The archdiocese of Hue, Central Vietnam, has been subject to a calculated smearing campaign on Vietnamese state media following the confiscation of their Catholic school. Almost simultaneously, an ultimatum was sent out to Vinh diocese, ordering the removal of a large statue of Our Lady at a Catholic cemetery. In the northern region, parishioners of Thai Ha in the archdiocese of Hanoi were told that another lot of their land would be put under State's administration
Verbal attacks against the Church have erupted in the archdiocese of Hue after the publication of a statement by Archbishop Stephen Nguyen Nhu The and his Auxiliary Bishop Francis Xavier Le Van Hong in which they strongly condemned the confiscation of a Catholic school at Loan Ly parish and the brutal violence of Vietnam police against parishioners who had protested against the illegal appropriation of their property.
The school, adjacent to the parish church of Loan Ly in the town of Lang Co, Hue, was built by parishioners in 1956. From the beginning, it had always been used as a Catholic Elementary and High School until local government seized it following the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. Since then, Sunday catechism classes, however, have still been allowed – not without a condition- that they would be conducted under a large picture of Uncle Ho, the Communist leader, not the usual Cross.
Since 1999, attempts of local authorities to convert the school into a hotel have been made continually. All have been in vain due to public protests from the parishioners. The last attempt was made by the local chief secretary of the Communist Party- Ho Xuan Man- who wanted to annex the school into his own hotel of Huong Giang. On Sunday Sept. 13, authorities and police - local, district and provincial - barricaded the school building. They did not allow the children to come for catechism classes, chasing them away from the school ground to build a makeshift fence around the school. Hundreds of parishioners immediately protested. Protesters started pulling down the fence, prompting thousands of police and armed police reinforcements to rush to the scene where they attacked parishioners with batons and stun guns.
In the statement issued on Sept. 23, the two bishops of Hue expressed their “shock and frustration with the way the government had unilaterally solve the Church property issue by the employment of violence” and called for “peaceful dialogue”.
In response, Hue Television opened fire at them with a series of interviews in which government's contractors posing as Catholics verbally attacked against their shepherds. Also, newspapers in Vietnam have attacked fiercely Fr. Joseph Ngo Thanh Son, the pastor of Loan Ly parish, accusing him of plotting and directing the protest of parishioners on Sunday Sept. 13. The fact was, Fr. Joseph Ngo had been in hospital for weeks and was not at his parish at the time the incident took place.
From the diocese of Vinh, Fr. John Nguyen Van Huu, the pastor of Bau Sen parish, in the village of Chay, Bo Trach, Quang Binh, reported on Sept. 24 that local authorities of Quang Binh province sent him an ultimatum to remove a large statue of Our Lady of Lavang which his parishioners built on the top of a mountain in the parish cemetery opposite to the parish church.
The statue was erected on March 04 last year. It has become so obvious that following the tensions caused by several incidents at Tam Toa recently, authorities of Quang Binh province have deliberately conducted a campaign to destroy Catholic symbols.
On Sept. 21, the People Committee of Bo Trach, Quang Binh had issued a decree, stating that the statue must be demolished as it was built “outside the premise of a religious premise”. The deadline for parishioners to remove the statue was set to be on Saturday Sept. 26. On Sept. 23, however, bulldozers were sent to the site to threaten parishioners. As of Sunday 27, thousands of Catholics are still protesting at the site.
In a different part of the country, Fr. Matthew Vu Khoi Phung and representatives of Redemptorists and parishioners of Thai Ha parish, archdiocese of Hanoi, were summoned by the People Committee of Dong Da district on Sept. 22 to be told that their lot of land at Ba Giang Lake would be confiscated and placed under State administration.
After the conversion of a lot of parish land of 16,362 meters square into a public park in October last year, in April this year, local authorities bulldozed another lot of land of 18,230 meters square to sell for private investors. Fr. Matthew Vu issued a statement on April 18 denouncing the move and asking for investigations on the legal ownership of the land.
