Reactions from the Laity

    

The Catholic laityhad every confidence in their Bishops' leadership as expressed in their petition to the government following the issuance of the Decree 69 HDBT. TIn it, the spiritual leaders particularly demanded the State to materialize the rights to religious freedom by opening access to the five immediate needs of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. The government was required to show respect for the execution of the Sacerdotal Order of  the Vatican nomination of Bishop P. X. Nguyen Van Thuan to the rank of Vice-archbishop and the legitimate successor to Archbishop Nguyen Van Binh of the Saigon prelacy. It should  not interfere in the internal affairs of the Church in the conduct of religious affairs such as the selection of students to the priesthood and education of seminarians, the ordination of priests, and the nomination of bishops. It should facilitate the instruction and study of catechism. It should create favorable conditions for the Church to form Catholic congregations and to open educational religious facilities and allow the Church to operate educational and charitable services. It should unconditionally return to the Church all properties it had appropriated or borrowed for temporary use. It should compensate as amends for any facility that is lost or damaged due to poor State management. It Should respect, protect, and create favorable conditions for the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam to serve  best the policy of National Solidarity and develop its international relationship with other religious communities and the Churches in other countries. It should  respect international treaties and covenants by which it had pledged to abide. 

   

Nevertheless all demands fell to the deaf ears.  Even charitable services were subject to State supervision The Decree 69/HDBT of March 21, 1991, in particular, stipulated with restrictions  that "humanitarian services are regulated by law. The ecclesiastics and religious organizations may devote themselves to  humanitarian activities in the domains of activities where permission can be granted by the State. Humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian services  that are currently sponsored by a religion is allowed to continue to function accordingly and in conformity with the orientations of competent organs of the State. All religious activities that are related or connected to those of the Churches in a foreign country have to be conducted in conformity with the State policy and approved by the Council of Ministers."

     Reactions from the Catholic Circles

On September 8, 1991, Mugs. Nguyen Duc Tien proclaimed at a conference on religious freedom in Santa Ana, California, that the Vietnamese Communist Party made at least three grave errors in its policy on the religions. It confuses patriotism with enthusiasm for socialism; it restricts the rights to religious freedom, and it lacks understanding of the noble goals of religions and the psychology of religious people. The dignitary advocated that freedom of religion is a basic human right; it is a right, and not a privilege. The Vietnam Interfaith Committee of the Struggle for Religious an the United States raised concerns about the repression of the Communist administration, enumerating incidents of  oppression and suppression of the clergy and faithful of all Churches and calling for international investigation into the religious situation in Vietnam.  

Commenting on the Decree 69 - HDBT, in its letter of opinions on April 14, 1991, the Conference of Catholic  Bishops of Vietnam had this to say:

“Although the 1992 Constitution recognizes the right to freedom of religion, the practice of this tight encounters many difficulties and complexities. Almost all resolutions on the religion in the past have been expressively carried out. Some of them are less coercive but are still aiming at restricting rather than facilitating religious activities. Stylistically, the phraseology of the law is ambiguous with  twist of words or contradiction in terms, such as “... is allowed ... but requires permission.” Of all human rights, the right to religious freedom is among the most important rights. Therefore, it must be respected as a right, and must not be regarded as a privilege. The Decree 69 HDBT, March 21, 1991, is only a series of restrictions on religious preaching, services, and activities, and the result of it is a gradual disintegration of the Churches in Vietnam. Consequently,  these restrictions will open doors to a futile struggle between the people and the political regime.

People in any place and at any period of time seek and continue to seek true democracy and the respect for their rights and opinions. Every man should be allowed to practice his own religion. Every man  should have the right to express truthfully what he thinks.  He expects his opinions to be heard, considered, and given response. With all things considered, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Council of Ministers should prove to be flexible, righting wrongs and creating  favorable conditions so that every citizen will be able to contribute to the building of the country. Of first and utmost importance, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Council of Ministers must respect the rights to freedom of religion of the Vietnamese people. It is now the right time for them to revoke forthwith the unpopular Decree 69/ HDBT, March 21, 1991 (Lu Gang, VNHRW, 1992: 7-9).

