The Roman Catholic Church

 

Immediately after the Geneva Agreement (July 20, 1954), ten of twelve Vietnamese bishops, seven hundred priests, and more than six hundred thousand Catholic followers including many of those parishioners who were discouraged by the Viet Minh’ s land reform programs left their home villages to go South. Large congregations of refugees settled in the surrounding areas around Saigon and in various western provinces These new settlers later appeared to be one of the most fervent anti-Communist factions in the South. The Communist takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975 and the "socialist transformation" that followed after that put the Roman Catholic Church in the South, and notably the Catholics refugees from the North, at risk. Religious activities were restricted, seminaries were closed, convents were occupied, and Catholic congregations were subject control. Many priests were imprisoned or sent to t reeducation.

To reconcile, the prelacy of Saigon Archdiocese reached an accommodation with the Communist regime by which it gave the State the veto power over its activities and assignments. The Archbishop of Saigon Nguyen Van Binh, a bovine and diplomatic figure, strove to avoid conflict with the new regime, made concessions, and modified the former Catholic prelacy hierarchy. The muffled religious activities of the Roman Catholics were quickly stabilized, and major religious services were held at the cathedrals. Religious persecution directed at the activities of "reactionary elements" continued, nevertheless. The authorities acted with merciless violence to isolate and neutralize opposition and, at the same time, to persuade the free-floating elements to join them in a party-controlled reconciliation movement.

The Measures

A Pilot Area

To promote "pacification," the new regime began with a new approach, to "kill the tiger right in its cave." The Catholic population in the years following the Vietnam War was estimated at 7 million (out of the 72 million population), 95% of whom were devout. The growth was remarkable. In 1954, there were only some 2 million indigenous Catholics and 800,000 Catholics refugees from North Vietnam. Catholic parishes founded by the refugees from the North thrived, mostly in the areas adjacent to Saigon. After the takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975, the Communist rule, fearful of an anti-Communist uprising by such large hostile Catholic settlers in the surrounding areas of Saigon, resorted to cautious measures of security. The police department of Ho Chi Minh City, for instance, selected Thu Duc District as the pilot community to administer testing measures and monitor from the local Catholic communities there possible reactions to establish a religious policy to deal with the believers of all faiths, especially the Catholics. The district is an ideal testing area. It is noted with a large number of Catholic parishes where most parishioners were the refugees from the North in 1954 and were thus "a problem" to the regime. Therefore, the regime, for all intents and purposes, had to feel out and deter in time the germ for a possible popular uprising or opposition to the Communist State.

Confiscation of Properties

After the fall of Saigon, having put under control almost all Catholic dioceses in the South, the Communist administration began the process of appropriation of private properties, dispossessing the Church’s cultural, religious, humanitarian, and educational institutions, establishments, and facilities throughout the country and thus depriving of it all physical resources. Among the most productive cultural and educational institutions were the Graduate School of Political Sciences and Minh Duc Faculty of Medicine in Saigon, Da Lat University, the Holy See Grand Seminary, Da Lat Redemptorists Monastery, Nha Trang Redemptorist Monastery, all child day care centers, hospitals, orphanages, humanitarian establishments and facilities, and thousands of schools of the secondary, primary, and elementary levels. Worse still, for political purpose, the Communists called up the animosity that existed between the Catholics and non-Catholics, especially the Buddhists. By a similar approach they had applied in the old days after the August Uprisings in 1945, the Communists promoted furtive anti-Catholic campaigns. Along with other tricks, it published and circulated such works as "Tay Duong Bi Luc" (Secret Annals of Western Christianity), denigrating the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam and distorting historical truths with an aim to defame the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church, thus sowing division between Catholics and non-Catholics.

The State Strategy to De-structure the Church's Clerical Hierarchy

Immediately after the fall of Saigon, the Communist military administration sought to shake off the leadership of the Church from religious and spiritual authority, putting into effect restrict measures and execute malicious tricks to isolate the Roman Catholic Church from the free world and separate its leadership from the laity. To eliminate the Church’s supreme leadership in Saigon, they used the tactic "to boomerang a dose of your own medicine" to count it out The newly-created Committee of Patriotic Catholics led by the State-affiliated Catholic priest Huynh Cong Minh, who freshly returned to the country from France, staged a demonstration demanding the expulsion from Vietnam the Vatican Apostolic Delegate and his secretary, Msgr. Tran Ngoc Thu. The pressure created with great effect favorable conditions for the Communist administration to put the prelacy of the Saigon archdiocese under the control of the State. The name of the archdiocese itself had to be changed into a new one: the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City. The new administration even negated the Vatican’s ecclesiastic authority by disaffirming the title of Vice-archbishop of Msgr. Nguyen Van Thuan and disapproving of his functions as the second highest prelate in the Saigon archdiocese, which decision the Holy See had officially confirmed.

The Communists went so far in their efforts to uproot the Roman Catholic Church from the Vietnam soil. The Party Central Committee for Religions had its Committees of Patriotic Catholics devised a scheme to eradicate the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam by creating a self-directed Vietnamese Catholic Church, which in the long run would gradually distance itself from the Vatican as was the case of the independent Roman Catholic Church in Communist China. In 1979, the representatives chosen from the parishes and the ecclesiastic Orders in various cities and provinces throughout the South were summoned to attend a two-day conference in Saigon to vote on the creation of a novel Church. The scheme nevertheless failed to take shape. The representatives in the said conference unanimously declared that they had no authority whatsoever to vote on the issue.

Having failed to actuate the scheme to de-structure the Church's hierarchical supra-structure, the Communist rule turned to other tactics to dismantle the Church: to strike it at the head. It isolated the prelacy from the faithful. It placed under house arrest the Archbishop of Hue, the Vice-archbishop of Saigon, and the Bishop of Da Nang. Prominent priests and laymen were targeted with harassment. Many were charged with ungrounded political subversion activities and arrested. Exerting undue pressure on them, the Communist Party used the Union of Catholics as a shield to suppress the Church’s activities politically. In this way, the Central Party Committee for Religions was particularly vested with full authority to make decisions on assemblies for religious activities and exercise control over the Catholic parishes personnel as well.

Almost all clergy and the laity in the parishes throughout the country remained loyal to the Church’s, regardless State oppression. Many openly opposed to the Communist authorities’ abuse of power. In 1980, to remedy the situation, the Communist rule had Unified Conference of Bishops of Vietnam established with the aid of the "patriotic" bishops to persuade "recalcitrant" elements of the Catholic community to cooperate with the regime. Three years later, in November 1983, the State-affiliated Committee for Solidarity of Patriotic Catholics was created "to unite all Catholics and channel their energy into the building of socialism." This committee, the successor to the Liaison Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics, was formed in the hope that it would moderate the Church’s activities and deter the faithful from actuating opposition to the State. In March 1985, the Religious Affairs Committee was created to coordinate and supervise religious organizations. The regime’s increasing involvement in Church’s internal affairs produced new strains in its relations with the Vatican (Cima, 1989: 125-126)."

The Persecution

The Communist regime, in fact, had a negative attitude towards the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam whose prestige makes it an outstanding social institution to the service of humanity, and thus a viable competitor to the Communist authorities. Right after the takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975, Hanoi showed its style of authority to inconvenience the Church. It challenged the Vatican mandate, disallowing the Holy See the ecclesiastical authority to appoint the Vietnamese Catholic Church’s new dignitaries in replacement of those who had passed away. It vacated the Vatican’s nomination of a new dignitary to the vacant apostolic position at the Hanoi Archdiocese assumed by the late Cardinal Trinh Van Can. It discharged Vice-archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan from the prelacy of Saigon Archdiocese, disallowing him to perform his religious functions. Novices and candidates to the priesthood were subject to investigation on unfounded charges. Only those who had no relations with the officials and officers of the old Republic of Vietnam and members of political parties in the South before 1975 could be accepted as the candidates.

Hanoi continued to tighten control on the Church’s clergy at all levels, placing them under State direction. The Committee of Union of Catholics, a satellite organ of the Fatherland Front, was vested with the veto authority, issued recommendations on all religious matters. It played a role in making decisions on the appointment and transfer of priests, publication of religious literature, construction and reconstruction of important religious facilities. Under a series of new laws, rules, and regulations, this Committee instituted religious committees working beside the people’s councils in the cities and provinces and "work teams" operating beside the clergy at the local parishes. This organ also played a role in regulating the Catholic faithful’ s religious life. The successor to the Committee for Union of Patriotic Catholics (since the term "patriotic" sounds too Communist, it is stripped off), this organ served as an executive agency to help the Fatherland Front to carry out the Party’s religious policy. The responsible in this organ, commonly known as the "Gang of Four," consisting of the State-affiliated priests (Huynh Cong) Minh, (Truong Ba) Can, (Phan Khac) Tu, and (Vuong Dinh) Bich. The faithful certainly do not know how close to the State they were and how intimate with the local authorities the "work teams" at the parishes were. Oftentimes, members of this union tended to apply pressure on the local priests, but their intentions fluctuated with various circumstances. noticeably during the years of 1985-1986 when failures in the economy were about to happen and popular opposition to the State began to take shape.

Detention and Arrests

Parallel to the anti-Catholic campaigns of animosity, the Communist administration launched successive propaganda operations to dismantle all organizations of what they called the "remnants of capitalism and imperialism." Local cadres executed plans of arrests of high dignitaries and prominent priests and church leaders and laymen. The Church prelacy was equally targeted with strict control and repression.

The Most Reverend Nguyen Van Thuan

The Vice-archbishop of Saigon prelacy Nguyen Van Thuan was brought to Nha Trang and placed under house arrest for unspecified reason. In 1984, he was taken into custody on charge of opposing the Committee of Patriotic Catholics. The reason is simple. This State-affiliated organ showed all its audacity over the prelate while, in reality, it was only a political instrument in the hands of the new regime. As such, it hardly challenged the Church to a game of legitimacy. The dignitary believed that, in Vietnam "there will never be a "patriotic" Church similar to the one in China, which renounces loyalty to the Vatican." Nevertheless, he was only released from the reeducation camp in late 1987 and was apparently placed under house arrest thereafter. His name was at last removed from the list of bishops whose titles were apparently defined as "officially recognized" by the State-created Committee of Patriotic Catholics. He was "no longer authorized to conduct religious services, but was able to officiate in private." (Asia Focus, 1987)

The Vice-archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan, who later lived in exile in Rome, disclosed that he had been imprisoned by Hanoi. Even though imprisoned, he had been successful in performing Masses in secret. The vice-archbishop was expelled from Vietnam after having been detained in the prison and reeducation camp and placed under house arrest for 13 years. He had not been allowed to leave Hanoi until 1990. He was authorized to leave Vietnam in August 1991 to visit his parents who then resided in Australia, but was not allowed to return. "Perestroika" had not reached Vietnam. He ascertained that "when Freedom comes back; it is always from Great Favor (Gianni Valette, Thirty Days, Rome, January 1992).

The Most Reverend Nguyen Kim Dien

To deter the Catholic faithful from engaging in direct opposition to the State, the Communist administration laid heavy hands on the Church’s leadership, striking it at the head. Subsequent to the elimination of the Vice-archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan from the Saigon prelacy, the local authorities placed under custody without a charge the Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien of Hue Archdiocese. In Da Nang, Bishop Pham Ngoc Chi was isolated from the laity. The local administration kept up tight control on the prelacy in all dioceses all through South Vietnam. The Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien tried in vain to maintain agreeable relationship with the new regime. He was targeted with enmity because of his frank remarks on the State's religious persecution, especially against Buddhism.

