's infrastructural projects.
This year the Catholics in Vietnam are welcoming Christmas with mixed emotions. They have been through a lot. However, their troubles have not come to an end yet. Just a few days ago, after incidents at Thai Ha and the former nunciature in Hanoi, a series of attacks have just happened at An Bang (Hue), at St Paul Monastery (Vinh Long), and at the House of St. Vincent De Paul (Saigon).
No matter how hard we tried, our voice may not be as effective as it is now had it not been for your contribution and dedication. You have taken the burden from our small, weak shoulders and carried it on just like your own, you have cried and laughed with us the way only God understands how.
Your effort has paid off. If you were the witness to what was going on the street, inside the court room you would notice the subtle change in terms of societal transformation, from a culture of fear and obedience to being fearless and taking courage to demand justice and honoring the truth. The results might not be as optimal as everyone hoped for, but the lessons most ordinary people learned from each experience were priceless. To mention that would make us feel ecstatic. When you wrote and posted accounts of what were truly happening in Vietnam, little did you know that the impact of your actions would have much more weight on the issue than the desperate pleas from the victims, in this case, the priests and the parishioners from Hanoi. We can't tell you enough how much the multilingual media had helped their cause. It saved lives and eased people's suffering.
For that, the people of Vietnam in general and Catholics in particular would be forever grateful. And for that we would like to express our heartfelt thank you for a tremendous contribution you have put in.
The Vietnamese people believe in what is usually said in English “as you sow, so shall you reap”. The fruit of your labor had brought both courage and protection to the unarmed people of Vietnam in such a way people just have to keep talking about it as a reminder of how powerful the media can be in supporting their relentless fight for justice and freedom of religion, freedom to live beyond fear of being retaliated against by the authority, therefore, it will come back to you and your loved ones when you least expected.
We wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with joy and success. We also wish you will maintain a good health so you can accomplish as much as you wish in your performance.
May God bless you all.
In Christ,
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 Tran
Director of VietCatholic News Agency
435 Berkeley Ave
Claremont, CA 91711, USA
Tel (909) 581-8888
Email: conggiao@gmail.com
Fr. Joachim Viet-Chau Nguyen Duc
Director of People Of God Magazine in America
PO Box 1419 Gretna,
LA 70053-5440, USA.
Email: danchuausa@yahoo.com
Fr. Anthony Quang Huu Nguyen
Director of People Of God Magazine in Australia
715 Sydney Rd. Brunswick Vic 3056
Australia
Email: danchuaucchau@gmail.com
Fr. Stephen Luu Thuong Bui
Director of People Of God Magazine 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