The Cao Dai Church

 

The Cao Dai Church suffers tragic losses institutionally. During the years 1975-76, all its temples, houses of worship, and religious, social, and cultural establishments at the Tay Ninh Holy See were confiscated. The Church’s dignitaries and prominent personalities were arrested and executed. The victims of execution numbered about 4,000. Terrorism plagued Cao Dai communities, paralyzing the Church’s life. Witnesses reported that on the eve of the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, an unprecedented atmosphere of awe and apprehension pervaded all through the 19 Cao Dai communities around the Tay Ninh Holy See.

On April 24, 1975, when fierce fighting between the troopers from North Vietnam and the Armed Forces of the Republic still went on everywhere, thousands of Cao Dai followers crowded the Holy See to seek refuge and protection. The Holy See was their only asylum and last hope of escape from terror. On April 30, 1975, the whole Tay Ninh City was entirely exposed to total confusion. The Communist troops launched fierce attacks on the city. From early morning, they fired rockets into the Holy Site, and, at noon, they overwhelmed the township and marched into the Holy Site (Vo Ha Quyen. Ban An Viet Cong Ket Toi Giao Phai Cao Dai Tay Ninh. Mimeograph. Canada, 1985: 5-6).

The following days, local Communist cadres seized the administration and executed strict measures to force the dignitaries and key members of the Church to resign in submission. To eliminate outright the Church’s organization, they dissolved the supreme body of leadership of the Church. and instituted in their place the Communist agent Truong Ngoc Anh the Church’s leader, liquidated the Holy See administration, abrogated the Church ‘s constitutional laws, disqualified the Church’s highest dignitaries. banned religious practices and activities, and placed under house surveillance the Church’s highest dignitaries, among whom were His Protector of the Faith Ho Tan Khoa, His Excellency Ngoc Nhuong Thanh. His Excellency Tran Quang Vinh, the former Commander-in-chief of Cao Dai Militia, and the Honorable Thuong Nha Thanh, Brigadier General Nguyen Tan Manh. Other notables were arrested and banished to the reeducation camps. After six months, some of them were released due to old age or poor health. They were nevertheless forbidden to serve their faith. Many others put into prison.

On May 1, 1975, a band of undesirable students at the Cao Dai Institute for Faith denied their faith and left the Holy See. Some returned to their homes. Others went over to the Communists and pledged their allegiance to them. Order was restored, but anxiety and fear reigned inside and around the Holy See. Several days after that, Lam Ba Huu alias Hong Nham and a number of agents, who had covertly worked for the Communists at the Cao Dai Charity Establishment, made their appearance. They lent a hand to the Communist cadres to obliterate the Church’s leadership. His Eminency Conservator Ho Tan Khoa was removed from his position, being falsely accused of having had connections to Communist China and Japan. The dignitary was humiliated and dismissed from the Legislative Body of the Cao Dai Church. His Eminency Instructor Nguyen Van Hoi, His Eminency Instructor Nguyen Van Kiet, Bishop Nguyen Thanh Danh, and Priest Le Van Mang were summoned to the reeducation camp.

Terrorism took place. The prominent Cao Dai dignitaries Nguyen Van Manh, Nguyen Van Nho, and Phan Ba Hung were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court and sentenced to imprisonment terms for unfounded charges. Other prestigious Cao Dai believers such as Pham Ngoc Trang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Huynh Thanh Khiet, Ho Huu Hia, and Le Tai Thuong were given the death penalty on false charges and persecuted. Elsewhere in the country, Cao Dai believers were arrested, and their whereabouts were unknown. Witnessing the tragedy that plagued the Holy Site and other communities, Archbishop Nguyen Van Hieu and other dignitaries were resigned to reconcile with the local Communist authorities. The Cao Dai Church was then administered by a body of dignitaries whose functions were only nominal (Van Chuong, VHRW 1 (September 1991).

Tragic incidents engulfed the Church into the darkness of oblivion. His Excellency Thuong Vinh Thanh Tran Quang Vinh, who was then 80 years-old, was arrested without a notice. He was taken away while he was in his sickbed. He was carried on bearers and shoved into a truck. No one ever knew where he was after that. According to his son, Tran Quang Canh, His Excellency Tran Quang Vinh was executed somewhere in Central Vietnam. His Excellency Thuong Nha Thanh Nguyen Van Nha was arrested on April 30, 1975. He was tortured and detained for 5 years in a reeducation camp. His Excellency Nguyen Tan Manh was arrested on April 30, 1975. The Dignitary was well-known for his devotion to the Church. He had sacrificed himself for religious services and consecrated himself to humanitarian aid. His Excellency Truong Luong Thien was arrested in 1975. He was tortured to death in Chi Hoa Prison, Saigon.

Twenty-five Cao Dai dignitaries were ordered to report and register with the local security police for reeducation. Among them were His Excellency Nguyen Van Hoi, His Excellency Nguyen Van Kiet, His Excellency Thuong Danh Thanh, the Reverend Le Ngoc Khai, the Reverend Thuong Mang Thanh, and the Reverend Ngoc Anh Thanh. To black out the Church's clergy, the Communist authorities dismissed from the Church’s positions the personalities of the Church who had served at the Holy See almost all their lives. The whole legitimate clergy of the Church was dismantled within a short time. The State-created Hoi Dong Chuong Quan came into force in replacement of the body of legitimate leadership.

Dispossession of the Church’s religious, charitable, educational, and cultural institutions, establishments, and facilities followed suit. They confiscated the Church's granary that could feed for a year a thousand followers who came to work free-wage at the Holy See. They burned down the Church's History Department. They destroyed all Church's files and documents. They reviewed and confiscated files and documents at the Secular Affairs Department in the Hiep Thien Dai (the Heavenly Union Palace). Under continual political pressure, His Eminency Conservator Truong Huu Duc, His Eminency Reformer Pham Tan Dai, His Eminency Cardinal Thuong Sang Thanh, and His Excellency General Inspector Dang Cong Khanh suffered humiliation and died one after another.

Having eliminated the Church’s prominent leaders and the religious personnel at the Holy Site, the Communist administration in Tay Ninh created the Hoi Dong Chuong Quan (Supreme Council of Administrators) and infiltrated with their men in the Church's other religious institutions and establishments to seize monopoly of authority. Upon completion, this Communist-installed organization was placed under the direction of the Tay Ninh Fatherland Front whose main seat was located at Long Hoa Stadium, Tay Ninh City. They established the so-called Holy Site Management Teams to administer the Church’s facilities All religious offices, cultural institutions and schools, and social establishments were placed under the management of the local administration. The Church's religious practices were equally subject to change.

Repression persisted. The administration tightened control on the Church's traditional religious life. All forms of repression were used to eradicate the Church’s leadership, regardless of the faithful’ s wrath and anger. To repress all acts of dissidence, Communist agents executed artful tricks, to smuggle arms and ammunitions into Cao Dai communities and planted them in caches near the Holy See they had prepared beforehand. Using them as the evidences, the Communists arrested the suspected dissidents. Prestigious members of the Church were eliminated on charges of subversive activities and brought to stand trial before the People's Court. Among the first Cao Dai who were subject to repression were Hien Trung, