Vietnam: church protests at government plans to demolish monastery

Tensions between the Catholic Church and government are growing after the local government announced plans to build a hotel on land seized shortly after the Vietnam Wqar.

Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan of Vinh Long diocese, 135 km South West of Saigon, has sent a letter to priests, religious, and lay people of his diocese denouncing the decision to pull down the monastery of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.

In the letter read in all Masses on the last weekend, Bishop Nguyen Van Tan says that September 7, 1977 was “a day of disaster” for the diocese of Vinh Long. On that day, “the local authorities mobilized its armed force to blockade and raid on Holy Cross College.., St. Paul Monastery, and the Major Seminary”, and arrested all those who were in charge of the premises. Bishop Thomas was among the detainees.

Since then, the government has kept the properties, using them for various purposes. Last month, local authorities announced a project to build a hotel on the land of 10,235 m2 of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. The Sisters have staged protests at the site, and a group of priests has voiced their protest at the office of the Fatherland Front. Despite all this, the government has not changed its mind. Rather, it “has summoned residents in the town to meetings in which they vow to take strong actions against those who dare to prevent the construction”, the letter says.

Vinh Long is a province located in the Mekong River Delta of southern Vietnam. Its capital is Vinh Long. Its population is 1,023,400 living on the land of 1,475 km. Its unemployment rate in recent years stays persistently at more than 34%.

The text of the letter follows.

Vinh Long, 18 of May 2008

To priests, religious, and lay people of Vinh Long diocese,

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am writing this letter in response to your great concerns relating to the Major Seminary on Nguyen Hue street; and to the solicitude of Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul for their monastery on To Thi Huynh street (previously known as Nguyen Truong To).

The September 7, 1977 can be seen as a day of disaster for the diocese of Vinh Long. On that day, the local authorities mobilized its armed force to blockade and raid on Holy Cross College on Pham Thai Buong street (formerly known as Khuu Van Ba), St. Paul monastery, and the Major Seminary. Then, they seized all these properties and arrested those who were in charge of the premises. I myself was among the detainees.

Representatives of the Provincial Superior of Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Bishop office have repeatedly sent petitions to local and central governments. However, these petitions have gone unanswered. Recently, local government of Vinh Long province has issued a decree to build a hotel on the land of 10,235 m2 of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Despite the protest of priests at the office of the Fatherland Front, the government has summoned residents in the town to meetings in which they vow to take strong actions against those who dare to prevent the construction.

It is a great suffering of Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul who have been in Vinh Long since 1871 and have been serving peoples in the provinces of Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long. It is also a great suffering of the entire diocese. We cannot consent with the decision imposed unjustly by those who have power in their hand, neither we can stay silent in the face of this outrage. Being silent means complicity and a compromise with injustice.

I am convinced that you will be united with each other, and be persistent for justice. In the spirit of solidarity, I ask you to pray earnestly for the diocese and Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul so that we soon overcome these difficulties. Every day, please be united in prayer with us by singing three Hail Mary and the Peace Prayer of St Francis of Assisi.

In Christ,

+ Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan

Bishop of Vinh Long

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/vinlon543.html

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 served as the Vatican ambassador’s residence in Hanoi during the 1950s.

Braving the coldest winter for 40 years, they held vigils and prayers in one of the most visible gatherings in decades.

They had one request – that the site be returned to the Catholic Church.

The last Apostolic delegate was expelled by the Communists in 1959 and, since then, the residence has been used by the local Communist People’s Committee for various non-religious purposes, such as weddings, motorbike parking and a gymnasium.

Vietnam’s Buddhist community has now entered the standoff as well.

The Buddhist Sangha recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung saying that it, too, wanted ownership.

Angry reaction

The case has highlighted the complexity of land issues in Vietnam, especially where religions are involved.

Protests by Catholics in January alarmed the government

It has also caused considerable alarm to the authorities.