Foreseeing that in this day and age, after bearing witness to a series of crackdowns and non- stop harassments against the Church in Vietnam, the Christians learned to expect nothing else from the government but bad news. Hundreds of Catholics in Thai Ha gathered at the Church to pray before going to the office of the district of Dong Da where they met with their leaders who were leaving the office with sadness and angers. A protest against the government decision was organized immediately in front of the office.
Hundreds of police armed with stun guns and trained dogs were deployed at the site but no violence was reported.
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| Bulldozers to demolish the statue of Our Laday at Bau Sen, Vinh |
The school, adjacent to the parish church of Loan Ly in the town of Lang Co, Hue, was built by parishioners in 1956. From the beginning, it had always been used as a Catholic Elementary and High School until local government seized it following the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. Since then, Sunday catechism classes, however, have still been allowed – not without a condition- that they would be conducted under a large picture of Uncle Ho, the Communist leader, not the usual Cross.
Since 1999, attempts of local authorities to convert the school into a hotel have been made continually. All have been in vain due to public protests from the parishioners. The last attempt was made by the local chief secretary of the Communist Party- Ho Xuan Man- who wanted to annex the school into his own hotel of Huong Giang. On Sunday Sept. 13, authorities and police - local, district and provincial - barricaded the school building. They did not allow the children to come for catechism classes, chasing them away from the school ground to build a makeshift fence around the school. Hundreds of parishioners immediately protested. Protesters started pulling down the fence, prompting thousands of police and armed police reinforcements to rush to the scene where they attacked parishioners with batons and stun guns.
In the statement issued on Sept. 23, the two bishops of Hue expressed their “shock and frustration with the way the government had unilaterally solve the Church property issue by the employment of violence” and called for “peaceful dialogue”.
In response, Hue Television opened fire at them with a series of interviews in which government's contractors posing as Catholics verbally attacked against their shepherds. Also, newspapers in Vietnam have attacked fiercely Fr. Joseph Ngo Thanh Son, the pastor of Loan Ly parish, accusing him of plotting and directing the protest of parishioners on Sunday Sept. 13. The fact was, Fr. Joseph Ngo had been in hospital for weeks and was not at his parish at the time the incident took place.
From the diocese of Vinh, Fr. John Nguyen Van Huu, the pastor of Bau Sen parish, in the village of Chay, Bo Trach, Quang Binh, reported on Sept. 24 that local authorities of Quang Binh province sent him an ultimatum to remove a large statue of Our Lady of Lavang which his parishioners built on the top of a mountain in the parish cemetery opposite to the parish church.
The statue was erected on March 04 last year. It has become so obvious that following the tensions caused by several incidents at Tam Toa recently, authorities of Quang Binh province have deliberately conducted a campaign to destroy Catholic symbols.
On Sept. 21, the People Committee of Bo Trach, Quang Binh had issued a decree, stating that the statue must be demolished as it was built “outside the premise of a religious premise”. The deadline for parishioners to remove the statue was set to be on Saturday Sept. 26. On Sept. 23, however, bulldozers were sent to the site to threaten parishioners. As of Sunday 27, thousands of Catholics are still protesting at the site.
In a different part of the country, Fr. Matthew Vu Khoi Phung and representatives of Redemptorists and parishioners of Thai Ha parish, archdiocese of Hanoi, were summoned by the People Committee of Dong Da district on Sept. 22 to be told that their lot of land at Ba Giang Lake would be confiscated and placed under State administration.
After the conversion of a lot of parish land of 16,362 meters square into a public park in October last year, in April this year, local authorities bulldozed another lot of land of 18,230 meters square to sell for private investors. Fr. Matthew Vu issued a statement on April 18 denouncing the move and asking for investigations on the legal ownership of the land.
Foreseeing that in this day and age, after bearing witness to a series of crackdowns and non- stop harassments against the Church in Vietnam, the Christians learned to expect nothing else from the government but bad news. Hundreds of Catholics in Thai Ha gathered at the Church to pray before going to the office of the district of Dong Da where they met with their leaders who were leaving the office with sadness and angers. A protest against the government decision was organized immediately in front of the office.
Hundreds of police armed with stun guns and trained dogs were deployed at the site but no violence was reported.