Following the siege of a parish in Hanoi, the brutal beating of a religious, and the desecration of a crucifix, thousands of Vietnamese Catholics gathered on January 24 at the Redemptorist monastery in Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon) in southern Vietnam to pray for the end of the persecution of the Church in the Asian nation. Earlier in the day, thousands of Catholics gathered at the cathedral in Hanoi to pray for the nation.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has repeatedly asked the US president and State Department to redesignate Vietnam as a country of particular concern in recognition of its egregious violations of religious freedom, but both the Bush and Obama administrations have chosen not to follow the commission’s recommendations. The nation had been designated a country of particular concern until 2006.
6.8% of the nation’s 85.2 million residents are Catholic.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has repeatedly asked the US president and State Department to redesignate Vietnam as a country of particular concern in recognition of its egregious violations of religious freedom, but both the Bush and Obama administrations have chosen not to follow the commission’s recommendations. The nation had been designated a country of particular concern until 2006.
6.8% of the nation’s 85.2 million residents are Catholic.