THE PERSECUTION

 

　

　

Hardly had the first campaign to dislodge the comprador bourgeoisie from the economy ended, the persecution against religious dignitaries began. On November 11, 1975, only six months after the Communists took control of South Vietnam, the Venerable Thich Tue Hien and eleven monks and nuns of Duoc Su Pagoda in Can Tho Province immolated themselves by fire in protest of the government's repressive measures against their religious practices. The Catholic Bishop Nguyen Van Thuan of the Saigon prelacy was taken into custody. The Hoa Hao Buddhist dignitary Luong Trong Tuong and his wife were imprisoned. Fourteen Catholic priests and followers at the St. Vincent Cathedral on Tran Quoc Toan Street, Saigon, were arrested on charges of counterrevolutionary activities. The Reverend Nguyen Huu Nghi and two former officers of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Duc Hung and Nguyen Viet Hung, were given the death sentence without a trial. Sporadic search-and-destroy operations against religious "reactionary elements" were carried out throughout the country. The repression lasted until the Statr dispossession of the monastery and its dependent premises of the Order of Motherb Coredemptrix in Thu Duc in 1987.

Beginning in 1985, Hanoi entered the first phase of "advancing towards socialism" and "establishing the People’s democracy" in South Vietnam. It pushed forward the "policy of northernization" of the South, incorporating all the remaining industry and trade establishments of the private sectors into the State industry and trade unions, companies, and cooperatives. The legitimate Cao Dai Church, pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and the Churches of Evangelical Christianity were subject to dissolution, and the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam underwent revision. To implement this new State policy, the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City put forth a comprehensive socialist transition of the South. Third Precinct, the city’s most populous most prosperous urban area, served as a pilot test. In the domain of religion, it selected the suburban Thu Duc district where grass roots Roman Catholic parishes, religious and educational establishments, and monasteries were located to serve this purpose. Similar plans were executed in other cities and the provinces throughout the South. Some 200 security specialists who had been trained in the "religions discipline" in Czechoslovakia were assigned to key positions to perform the task in various regions in the South. Their efforts particularly focused on neutralizing all religious organizations’ activities. Temples, pagodas, churches, houses of worship, abbeys, monasteries, and nunneries were all placed under inspection. Priests, monks, seminarians, student priests, and novices were advised to return home or to get married.

Religious oppression and repression became increasingly rude with the arrest of the Catholic priests and the confiscation of the abbey of the Order of Mother Coreedemptrix in Thu Duc in 1987. Other religions suffered persecution. The Cao Dai Church and Hoa Hao Buddhism, the two indigenous religions in the country, which posed serious political problems to the Communist regime, were also under constant threat. Instead of creating favorable conditions for reconciliation, the Communist State decided to denote their legal status, dismantle the leadership, dissolve the organizations, and stepped up repression against opposition and resistance. Devoid of conditions to exist, not only Caodaism and Hoa Hao Buddhism but also the legitimate the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam suffered a tragedy. They were no longer recognized the established social and cultural institutions, but became certain forms of association. They were stripped off their right to exist as religions. They could only operate under State supervision. As a consequence, the propagation of all faiths was limited to the worship place, disallowing the followers’ access to it and placing the clergy that served it under constant surveillance.

Hoa Hao Buddhism, notably, faced utmost difficulties. The Church’s central organization was entirely dismantled, from the national to provincial and local levels. All high dignitaries of the national Hoa Hao Managing Board were arrested. The venerable Luong Trong Tuong and other top Hoa Hao leaders were banished to the reeducation camp. Village Management Boards were allowed to remain in existence only after screening scrutiny for political backgrounds. Only pro-Communist elements, cadres, or agents could stay. Party officials in Dong Thap Province disclosed that the Vietnamese Communist Party had planted its agents within the Church’s organization and operated in hiding within the local Hoa Hao congregations for many years before the Communist takeover of South Vietnam.. Many of them had even assumed higher functions in the Church’s boards of administration before the fall of the Republic of South Vietnam.

To restructure the organization of the Church at the base, the local authorities dissolved the old Hoa Hao Executive Boards, dismissing their chiefs and board members from office as they were all considered the reactionaries --"the blood debtors to the People." They were brought before crime revelation rallies organized by the local officials. They were charged with crimes of treason. Many of them were abducted to unknown whereabouts; others were deported to the reeducation camps or prisons. The legitimate Hoa Hao Church was finally outlawed. Pure Hoa Hao Buddhists were disallowed to visit the To Dinh (Hoa Hao Ancestral Temple), other worship places, and preaching halls. The To Dinh was strictly limited to the State-affiliated members only. (Porter Gareth, 1993:183)