They demanded that the Catholic protesters stop their vigil, and some were prosecuted for “abusing religion to cause public disorder”.

In the end, the crowds only dispersed when the Archbishop of Hanoi, Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, announced that the government had promised to give back the land.

But the issue has still not been resolved – and the land has yet to be returned.

Before the Catholics could show their discontent again, an official letter signed by the Venerable Thich Trung Hau, a leader of the official Buddhist Church, was sent to the prime minister.

Land use is one of the most complex and sensitive issues in Vietnam Nguyen Duc Thinh, Religious Affairs Committee

The letter said the disputed land was in fact the location of an ancient pagoda – one of the most important heritage sites of Vietnamese Buddhism – which was occupied by the French and given to the Catholic Church in the 19th Century.

It asked the government to “consider the Buddhist Sangha one of the main parties to consult before making any decision” regarding the site.

The letter has sparked an angry reaction from the Catholic community.

Online forums such as the VietCatholic website have been swamped with articles and messages saying that only the Catholic Church has rights to the land that they believe was “given to the Church by history”.

Some followers of the outlawed Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church also criticised the state-approved Buddhist Sangha’s claim, which they feared would only widen the division between the two religions.

Some are worried the dispute could exacerbate religious divisions

Religious issues have always been considered “sensitive” in this communist country.

But tricky as it is, the claim by the Buddhists could, in reality, help make the government’s task simpler.

“With both the Catholic and Buddhist Churches vying for the land, the government can now take the religious nuance off the issue, and treat it as a pure land issue,” said one leading cultural expert. “It could come down to basic documentation.”

Even straight land disputes, though, are not easy to solve.

Land clearance for industrial development, the confiscation of agricultural land and the lack of fair compensation for farmers have all fuelled a number of large-scale public protests in recent years.

“Land use is one of the most complex and sensitive issues in Vietnam,” said Nguyen Duc Thinh, a senior official from the government’s Religious Affairs Committee.

“Our policy is to examine all disputes, case by case, in accordance with the government’s land law,” he said.

Vietnamese law stipulates national ownership over all land, which means that organisations and individuals can only apply for the rights to use land, not own it.

Great value

Real estate prices in Vietnam have rocketed during the past decade.

In central Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, commercial space can sell for as high as in some of the most expensive cities in the world.

The disputed former Vatican ambassador’s residence, covering an area of one hectare, is no doubt of great financial value.

“We have come to recognise that the Hanoi Diocese does indeed need a premise for their activities,” said Nguyen Duc Thinh.

But he admitted that, like many land disputes, this one would take time to resolve.

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 and tent from a piece of land near St Joseph’s Cathedral and went home.

However, instead of returning the building, public workers repainted the fence surrounding the site, strengthened the gates, and erected new panels with communist symbols and slogans reiterating that the building is state-owned. In addition, new security measures were imposed.

The state-run media also continue to broadcast and publish anti-Catholic stories.

Fr Paul Tran in Saigon said: “the orchestrated campaign of state-run media attacks on Catholics indicates things may be not as easy as expected.” He feared that “the government is going to put forward to Vietnamese Bishops more conditions in exchange to the requisition of the former nunciature”.

He pointed out that the Vietnamese government has closely followed China in its religious policies. It struggled to build a state-approved Church, known as the Vietnamese Patriotic Church, separated from the Holy See, but he said, this failed. “thanks to the fidelity of the Bishops, priests, religious and lay people to Christ and the Church.”

“When Catholics in Vietnam dare to stand up for justice, they get more popularity and the admiration of the oppressed which are more and more numerous in Vietnam”, said Sr Marie Nguyen.

Catholic-Communist Land Fight in Vietnam

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jPYyTsDAhie7k4CDJFlxMA7NltHAD8UC4QF00 

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Quietly, Vietnam’s Catholic Church is challenging the nation’s government more boldly than it ever has since the communists took power over five decades ago.

