Parish Under Siege - Catholics Persecuted

On January 6 Vietnamese officials dynamited a crucifix in a cemetery belonging to the Dong Chiem Parish Church, 40 miles from Hanoi. Parishioners who tried to prevent the destruction were beaten by police. Since then, Catholic priests and faithful have been assaulted by uniformed and plainclothes police, and Catholics who try to visit the parish are harassed and beaten; one journalist pummeled to unconsciousness. The latest outrage is a February 24 attack on a group of nuns visiting various parishes in the area.

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Archdiocese of Hanoi welcomed back the congregation of Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres after its 50 years of absence.

Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi, Archbishop Stephen Nguyen Nhu The of Hue, Bishop Josep Nguen Chi Linh of Thanh Hoa, and dozens of bishops and priests from various dioceses in Vietnam concelebrated on March 1 the re-establishment of the congregation of Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres in Hanoi.

The congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres is an international, missionary congregation founded by Fr.Louis, parish priest of Levesville-la-Chenard, a small village in France. Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres arrived in Vietnam in 1860 when the Church in the country was being suffered harsh persecutions under the kingdom of Tu Duc (1847-1883).

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Doors and windows are smashed, computers are damaged and members of the community beaten. After surrounding the building security forces go after monks hiding in the vicinity. The authorities had been eyeing the place for months in order to seize it and its immediate area.

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The United States’ decision not to put Vietnam back onto the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) regarding religion flies in the face of absurdity given that repressive country’s ongoing war on religion. Religious repression appears to have actually increased since Vietnam was taken off the CPC list.

The Washington Times' August 7 article “Zen master at center of row” exposes but one more example of Vietnam’s war on religion, this time against the disciples of famous Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: “The monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands have been quietly meditating and studying the teachings of the 82-year-old Vietnamese sage who is perhaps the world's best-known living Buddhist after Tibet's Dalai Lama.”

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They "confessed" their crimes against the Vietnamese government and appealed for "clemency". They are all part of Block 8406, an illegal movement for democracy. The priest, who also risks jail, defends them: the confessions were extracted under torture.

Hue (AsiaNews) - A Catholic priest from the diocese of Hue (Central Vietnam) has denounced the shows on TV where some dissidents were forced to confess their "crimes" and ask the state’s forgiveness. Now even the priest is likely to be imprisoned.

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 The first Reading of Easter Sunday III-year B extracted from The Acts of Apostles makes us really stunned. Peter was among his Jewish people, spoke to them firmly, reminded them of Jesus’ case and accused them, “You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact ! You killed the author of life” ( cf. Acts 3, 15 )

      Peter did not grumble or blame anyone, but it seems to us that Peter was sorrowfully talking to everyone, even to himself, because Peter was a confederate in the injustice Death of Jesus. In that way, Peter not only talked to the Jewish two thousand years ago, but also to each of us nowadays.

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VietCatholic News (13 Aug 2009 06:10)

Catholic bishops in Vietnam are calling for peaceful dialogue amid ongoing persecutions against Catholics in the diocese of Vinh and the government’s unwillingness to settle disputes with Catholics peacefully.

In an editorial published on VietCatholic News on Aug. 12, Vietnam Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed bishops’ growing concerns on the tensions caused by recent land disputes between Catholics and local authorities, and the extreme way these disputes have been handled.

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of Communism’s defeat in Central-East Europe. As many remember the tumbling of Communist regimes in countries such as Poland, East Germany, and Hungary, others will recall Marxism’s terrible legacy: millions of dead and tortured, “reeducation” and labor camps, show-trials, unparalleled economic destruction, and the worst environmental devastation in history.

As the recently deceased ex-Marxist philosopher Leszek Kolakowski concluded in his magisterial multi-volume Main Currents of Marxism, this was not accidental. It was Marxist philosophy’s logical outcome. By definition, no political program built upon an explicitly materialist viewpoint can consider itself limited by the idea of an innate human dignity, or anything suggesting a more-than-flesh-and-blood dimension to human life.

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Tam Toa Church might not be bombed by Americans and even if it was Vietnam could not escape its responsibility for the bombing.

The Quan Doi Nhan Dan (Peole’s Army Daily) on Sunday Aug. 2, accused Bui Tin, a former colonel in Vietnamese Army, of traitor for his statements regarding the Tam Toa church incident.

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