Overview
During the eleventh session of the National
Assembly, April 7, 1997, Deputy Phan Khac Tu, a Catholic priest and State’s “protégé,” came up
with the theme of civil liberties. His speech, which was published in
its entirety in the Catholic review Catholicism and the Nation (No. 1104, May
4, 1997), devoted all the last part to the application of the politics of
religious freedom. The deputy particularly criticized the gross manner with
which certain regional authorities had executed with regard to the policy: “The
applications depend on the manner in which the rule is interpreted, mostly on the
whims and wishes of diverse services, regional authorities, and the cadres in
this specialized domain. Twenty years after reunification of the country, no uniformity of application of the
rules has been applied, as far as religious freedom is concerned.”
The compilation of a new law as regards religious
policy constituted a primary concern of the Eighth congress that took place in
June 1996. Special considerations were given to the compilation of a new law
for the religion with well-defined provisions. Expert compilers were entrusted
with the task. The keynote presenter from the Politburo nevertheless kept a
complete silence on a promulgation of the coming law. In his presentation
before the congress, the presenter even showed himself discreet. The religion constitutes a factor
and also an impediment to socialist buildup. The presenter seemingly thinned
out the issue in certain aspects. To the observer, the term religion, for instance,
was used but sparingly in his speech; it was later mentioned without clear-set
definition in Chapter VII entitled “Accentuate the Reinforcement of the Unity
of the People on the whole.” This caution on the part of the presenter
constituted a negative attitude of the State toward the religion; it suggests
some significance of an ill omen to a concerned observer (EDA 226).
The Catholics, in general, expected the government,
after years of hard time would eventually relax its control on the religion, Attempts
were made to revive activities of religious groups in various parishes
rekindled new hope. Within a short time, all initiatives of voluntary will of
this kind proved to be futile, however.
For the diocese of Xuan Loc, as a case in point, the local authorities
flatly repressed suspected troublemakers, placing them under house arrest. A
report in 1997 from a parish in Dong Nai
Province recounted that, while in a meeting, members of the Catholic Mothers
received a visit of the police for unspecified reason. The president of the
association was then convoked for interrogation at the police headquarters. The
authorities of the province of Dong Nai, in another instance, raised question
on and probed into the existence of several religious councils of parishes
in the diocese of Xuan Loc, Dong Nai Province.
Curiously enough, while, in the Dong Xoai Parish,
Saigon Diocese, where the State-affiliated member of the Committee of Union of
Catholics Phan Khac Tu was the vicar, activities of all forms were performed
without approbation from the authorities of the city, In truth, for many years, the parishes in
Xuan Loc suffered suppression. The authorities of Dong Nai Province pronounced
the dissolution of all Catholic associations in the Xuan Loc diocese. As a
result, beginning in April 1997, conflict between the local authorities and the
parishioners ever intensified. The
diocese is a large congregations of Catholics the majority of whom came from
North Vietnam after the Geneva Agreements in 1954 and was well-known for anti-Communist
action.
Tension persisted. In August 1997, The State
tightened control, fomenting discontent of the local Catholic population.
Tension escalated to such an extent that the Politburo had to send to the diocese of Xuan Loc one of its members,
Pham The Duyet, the Head of the Office of People’s Actions. Pham was appointed
the politics mediator representing the Politburo to settle the complication
between the population and the local administration in the riot in Thai Binh
Province previously. Upon his coming to the
diocese of Xuan Loc, he met with Bishop Nguyen Minh Nhat and his
coadjutor, Nguyen Van Tran, and some other priests. The meeting between the two
parties, according to the local sources, was short and comic.
At the outset, the friction between the local
authorities and the prelacy of Xuan Loc
began with the publication of a brochure entitled “Guidelines for
Parochial Activities of the Parish Council” by the diocese of Xuan Loc. He act was to the t authorities an infringement
on the law of the State. The People’s
Council of Dong Nai sent to its subordinate district people’s councils a circular with remarks and directives on the
subject, specifying that the brochure was published without permission and that
its contents were erroneous and were in
contradiction with the actual regulations of the State concerning the legal status
of the diocese as a social association, in general, and as a religious entity,
in particular. It blamed the bishop of
the diocese for reorganizing the diocese in contradiction to the law. The
orientations in the brochure were attributed
to as mistakes repeatedly committed, first, by the former bishop of the
diocese, Msgr. Lang, who had signed the common letter of 1981, then by personal
engagement in the publication of the said 00brochure of Bishop Nguyen Minh
Nhat
Substantially, the circular accused the Bishop of
Xuan Loc of forming religious organizations which were not qualified for
religious ones. These organizations, in reality, are simply religious associations
operating in conjunction with and under the supervision of the Church’s clergy
in the domain of fraternity such as the Alliance of Sacred Heart, the Legio of
Mary, the Association of Heads of Families, the Catholic Mothers, the Eucharist
Crusade, and so on. They are simply the religious groups of the Church that
operate within the Church and under the supervision of the clergy. The bishop
was also blamed for having reshaped the Church's organization, creating milieus
of activities for the youth, and placing their supervision of a Church
committee chaired by a priest or a lay person. The status of these organizations
of new groups had not been prescribed in the organization program for ordinary
religious practices.
To adorn what is considered as a serious deviation,
the circular of the People’s Council of the province of Dong Nai announced a
number of measures. The most important one dictated the dissolution of all
movements, organizations, and milieus. The new measures evinced a strong
emotion among the Catholic population of the diocese. Discontent was manifest
at the meeting between Pham The Duyet and the
Catholics. This member of the Politburo tried to appease the audience’s
anger, promising to facilitate a peaceful dialogue between the authorities and
the Catholic community. The Catholic side demanded with firmness that the
problem in question be solved and the decisions adopted by the local
authorities be revoked.
No comments:
Post a Comment