Religious Policy—The Practices (II)

                                                                                                                                     

In February 1953, the Viet Minh government launched operations for Land Rent Reduction, paving the way for the Land Reform. Landowners were questioned whether or not they had evaded taxes or had not paid them duly. 

Article 4 of Chapter II of the Decree 197/Sl, promulgated on December 19, 1953 stipulates that “only superfluous cultivated land, castle, and farm implement were confiscated. Nevertheless, landowners and their families were thrown out of their houses. Communal houses, temples and pagodas were turned into granaries, hangars, or classrooms. Priests and dignitaries were executed. Catholic priests and Buddhist monks were classified into the category of reactionaries. The Buddhist MonK Thich Tue Chieu in Thanh Hoa Province was given the death sentence for tax evasion. The Catholic priest Mai Ba Nhac was sentenced to 15 years for the same charge. In Hung Hoa Diocese, Fr. Thero Nay and Fr. Phero Thuyet were brought to stand trials and Fr. Ngo was imprisoned, also for evading taxes.

The government had to postpone operations of land reform until after the Communist troops took over Haiphong from which people could escape to the South. On July 22, 1954, prior to the withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps from North Vietnam and the termination of evacuation of the refugees to the South, Ho Chi Minh called on the Vietnamese of all societal layers to cooperate with him to serve the Fatherland. On the Christmas Eve of the same year, in his message to the Catholics, he promised to guarantee religious freedom. On September 20, 1954, the government declared that “All religious institutions, churches, temples, pagodas, and so on of a religious character belonging to any religious denomination, shall be respected by the people. No one shall cause any damage to them.”

On July 4, 1955 the Workers’ Party of Vietnam declared in the official press that while it “entertains confidence in the scientific accuracy of Marxism-Leninism, but it also admits that such belief must be self-imposed and freely accepted and cannot be forced upon anyone.” On June 14, 1955, before operations for land reform resumed, the Ho Chi Minh government promulgated a decree on the protection of freedom of conscience and worship. Article I of the decree states that “the government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe on these freedoms. Every Vietnamese citizen shall have the right to practice a religion or not to practice any.” Article 10 of the decree states that “in the process of land reform, a part of the land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government earlier with or without reparations or distribution to peasants, shall be left to the church, pagoda, or sanctum concerned with a large enough area to ensure the performance of worship and to provide for living conditions of priests and religious dignitaries in order for them to carry out their religious activities.” Article 13 of the decree states: “The authorities shall not interfere in the domestic affairs of the various religions.” Article 15 of the decree states: “Freedom of conscience and freedom of worship are the rights of the people. The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam always respect these rights.”

The promise of the Patty and the stipulations of the laws are mere rhetoric. Religious intolerance is essentially not born from conflict between the communists and the Churches. It derives from the principles of materialist dialectic, of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of class and class struggle. Religion is the opium of the people. Extermination of this scourge necessarily goes hand in hand with other forms labor exploitation and social injustice, and thus obstructing achievements of the revolution on the path to socialism. From this cause of necessity, the communists never hesitate to bring down religion at any time and in any place. In Vietnam, under communism, religious persecution is ever lasting and excruciating. It becomes increasingly merciless after the partition of the country following the Geneva Agreements in July 1954. Dictatorship of the proletariat prevailed, and the communist State monopolizes power, giving itself the authority over the existence of religion, which is a vital and spiral component of society but which is not considered a moral person and a legal entity.  

As a matter of fact, no sooner had the law taken effect than religious repression began. Fierce operations of land reform ravaged the provinces in the Red River delta. Genii and saints were ridiculed, and priests and dignitaries were executed. Cadres in the Bui Chu Diocese carried out strict measures not only to wipe out landlords but also to extenuate those whom they considered enemies of the regime. Among them were intellectuals of the old regime, the clergy of all faiths, specifically Catholic priests and followers. These “reactionaries” were brought to stand trials before the People’s Court charted by the cadres. The victims were persecuted on the spot. Dinh Van Tac, a pious and virtuous Catholic of Quat Lam Parish, was one of the first victims. Fr. Dinh Quang Hien of Phu Nhai Parish was charged with tax evasion. Unable to produce evidence, the court flatly accused him of having evaded taxes since the founding of the parish dating from 200 years before and sentenced him to six years in prison. The Buddhist monk Thanh Quyet of Tra Lu Trung Pagoda, Xuan Truong District, Nam Dinh Province, was classified in the category of the infamous reactionaries to be brought to a people’s court on charge of having used the opium of religion to lure people into sleep. Terrified, he hung himself to be spared from the humiliation of a people’s trial.

