Quang Binh
Bo Trach District
On September 21, 2009, the People’s
Council of Bo Trach, Quang Bunh Province, by an administrative decision,
officially ordered the pastor and the Catholic congregation of Bau Sen, Chay
Parish, to take down the statue of the Dame La Vang that the parish had erected
in March 2008. The parish refused to comply with the order. On November 5, with
tow trucks, security police came to place to voluntarily take down the statue.
The parishioners opposed in vain in face of a force of more than 500 policemen,
servicemen, and civil guards. Under the
direction of the vice-chairman of the People’s Council of Bo Trach District
Tran Thanh Van, the statue was in a moment taken down and placed in front of
the parish’s cathedral.
Dong Hoi Township
The Tam Toa Incident
In 1954 when the country was partitioned into two
regions by the Geneva Accords, almost all parishioners of Tam Toa, Dong Hoi
Township, moved to Da Nang, a city south of the Seventeenth Parallel under the
administration of the Republic of Vietnam. After the war, the people in the
township gradually stabilized their living. Dong Hoi relived with mass
immigration of old native residents from various parts of the country returning
to their hometown. There still stood among large ruins a cathedral on Nguyen Du
Street on the bank Nhat Le River. A signboard in full sigh read: “Evidence of
Crime by the American Imperialists.” That was the site where the old Cathedral
of Tam Toa still lay in ruins.
In an effort to rehabilitee the parish of Tam Toa,
the clergy and parishioners sought support from the Hue and Vinh dioceses and
the civil authorities of Dong Hoi. In a proposal, that asked the local authorities
to allow them to reconstruct the parish compound at the Tam Toa Cathedral site,
being almost completely destroyed by American bombs in 1958. All were then in
ruins but the church facade and foundation. At the beginning, the authorities
rejected the proposal under the pretext that the Catholic population in Dong
Hoi was still thinly scattered. Later, the Catholic population gradually increased.
There were as many as 1,000 Catholics, and a parish was formed. The authorities
were then reluctant to allow the followers to celebrate Mass, but on Christmas Eve
only. The parishioners had to plead for permission beside the authorities, and
owing to this, they were allowed to celebrate regular Masses. And, they
performed services at a private residence. As their congregation kept on growing,
they asked the authorities to allow them to prom Masses on the floor of the old
cathedral. No inconvenience occurred.
The Bishop and the priest representing the diocese of Vinh came to celebrate
Masses there several times. The authorities of Quang Binh, without notice,
suspended these activities, maintaining that the site is a war relic, and no
activities could be performed on it. The diocese should choose any another site.
If they wished, they would be granted the most appropriate land. The diocese of
Vinh, on the other side, found it appropriate to celebrate Masses at the site. The
said prelacy repeatedly sent to the civil authorities requests for permission.
They were allowed to choose one among five plots of land for reestablishing a
new worship place. Nevertheless, all these locations are separate and located
in distant areas very far from the township, and thus creating obstacles to the
Church to build a cathedral that serve a congregation living from afar.
A small barrack without walls covered with corrugated
sheets was raised on the foundation of the old cathedral. It sheltered a Crucifix
and an altar for Mass services. At 9:00A. M. of July 20, 2009, while the
parishioners were erecting a Crucifix in the barrack the security police of
Quang Binh stormed in and destroyed all articles of worship. Uniformed and
plainclothes police agents with clubs and sticks disbanded the believers.
Nineteen among them including an elder, women, and two children were dragged to
and shoved into police vehicles. Many were injured. A moment later, the children were released.
Sources from the parish said that the parishioners only wished to have a
worship place. The authorities, by contrast, attributed to them as
reactionaries that voluntarily committed crimes. Repressed, the victims grieved
at the authorities' brutal action. Under the pretext that the cathedral in
ruins is a war relic, the authorities laid heavy hand on innocent citizens. They
deliberately did it on whims and wishes. The parishioners simply honored the
site; it is their cathedral. They were labeled reactionaries abetting the Americans.