On April 15, 1977, the prelate of Hue Diocese gave voice to the religious situation in the country at a meeting of the Fatherland Front of Binh Tri Thien Province. He particularly stressed the importance of the rights to freedom of religion and equality of civil rights in Vietnam:

"1. On Religious Freedom: After the day of Liberation, when I heard the government proclaim the policy of religious freedom, I was very happy and encouraged. This was reflected in my remarks made at that time. But two years have elapsed since then I no longer feel happy, because freedom of religion has not really existed. Worship services are restricted and Catholic priests are prevented from movement to serve the Catholic population, such as the situation in the New Economic Zones, for example. Many cathedrals are seized. Others are prevented from holding worship services. I appreciate the wisdom of the government when it proclaims the policy of freedom of worship; this is stated clearly in the five decrees and communiqués on religion. But these are only the written proclamations. As far as the verbal orders are concerned, they often contradict the spirit of the published proclamations. May I ask the government: Should I obey the text or should I obey the verbal orders? I want to believe that the texts correctly reflect the government's policy, and not the verbal orders. Perhaps, I should not identify the government as the government agents who make mistakes while carrying out the policy of the government.

2) Equality in Civil Rights: Let me be honest. For the last two years, Catholic citizens have not felt all right. Wherever they go or whatever they do, they always have the feeling that they are suspected and oppressed. At school, the students have to listen to anti-Catholic teachings from teachers who try to smear Catholicism. Of course, there were errors at certain times in the history of Christianity, However Christianity has done so many good things for the past 2,000 years; nevertheless; they are not spoken of In comparison, the errors are only a few. Furthermore, each period has its own principles, and revise the standards of the olden times by using the criteria of our times is not a scientific approach.

As regards the Catholic workers, employees, teachers, and social workers, even if they are proven to be good workers, they cannot continue to work for their living safely, just because they are Catholic. If you are a Catholic, and you are afraid of being refused to a work, having difficulty while you work for your living and you want to know the reason, you will be told privately that if you abandon your faith or quit going to church, things will ease off for you.

During the Assembly of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam, recently held in Ho Chi Minh City, a member of the Central Committee of the Fatherland Front made remarks that Catholics are regarded only as second-class citizens.

The government contends that everybody is equal, that every ethnic group is equal. We are a people of fifty million. There are forty-five million Kinh [ethnic Vietnamese] and five to six million people of about 60 ethnic groups. There are at least three million Catholics, yet, in practice, they do not have the right to equality in civil rights (Quoted from Nguyen Van Canh, 1982: 175).

The prelate later faced constant harassment following "the Truong Thi Ly Incident." Mother Superior Truong Thi Ly of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Cross at Hue was arrested July 1985. She was charged with engaging in espionage. She had been found in possession of a letter of the Archbishop of Hue to the prelacy in Saigon. The archbishop of Hue was immediately placed under house surveillance. He was then arrested, interrogated, and detained for 120 days at the Binh Tri Thien Police Headquarters. Released, he was, again, placed under house arrest. Father Tran Van Quy, of the Hue Archdiocese, was also arrested and interrogated about the bishop's activities from 1980 to 1986. As soon as the Archbishop was released, he was placed under house arrest, and his religious services were strictly severed. A delegation of the Committee for Union of Catholics came to Hue to complicate the situation. The prelate categorically ruled out every argument of that delegation in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. The archbishop of Hue reportedly died after an unspecified illness. He died a doubtful death while on his sickbed at the Binh Dan Hospital, Saigon, on June 8, 1988.

Mass Arrests

Mass arrests of the Catholic clergy in the South continued subsequent to the detention of the Vice-archbishop of Saigon Nguyen Van Thuan. Among the arrested were the Catholic priests of high prestige such as the Reverend Hoang Quynfh of Binh An Parish, Saigon, and the Reverend Tran Huu Thanh of the Redemptorists Order on Ky Dong Street, Saigon. The Reverend Hoang Quynh was arrested right after the takeover of Saigon. Little is known about his fate except the fact that he reportedly died in Chi Hoa Prison, possibly in 1976. The Reverend Tran Huu Thanh was arrested on the evening of February 15, 1976 after his visit to a friend. He was taken to the police headquarters where he was cooped up in a dark, small cell. He was detained in such condition for two months. He was later moved to Chi Hoa prison in Saigon where he was detained for a year. He was later placed under house arrest somewhere in Hai Duong Province, North Vietnam thereafter.

Waves of arrests ensued. About 200 Catholic priests among whom were the military chaplains of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. They were detained and subject to reeducation at various prisons and camps throughout the country.