Towards the end of the land reform, the Workers’ Party and administration step by step obliterated all religious organizations and associations and replaced them with State-linked associations operating within the orbit of the Party-affiliated Mat Tran Lien Viet (Viet United Front). All religious, educational, and cultural physical establishments were dispossessed, and all religious institutions were forced to close down. Religious education, retreats and renewals were forbidden, and religious services and activities were subject to control and ban. The General Association of Buddhism was replaced by the State-created Unified Buddhism with the Venerable Tri Do at the head. The Most Venerable To Lien, the leader of the association, was expelled from Quan Su Pagoda after sessions of crimes relegation against him. Young monks and nuns were to return home. Years passed by. Old monks passed away. Most pagodas and temples were without guardians and were in ruins. The leadership of congregations of Evangelical Christianity was dissolved.  The administration in Hanoi neutralized all forms of religious services and activities. Bible studies and parties for prayers at chapels and houses were forbidden. Pastors and ministers were subject to surveillance by local authorities. They played a nominal role as representatives for their congregations. Pastor Bui Hoanh Thu, a protégé of the regime, was nominated head of the Evangelical Church in Hanoi as a sign of favor.   

The Roman Catholic Church suffered tragic losses, physically and institutionally. All its properties including humanitarian establishments, schools, hospitals, dispensaries, social shelters, and orphanages were either dispossessed or confiscated. Fr. Luong Huy Han, the director of Little Seminary at Trung Ninh, Bui Chu Province, was arrested and imprisoned. Foreign missionaries, among whom were the Dominicans and the Jesuts from the Missions Etrangeres de Paris, were expelled from the country. Fr. Dupont was killed at Ke So, Ha Nam Province. Fr. Fournier was assassinated in Hanoi. Little and grand seminaries in Hanoi, Haiphong, and Nam Dimh were closed down. Religious services were allowed but performed under watch. Texts of preaching were censured, and religious activities could only be performed on prior authorization. Programs for religious education and cycles of formation and ordination of priests were banned or interdicted.

High dignitaries and the clergy were targeted with tight repression and persecution. Bishop Nguyen Nang Tinh faced treats in Bui Chu. Bishop Pham Dinh Tung of Bac Ninh Diocese served faith in humiliation. Bishop Le Duc Trong was separated from the faithful in Nam Dinh. Bishop Trinh Van Can faced isolation in Hanoi. Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh, director of Little Seminary in Hanoi, who served faith with resilient resistance, was imprisoned and died of a doubtful death in 1960.

In September 1960 the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam proclaimed its official policy to concretize a resolution passed by the Third Party Congress of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party. According to these rulings, Marxism-Leninism should be dominant in the moral life of the country. It is the ideology of all the people. It is the basis on which the people build a new morality. Traditional spiritual and cultural values and institutions were in gradual decadence. Cathedrals, chapels, pagodas, and temples were gloomy and desolate. Priests, monks, and the followers served faith in silence.

RELIGIOUS POLICIES—THE PRACTICES

On March 17, 1988, during a national congress of the Bureau of Religious Affairs, Nguyen Tan Dung, vice-premier in charge of the economy, defended with fervor the Party and State’s religious policy against allegations as regards   abuses of power. These allegations, according to the vice premier, created the citizen’s negative attitudes towards the government by the people and of the citizens of all faiths, and thus sowed division between the government and the people. The vice-premier placed stress on the social role that religion can play in Vietnam. The practices of religious instruction, for instance, could contribute to the elimination of numerous social illnesses that were ravaging the country. Contrarily to what certain press agencies maintained, emphasis on the positive character of religion is not new. The vice premier quoted Bishop Nguyen Minh Nat’s statement, as saying, “Religion is not an epiphenomenon. It is the reality of everyday existence,” and thus it has to be taken into consideration. 

