Bulldozers stoke Hanoi land clash

By Nga Pham
BBC News

Tensions are high in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, after [...]

Vietnam: underground Buddhists show solidarity with Hanoi Catholics

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/buddhi325.html
A leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has shown his support to Hanoi Catholics, in their quest to regain confiscated church property. He said the state-approved Buddhist leaders, who claimed the property was theirs, were: “tools of the Communist Party”.
Hanoi Catholics who earlier this month won a government promise to restore [...]

Holy row over land in Vietnam

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7262411.stm
The Vietnamese government is often embroiled in complex disputes over land rights.
But there is one particular row that is currently making the headlines – pitting the government against the country’s strong Catholic Church, and now the Buddhist community as well.
For the whole of January, thousands of Catholics gathered outside the building that [...]

Vietnam: government stalls over return of confiscated church property

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/vicof437.html
Hanoi Catholics are become impatient with the progress in the promised return of confiscated church property. A month of demonstrations ended on 1 February, when Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi said that the government had agreed to return the old apostolic nuncio in Hanoi to the Church. That day, protesters removed a cross [...]

Vietnam: authorities ban New Year Mass

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/temas325.html
Catholics in Ia Grai, a district in Central Highlands of Vietnam, could not have Mass on the first day of the Lunar New Year, known as Tet, after Bùi Minh Sen, the chairman of local People’s Committee, threatened legal action against the clergy and faithful.
The official said that Tat was not a Catholic festival [...]

Vietnam: Catholics mark New Year with mass demonstration for church land

 http://www.indcatholicnews.com/vetnewy231.html
Three thousand Hanoi Catholics marched for justice at Thai Ha Redemptorists monastery on Saturday, while ten thousand Saigon Catholics showed their solidarity at a vigil in Hanoi.
After Saturday Mass celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kit of Hanoi at the parish of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the faithful joined those who have been protesting [...]

Catholics in Vietnam still missing land, protests continue

 http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11722
Hanoi, Feb 7, 2008 / 08:32 pm (CNA).- Although the Vietnamese government has agreed to return the Nunciature to the Archdiocese of Hanoi, parishioners from Our Mother of Perpetual Help insist that the government is still holding 14 acres of land belonging to parish. In protest, hundreds of the dispossessed Catholics marched to the site [...]

Vietnam government promises to return disputed building

 http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=e7635d6dd7978142e9ecab56ce721a72
Vietnamese government officials, meeting earlier this week with leaders of Hanoi’s Catholic Church, said they would return the former Vatican embassy to the church if it stops the demonstrations that have occupied the site in recent weeks, according to a priest who attended the session.
Father Peter Thanh, a priest from the diocese of Saigon, said [...]

Vietnam: Catholics called to help poor celebrate Tet in dignity

 http://www.indcatholicnews.com/tet215.html
Catholics in Vietnam observe Ash Wednesday today, on the eve of their lunar New Year, known as Tet. Bishops have encouraged them to help the poor celebrate this festival as a practical gesture of almsgiving in the first day of the Lent season.
The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 8.5 percent in 2007. However, the [...]

Vietnam Catholics end vigils over disputed land

 http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP7515520080202?sp=true
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese Catholics have ended more than a month of protests in Hanoi aimed at pressing the Communist government for the return of church land seized 50 years ago.
After talks between church and government officials, the protesters removed on Friday a cross and tents from a one hectare (2.5-acre) piece of mostly-vacant land [...]