Priest asks Vietnam authorities to release arrested Catholics
Hanoi - A Vietnamese Catholic priest Wednesday called on the government to release seven parishioners arrested at a protest rally over a former church now used as a war memorial.
'The government has asked Catholics to calm down over this case. We will not calm down until they release the seven people they arrested,' said Father Pham Dinh Phung of the Vinh Diocese in the province of Quang Binh.
The protestors were arrested July 21 after a group of several hundred parishioners tried to erect a cross and other religious structures at Tam Toa church, in the town of Dong Hoi.
The remains of the church, largely destroyed by US bombers during the Vietnam War, were rededicated as a war memorial in 1997.
Hoang Cong Tu, deputy head of Vietnam's national Investigation Security Agency, told the German Press Agency dpa that the protestors had no permission to erect the structures, and would be prosecuted for 'causing public disorder.'
Catholic sources said they had repeatedly applied for permission, and been refused.
On Monday, two priests who tried to lead another group of protestors to the site were severely beaten by police, requiring hospitalization, they added. Police denied the beatings took place, the official Vietnam News said Wednesday.
The dispute is one of a series of conflicts over former Catholic Church property expropriated by Vietnam's Communist government.
Vietnam has South-East Asia's second-largest Catholic community after the Philippines, with at least 6 million followers.
Hanoi - A Vietnamese Catholic priest Wednesday called on the government to release seven parishioners arrested at a protest rally over a former church now used as a war memorial.
'The government has asked Catholics to calm down over this case. We will not calm down until they release the seven people they arrested,' said Father Pham Dinh Phung of the Vinh Diocese in the province of Quang Binh.
The protestors were arrested July 21 after a group of several hundred parishioners tried to erect a cross and other religious structures at Tam Toa church, in the town of Dong Hoi.
The remains of the church, largely destroyed by US bombers during the Vietnam War, were rededicated as a war memorial in 1997.
Hoang Cong Tu, deputy head of Vietnam's national Investigation Security Agency, told the German Press Agency dpa that the protestors had no permission to erect the structures, and would be prosecuted for 'causing public disorder.'
Catholic sources said they had repeatedly applied for permission, and been refused.
On Monday, two priests who tried to lead another group of protestors to the site were severely beaten by police, requiring hospitalization, they added. Police denied the beatings took place, the official Vietnam News said Wednesday.
The dispute is one of a series of conflicts over former Catholic Church property expropriated by Vietnam's Communist government.
Vietnam has South-East Asia's second-largest Catholic community after the Philippines, with at least 6 million followers.