In Retrospection

Throughout its history in power, the Communist regime ever promises to guarantee the rights to regligious freedom of the Vietnamese people. The During the People’s Congress on August 17, 1945 held in wake of the uprisings, the Viet Minh called with insistence upon all the people throughout the country and all revolutionary organizations to rise up and unite in the struggle for “the rights to which the people are entitled.” These rights include “civic rights: universal suffrage; democratic freedoms, freedom of creed, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, and equal rights for the nationalities and equal rights for men and women.”

The Coalition Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh guaranteed these rights. Article 10 of the 1946 Constitution specifies that “All Vietnamese citizens are entitled to the righto freedom of speech, of the press, freedom of publication, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of creed, freedom of residence, of movement in the Vietnamese territory and in foreign countries.”

Religious persecution, nevertheless, intensified immediately after “the August Revolution.” It even became increasingly atrocious thereafter. Records of incidents of religious persecution were voluminous. The following list is far from complete. Sporadic executions of religious dignitaries began to take place when the “Revolution” was in full swing. The Venerable Duc Hai was executed at Thanh Sam Village, Ung Hoa District, Ha Dong Province, on charge of betrayal against the country on August 19, 1945. The Venerable Dai Hai of Phap Van Pagoda, Bac Ninh Province, was arrested on charge of being a member of a national party.  Executions of religious leaders spread elsewhere in the country. On September 8, 1945, the Viet Minh in Can Tho executed three prominent leaders of Hoa Hao Buddhism --Huynh Thanh Mau, the brother of the founder of the faith Huynh Phu So, Tran Van Trung, and Pham Xuan Thieu following a peaceful demonstration of Hoa Hao faithful expressing support for the leaders of the national independence front in Saigon.

Executions of innocent Cao Dai in the Center and the South were most tragic. Ten thousand Cao Dai followers were reportedly executed following the “August Revolution.” in Quang Ngai Province, Central Vietnam. As many as four thousand victims were killed because of refusal to renounce their faith at Tra Khuc River in Tu Nghia District. Hundreds of others were buried alive in collective graves along the bank of Ve River. Witnesses also reported that about six thousand (6,000) members of the Church were murdered in the Cu Chi and Trang Bang areas, Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam. Collective graves with thousands of remains were found in these areas. Still, a list of one thousand two hundred seventy-three martyrs was on file at the Holy See.  Massacre marked another incident. In June 1946, having failed to seize Tay Ninh Holy See by force, local Viet Minh militia, during their retreat to their safety zone, burned down buildings and houses of 50 villages along the roads in the Long Thanh area. An uncounted number of innocent Cao Dai followers were killed.

The situation in the North was much more intricate. In December 1945, facing the invasion of the French troops into North Vietnam, Ho Chi Mimh wooed political and religious leaders to unite in a front to fight against the invaders. On March 21, 1946, Ho Chi Minh signed a modus vivendi owing to which he became the legitimate leader of Vietnam. Without dignity, he made a volte face, flatly eliminating political and religious leaders and organizations. On May 27, 1946, Viet Minh troops and police began to execute campaigns of eradication against political leaders and religious dignitaries. The Roman Catholic Church suffered utter tragedy following harsh survival under the Japanese occupation. After the coup d’états of March 9, 1945, the clergy of French nationality faced stiff suppression. Priests and dignitaries were sent to and imprisoned in concentration camps, being suspected of collaboration with the French administration. Fr. Delaine Tan, the director of Vinh Grand Seminary, as a case in point, was arrested and died three days under surveillance. Intolerance against Catholicism was on the rise during and after the uprisings of August 1945. Bishops were regarded as spies for the French, and the followers, French henchmen. In Hanoi, French missionaries were regrouped and sent to concentration camps. Rumors had it that French henchmen spread poison into wells to kill innocent people, particularly, non-Catholics. Animosity between Catholics and non-Catholics dug in deeper. Political hatred against the Church was self-evident. Priests and seminarians in Thanh Hoa joined with great enthusiasm and patriotic fervor in meetings and demonstrations supporting “the Revolution,” on September 23, 1945, but received little sympathy. Persecution coincidentally began. The Congregation of Sisters of the Cross was dissolved. The seminary at Ba Lang was razed to the ground. Seminarians and novices were sent home. Chaos pervaded. Fr. Can, the pastor at Chan Lao Parish, was killed at Hoi Xuan on June 10, 1946. Fr. Chu Thao Tien was killed at Phuong Soai on July 1, 1946. Fr. Mai Ba Nhan was abducted, imprisoned, and died at Cam Thuy concentration camp. 