Religion Practices under "COI MO"

Contenders for freedom and democracy argued that “COI MO” (Openness) is s expressively negative. If we are not careful, we will be put at the risk of  destroying the country's traditional intellectual, moral, and spiritual values . The difficulties facing the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam remained the same ones  reflected in the motion of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam sent to SRVN Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on October 26, 1992, in which it  requested for the respect for the rights to religious worship. It reads, in part:

“We are glad and hopeful to be the witness to an era of renovation of the country in the domain of religion and every other domain of life as well. However, being people who are responsible for the building of happiness and the spiritual life of our Catholic compatriots who live within the people's communities, we cannot help from expressing our thoughts and anxiety about the remaining difficulties that are facing the Vietnamese Roman Catholic Church. Being the superior organ that is responsible for the Catholic community inside the country, the Vietnamese Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to have proper conditions and adequate means for its operations of activities and to be able to perform its functions suitable to its role as the representative of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam.

The Episcopal Conference requested that restrictions on  religious services and activities of  the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam be lifted, and the basic rights to serve the religious faith be respected. The faithful have the right to assembly whenever it is necessary and wherever it is convenient. The Bishops have the right to free movement to perform bishopric duties in their dioceses because, in a number of dioceses, the bishops are required to apply for permission before they go and perform their duties within their dioceses. The Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam should be free to communicate to and share responsibilities with  the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Churches in other countries, such as to participate in religious activities organized by the central ministry at the Holy See when invited and to have relationships with other Conferences of Catholic Bishops and to attend congresses, especially those organized by the Alliance of Asian Conference of Catholic Bishops, It should be  allowed to publish a monthly magazine to inform the laity of activities of the Catholic community and to disseminate materials of beliefs through Bible and catechism studies with facility and, at the same time to be allowed to print and publish with facility books relating to religion.

Like any other social organization in the country and the world, the staff formation and the administration of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam are operated in accordance with the Church's religious rules of laws and regulations and are competent within the Church's hierarchy in their service for the Church.  There should be a harmonic progression for the formation of a staff that is sufficient enough to meet the needs for the religious services of the followers. There are now only three seminaries with a limited number of seminarians throughout the country. Therefore, there are urgent needs to open more seminaries to allow the Church to receive a large number of seminarians as are required by needs in each diocese (the existing number of seminarians is very small as compared with the number of seminarians required by actual needs), to allow to establish preparatory schools for prospective seminarian, to allow to ordain, in accordance with the stipulations defined by the Church, priests whom the Bishop considers as meritorious, to allow the bishop to transfer with facility the priest from one region to another as required by the needs of religious services and are necessary for the service of the followers, to restore the functions of those priests who return from reeducation and allow them to perform religious services, to allow members of the Church to study and receive in-service training overseas when these opportunities are offered or as required by needs and to participate in conferences abroad so that they will be able to serve better when they come back home, to allow monasteries and nunneries to receive, form, and transfer their members so that these people will better perform their duties, suitable to their specialization, and to cease preventing voluntary Catholic converts from serving their faith and causing difficulties to them. As far as the properties of the Church as concerned, the Church is in need of more worship places and places for activities.  Therefore, the Government is asked  to return to the Church its cathedrals, monasteries, seminaries, abbeys, and real estate properties that are under the management  of the State and occupied by the State or that are being used unsuitably the State, and to allow with facility the Church to repair, rebuild, and build worship places and places for activities to meet the Church’s religious needs."

The Conference of Bishops stressed that above-mentioned requests are only the common proposals of any organization that is officially recognized by the government. They are also the aspirations of the Vietnamese Catholic Clergy and Laity. If they are realized, they will help create a new spirit and motive force for the building and protection of the country.