LAND DISPUTE

     Land dispute between the State and the Church became a serious problem. On September 19, 2008, Msgr. Nguyen Trung Thanh, the Superior of the Redemptories Order, asked the Vatican to intervene in the matter. Months of protests and arbitrary detentions sparked unrest in various parishes throughout the country. In many parishes, Catholics staged mass rallies. Several parishes demanded to return to the Church the properties the State had confiscated in the land reforms of 1954-1956 and the land appropriation following the takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. Many Catholics were detained for taking part in the movement, although they had no intention to challenge the authorities or create chaos. Only could an intervention from the Holy See prevent regrettable confrontation. The dignitary stressed that "the Catholic Church and the Redemptorists Order have plenty of documents to prove that land properties are theirs and that these physical properties are never under State management. The Church and the Redemptorist Order are entitled to legal ownership of the land." The dignitary also filed a report to the Vatican for intervention. As the Vatican had no diplomatic ties with Hanoi, no intervention was made. The dispute became increasingly tense...

The Law on Land 1940/CT-TTg

In January 2009, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung promulgated the Decree 1949/CT/TTg regarding land properties of all religions. The promulgation of the law took place amid serious land disputes between the State and the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. In general, the law articulates mostly provisions on land of the Churches previously improvised by State laws, codifying the authority of administration of the State over land. Land belongs to the people, and the State is the manager. Actually, land conflict originates from diverse factual complexities following the land reforms in the North in the years 1956-1960. The nationalization of land after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975 creates even more legal intractable problems, generating flaws and errors and confrontation and unrest.    

 Dispossession of Properties of the Church

    A case in Evidence

The school Pham Van Chi of Sixth Precinct, formerly the primary school Binh Phuoc is situated on the land of the cathedral of Binh Phuoc, which is the legal property of the archdiocese of Saigon. After the Communist takeover of Saigon, the parish lent under coercion the property to the State for public use. On June 16, 1998, the direction of the school without consultation from the parish of Binh Phuoc and the archdiocese unilaterally started to dismantle piece by piece the construction structure of the school and transform it into a new one. The parish of Binh Phuoc reacted, demanding the direction of the school, an administrative organ of education office of Sixth Precinct, to stop the work. The parish proposed to the competent authorities to let it take care of the construction, and the directory would then make use of it. 

   

For three consecutive years, the proposal was not taken into consideration. In the end, the city general directory of education, by the decision No.547/QD-TTNN of June 27, 2001, claimed that the school Pham Van Chi is the property of the State, based on a text drawn up by the former pastor of Binh Phuoc, December 5, 1977, who, in his name, offered that school to the State. Nevertheless, this text was viewed unlawful. A pastor is not entitled to the right to ownership. He is not the proprietor; he is only a manager, and thus has no right whatsoever to offer the State the property of the Church.

On July 27, 2001, the Archdiocese of Saigon sent a letter of protest to different competent State authorities stating clearly that the interpretation and application of the law following the decision of the general directory of education was not lawful and satisfactory. It specified at the same time that the archdiocese is the proprietor of all Catholic establishments within the archdioceses and territory, including the school of Binh Phuoc.The archdiocese proposed to the authorities to discuss the matter with it. The archdiocese received no answer.

On August 3, 2001, the Office of Religious Affairs of the city contacted the archdiocese. The archdiocese prelacy proposed a holding of a meeting between the two parties concerned to discuss a certain number of options with which both parties could reach an agreement. The meeting took place on August 15, 2001 at the Office of Religious Affairs of the city.  In attendance were the authorities of the Section of Religious Affairs of the Sixth Precinct, the representative of the archdiocese, and the pastor of Binh Phuoc Parish.  The representative of the archdiocese restated the content of the letter of protest of the archdiocese of July 27 and protested against the authorities’ unilateral decision on the project of construction at Pham Van Chi School. The meeting came to a halt.

    

Several days later, the problem in question remained unsolved, the authorities of Sixth Precinct had the construction works at Pham Van Chi School started? The archdiocese saw in this move a violation of the right to property ownership and an act of dishonesty that would involuntarily provoke discontent and stir unrest. The archdiocese sent a letter requesting the authorities of the city to take necessary steps to remedy the situation. The letter also demanded that a meeting between the State and the Church should be held before any plan could be projected. The archdiocese maintained that the versions of facts transmitted to public opinion by the civil authorities were in contradiction with what they had said and were contrary to the truth.  (Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City, August 31, 2001.   For the Archbishop, the Vicar-general, P. Jean-Baptiste Huynh Cong Minh). 

   

The land dispute between the civil authorities and the Church become seriously tense under "Renovation." The Archdiocese of Saigon, in many instances attested with conclusive legal documents to its rights to ownership of physical properties. In the letter sent to the municipal authorities of Ho Chi Minh City, reproduced by the agency Viet Catholic News, September 9, 2001, the Archdiocese of Saigon reacted with rigor to the attempts of the local authorities to unlawfully build constructions on the lands belonging to the Church.