  

In Hanoi parishes, all associations of the Church were dissolved, and all its educational and charitable establishments were forced to shut down. Foreign bishops and missionaries were regrouped in separate concentration camps. On October 23, the bishop of Hanoi expressed anxiety over the situation. Ho Chi Minh promised to take the matter into consideration, but never came up with a solution. Thai Ha Parish, in particular, suffered tragic physical loss. Viet Minh armed militia attacked and destroyed the main office building of the local Order of Redemptorists and sent all the priests and seminarians in residence out of the area.

On December 19, 1946, the Indochina War broke out. The Viet Minh government retreated to the safety zone in the mountains. Vietnam suffered to destruction from both the French invaders and the communist Viet Minh. The French troops erased all worship buildings which they thought would serve as posts for resistance by the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh believed these large physical structures would serve as strongholds for military use by the French. Cathedrals, communal houses, and temples on the enemy march were destroyed following the Viet Minh’s scorched earth tactics. Worse still, religious worship fell into decadence after the war. The worship of Titular Genii at communal houses was undermined by the hostile unwritten religious policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Religion was no exception. Religious faith is deemed to be a vestige of imperialism and feudalism.

All religions, in truth, endured lasting hostility.  The Venerable Tue Quang and the Venerable Thich Tue Chieu, members of the Religious Interfaith of Vietnam were arrested and executed in 1947. On April 16, 1947, the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism was trapped in an ambush, abducted, and killed. The massacre of innocent Hoa Hao believers raised panic. Tens of thousands members of the Church were abducted and killed. Along the boundaries of Phu Thuan and Long Thanh villages were found three collective graves. Victims were reportedly stabbed, hand-tied and eye-folded, and then dumped into ditches. Equally frightful was the massacre of eleven thousand members of Hoa Hao at Tay An Co Tu (Tay An Old Temple) on April 16, 1947.  

Persecution in Phat Diem Diocese was tragic. From the end of 1946 to the beginning of 1947, local communists in Phat Diem Diocese arrested about five thousand (5,000) people including Catholic priests and followers “for lack of spirit of resistance’ and for “being reactionary.” On January 25, 1946, Ho Chi Minh paid a visit to Phat Diem, met with Bishop Le Huu Tu, and asked the dignitary to be Supreme Advisor to the Coalition Government. In the beginning of 1947, Viet Minh armed forces laid siege to Phat Diem. The diocese was isolated from the rest of the country after a 5-day congress by the Viet Minh at Trinh Dong Village Nho Quan District, Ninh Binh Province. The Chau Son Order of which Bishop Le Huu Tu was a member was attributed to as a network of espionage for the French was subject to dissolution. In the wake of the end of the war, Viet Minh troops stormed into Phat Diem and Bui Chu dioceses, devastating the last resistance strongholds. Bloody persecution pervaded. Along with the with the pursuit of French armed forces withdrawing from Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh and Phu after the defeat of Diem Bien Phu, Viet Minh troops attacked Catholic villages on either side of the Route I. Cathedrals and chapels were destroyed, priests and followers were massacred. Witnesses saw dead bodies in waves floating from Tra Chinh River to the Kim Doi sea-mouth. Hundreds of thousand Catholics in the Red River delta moved south for fear of bloodbath.