In face of persecution, the parish of Tam Toa called
on the parishioners of the diocese of Vinh for spiritual support. The
authorities retaliated with threats. On
July 21, the situation grew tense. Thugs
and bad elements came in and attacked the parishioners at the worship place. On
July 22, the official daily Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberated) carried the
news saying that Tu Hong Son, the deputy-director of the local Security Police Service
announced the decision to prosecute 7 parishioners of Tam Toa on charges of
causing public disorder taking place on July 20. Tension spread to the other
parishes in the diocese of Vinh, Quang Binh and Nghe provinces. The Reverend Phan Dinh Phung. Chief of Office
of Vinh Diocese, according to the German news agency DPA, explained that the
faithful could not hold calmness. They demanded that, until July 21, if the
civil authorities did not release the seven innocent parishioners under police
detention, they would take action.
Huong Phuong Parish
At least three
parishioners were reportedly injured in a clash with local authorities at the
Huong Phuong cathedral, Quang Binh Province on April 6, 2016. The motive that
led to the altercation was unclear. Local priest Le Nam Cao said that he was informed of the crackdown,
which took place at noon when most parishioners were at work, and only old
women and children were at home. The priest advised his parishioners to go
home. Some of them still resisted police violence and fought back. Police and
troopers equipped with guns, tear gas, and clubs opened fire near the church
and used tear gas and clubs to disband the parishioners. Several were arrested
and taken into custody. The injured were brought to and treated in the
hospital. The priest also explained that this was not the first time local
authorities had clashed with the parishioners. Huong Phuong, in fact, has
suffered oppression quite some time. For
years, the parishioners showed resistance in recent years and spoke out their
aspirations. The authorities
nevertheless ignored requests. They oftentimes sent troopers to the parish
under the pretext that they guarded it against malefaction, searching for drug
dealers or some bad elements for other reasons.
The priest added that most Huong Phuong parishioners are afraid of
security police who seem to show hostility against Ca6holics.They create
difficulties and abuse power, laying heavy had on them out of hatred and
personal ill will.
Growing
Tension
In communion with the parishioners of Tam Toa Parish
who suffered lasting repression, on the morning of July 26, 2009, 250,000
Catholics in the diocese of Vinh, after having attended Sunday Mass, gathered
in an assembly, demonstrating protest against religious repression in peace.
The authorities of Quang Binh executed tight control. Police blocked 500
parishioners from coming to Tam Toa. Three of them were arrested. The following
day, two Catholic priests who came on a visit to Tam Toa were assaulted and seriously
injured by thugs. In the evening of July 28, a troop of traffic police with
coats of mail and a group of plainclothes police surrounded the Tam Toa
Cathedral and the surrounding area. On July 30, the parishioners in the area
were barred from leaving home and kept under constant watch. Traffic circulation
on crossroads from Ba Don to Dong Hoi Township was forbidden. Movement about
the parish was placed under strict control.
On July 30, the authorities of Quang Binh freed from
detention two of seven parishioners of Tam Toa, Hoang thi Ty (female) and Mai
Xuan Thu, who had been arrested on charges of causing public disorder ten days
previously. The rest were released by the end of the first week of August.
Tension persisted. The life of the parishioners of Tam Toa was in jeopardy,
however. They were impeded with deprivation of books of holy chants. Suppression
followed repression. Parishioners who dared go to church to serve faith at the
temporary chapel faced violence. In spite of threats, parishioners kept on
practicing religious worship without fear, attending regular Sunday Mass, The
religious life worsened, nevertheless. The number of churchgoers diminished as
a result of perplexity. Division between fellow believers surged. Neighbors
spied on one another. Some became victims of hatred, and threatened by violence
of thugs. The authorities applied stricter measures of suppression and
control. To stop the parishioners to
frequent the Church site, the authorities had a fence raised around the floor
of the old Tam Toa Cathedral. A flower garden was arranged near the war relic.
Another fence surrounded the whole site. Still, an invisible fence of
suspicion, discrimination, and hatred pervaded, inhibiting concerned parties of
believers from various walks of life to come to contemplate the historical religious
site. Hatred and fear that for many years people had forcibly dissipated began
to reappear.
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