Tension persisted. Binh Phuoc School was renamed as Pham Van Chi School. The authorities of Sixth Precinct showed indifference to the aspirations of the Binh Phuoc parish, coincidentally flaming up irritation that ever rose in the local Catholic congregation.  Popular protests against the conduct of affairs of the authorities spread. Pressing demands for a solution to the problem multiplied. The archdiocese, in particular, expressed views according to which it never “transfers the rights to ownership to the authorities: The Church still has all legal rights to properties ownership. By not respecting these rights, one violates the law and commits injustice.” The archdiocese also stressed that “it is a duty of every Catholic to defend and protect the properties of the Church.”  The letter cited in detail incidents of friction between the local authorities and the representative of Saigon Archdiocese. It put into question the legal considerations of the administration with regard to the use of the physical establishments belonging to the Church. It equally demanded the State to clarify the purposes of usage of these establishments which it had confiscated or borrowed from it.

On July 27, 2001, in a petition to the central administration in Hanoi, the Archbishop of Saigon, again, claimed the rights to ownership of properties of the Church at the School of Binh Phuoc as well as those at all other schools belonging to the Church before 1975. He demanded the authorities to contact and discuss the problem concerned with the representatives of the Church every time they desired to create a certain project on the estates belonging to the Church. The demand was ignored, nevertheless. On August 23, 2001, the authorities of Sixth Precinct organized a festival marking the start of a new construction on Binh Phuoc school grounds without a notice to the archdiocese. Coincidentally, the representatives of the diocese were humiliated at the Bureau of Religious Affairs of the city after they came to report to their archbishop the situation at Bih Phuoc Parish.

    

In his appeal to the laity, the prelacy of Saigon Archdiocese reminded the Catholic community of the difficulties facing the diocese following April 1975 when the new regime proceeded with the appropriation of properties of the religion and transferred its legal ownership to the working class and peasantry. The then archbishop of Saigon, Msgr. Nguyen Van Binh, was reluctant to cede to the new regime the right to ownership of these establishments. It is a matter of replacing the old system of private tuition-free education with a public education that is entirely tuition-free. By mutual consent, the new system should give poor students means for education. The Church still has the rights to ownership of property. In addition, in various localities and parishes, the authorities could only "borrow" from the Church certain educational establishments for certain particular purposes. Requests for giving them back to the Church came to no answer.

A Thorn in the Sid

On October 7, 1975, the Archbishop, Msgr. Paul Nguyen Van Binh, by his letter No.576/VP to the Provisory President of the Republic of South ascertained that the archdiocese agreed to transfer to the authorities its educational establishments to facilitate  the tuition-free  education system for the benefit of the students as advanced by the government. Beginning in 1976, the dispute over the rights to ownership of the Church’s properties has never been satisfactorily solved for many causes. Clerical ranks at various parishes in Saigon archdiocese at the time never agreed to transfer the rights to private properties to the “Revolution. Many pastors strongly opposed coercive properties dispossession of the new regime, and the cadres to convince them to lend the “Revolution” certain physical establishments for temporary use or public purposes.  Others adamantly refused to “cooperate with the “Revolution,” and they were arrested and sent to “re-education.” The dispute over land and property between the State and the Church has persisted until the present day.  

By the end of 1990’s, “glasnost” and “perestrioka” fanned throughout the country, the great majority of Catholics thought that the time for change would come. In many parishes, parishioners engaged in the negotiation with the State on land and properties and asked it to return to the Church the establishments it had “borrowed” from it in the old days.  There should be a solution. The new policy of socialization, for instance, allowed semiprivate educational institutions and private schools “founded by the people” to function. The Church, being a “moral person,” would certainly play a role in the building of the nation. It should be given back its physical properties, particularly, cultural and educational establishments to serve this purpose. The Archbishop of Saigon, in particular, requested the authorities to stop the construction work at Binh Phuoc and to open dialogue between the municipality and the archdiocese to reach an agreement. To clarify his position on the subject, the Archbishop sent a communiqué to the Catholic clergy and laity of the Saigon Archdiocese, specifying the “Rights to Properties Ownership of the Church,” and the reasons for which the Archdiocese had ceded the rights to properties ownership  to authorities at  certain locations following the takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975.  

On October 15, 2001, the Service of Education of Ho Chi Minh City, in the name of the Ministry of Education and Youth and the Committee of Liaison of Catholic Education, in the name of the Archdiocese of Saigon, signed an eight-point joint communiqué the integral text of which pointed out two main points : 1) - The Archdiocese of Saigon is in agreement with the administration to transfer to the State the right to use the schools belonging to the archdiocese beginning the school-year 1975-76 for educational objective.  And 2) - These schools continue to be the property of the Catholic Church. In the case one would like to use these establishments for the service one should specify an objective other than educational. There should be prior consent of the two parties. No legal text has been issued thereafter, however.

 The Saigon Archdiocese always preserves its rights to ownership of property of the Catholic private establishments. The agreement between the two parties lacks, in principle, legal feasibility. The documents are established unilaterally by an individual, even though the individual is the archbishop himself. In addition, this “offer of establishments to the government is in contradiction with the principles of the Church and, as a consequence, is without validity. An individual is not entitled to the right to property ownership of the Church and its private establishments. He is not legally entitled to the right to “offer” them to anyone. These physical properties will ever remain the properties of the Catholic Church.