For several weeks, church leaders and their followers in Hanoi have been gathering daily to pray in front of the old Vatican embassy, one of many church properties taken over by the government after 1954.

The church wants the government to hand back the 2.5-acre lot in central Hanoi, where such land is worth millions of dollars.

“It is a tragedy for us that our holy land was taken away,” said Father Nguyen Khac Que, a member of the Hanoi diocese who helped organize the prayer vigils.

Although the dispute could raise church-state tensions, it also offers dramatic testimony to how much church-state relations have improved in Vietnam recently.

Had church leaders dared to make such a public challenge just five years ago, police would almost certainly have jailed them.

“There is now a sufficient feeling of comfort on both sides that the church feels it can air its grievances publicly and the state feels it can tolerate them,” said Peter Hansen of the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne, Australia.

The matter could come to a head Friday, when the church plans to hold its biggest vigil yet, despite requests from city officials to stop the gatherings.

Hanoi city officials, who control the property, did not respond to requests for interviews.

Church officials say they have documents showing the land belongs to the diocese. But Hanoi officials maintain a former priest voluntarily turned the property over to the government in 1960, according to Duong Ngoc Tan of Vietnam’s national Committee for Religious Affairs.

“This whole matter of returning land is very complicated,” Tan said.

After the revolution, property was confiscated not just from the church but from wealthy landowners and capitalists. It was then used by the government or turned over to others who have held it for decades.

Church leaders are careful to refer to the gatherings as prayer vigils rather than demonstrations — a loaded word in a country where public protests are generally forbidden.

They are holding vigils at three churches, but the focal point is St. Joseph’s — the largest cathedral in Hanoi — which routinely draws up to 2,000 people for services that spill into the courtyard.

During the vigils, hundreds of parishioners at a time gather nearby in front of the old Vatican Embassy, a French-style villa now used as a youth sports center.

During their first vigil, just before Christmas, parishioners wheeled a Virgin Mary statue into the villa, pushing her in a cyclo, a traditional Vietnamese rickshaw. The statue had once been located next to the old embassy but it was later relocated to the nearby cathedral.

Local authorities have since locked the gate, which parishioners have adorned with white roses. Now the faithful light candles and gather on the sidewalk, occasionally blocking traffic on the narrow street.

On a recent Sunday, a priest carrying a cross led about 500 people to the site, where they prayed, chanted and sang.

There were no uniformed police in sight.

“I could never have imagined doing something like this in the past,” said Pham Vu Thuc, 51, a lifelong member of St. Joseph’s.

“Things have changed a lot since we’ve become more connected with the outside world,” she said. “We have the Internet, we’ve joined the World Trade Organization. Now Vietnam has to follow the rules of the international community.”

While relations have improved between the church and the national government, Father Que said, conflicts still arise with local governments.

“They once put a discotheque right next to the diocese headquarters,” Que said.

Vietnam’s Catholic Church, which counts 6 million members, was established by missionaries and grew during French colonial rule in Vietnam. It is the second-largest faith in predominantly Buddhist Vietnam.

Vietnam’s Catholic Church has always been regarded with suspicion because of its close relations with the French government and the former South Vietnamese government, which fought a U.S.-backed war against the communists.

For years, Vietnamese Catholics faced persecution, finding it difficult to get jobs or enter universities. Hundreds of thousands fled to southern Vietnam.

Many others stayed behind, and their churches remained open. But the government restricted their activities and took over property next to sanctuaries, including seminaries, schools and medical clinics.

Over time, church-state relations have begun to thaw. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited the Pope last year, and the two sides have considered restoring diplomatic relations.

The Vietnamese government also approved a new law on religion several years ago that made it easier for unrecognized Protestant faiths to register with the government.

All this has emboldened Catholic leaders.

“We can speak out now,” said Father Que. “Things are more democratic now.”

Besides, the dispute in Hanoi is not about ideology, Que said. “This is a dispute over valuable land.”