Vietnam's Catholic Thai Ha Parish - Brutally Oppressed by Vietnamese Communist Government

We are writing this letter to express our deep concerns about the recent dispute between Redemptorists/parishioners versus the government of Vietnam over a piece of property at Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery - Thai Ha parish. We have been deeply troubled by recent religious and human rights violations against the said religious order as well as Catholic faithful who have assembled since January of this year for peaceful prayer vigils at the site in dispute.
The property in question consists of 15 acres of land purchased by the said religious order in 1928. After the Communist takeover of Northern Vietnam in 1954, most of the Redemptorists in Northern Vietnam had moved to the South to avoid persecution. Of those five who remained in Hanoi, two were arrested, imprisoned without being released until their death; another pair who had foreign citizenship were deported, thus leaving a local priest solely in charge of the entire property . Despite the pastor's protests, local authorities, following a harsh anti-religion policy, had allowed individuals and state-run organisations to seize the parish's land one section at a time. The 15-acre plot has been reduced to only about half an acre.
In response, the government of Vietnam launched a terrorising campaign against Hanoi Catholics, starting with a media campaign threatening to use "extreme actions" against the Redemptorists, depicting them as "criminals" who have used their influence to incite the faithful in a confrontation against the government, destroying state property, assembling and praying illegally in public areas, and disturbing the public order. The campaign, which has incited a social sentiment not only against the Redemptorists but also the Church as a whole, has been stepped up by a series of arrests on August 28. On the same day, numerous of priests and lay people were kicked and beaten brutally by police when they peacefully requested for the release of detainees. Demonstrators had claimed the police beat them brutally and used stun guns on them.
Even worse, on Sunday 31th August, Vietnam police disrupted a Catholic procession at Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery. Fr. Peter Nguyen Van Khai, the celebrant, was personally attacked when he was leading a procession on the ground of Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery. A policeman in uniform sprayed the priest, altar boys and people nearby with tear gas at close range causing many to faint and vomit. Another tear-gas bomb was thrown into the crowd causing a total chaos among the faithful, many ran and cried out in panic. 30 parishioners, most of them were children, suffered badly from tear gas inhalation. Among them at least 20 were hospitalised. Needless to say, a supposed-to-be peaceful religious event had been completely ruined.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Prière
• pour
• la
• Paix
• Saint
• François
• d'Assise
• Kinh
• Hòa
• Bình
• vietnamese
• communist
• religious
• freedom
• democarcy
• for
• vietnam
• giao
• xu
• Thai
• Ha
• Thái
• Hà
• Tu
• Do
• Ton
• Giao
• kinh
• hoa
• binh
• faith
• persecution
• communism
• cộng
• sản
• việt
• nam
• vc
• vietcong
• crime
• against
• humanity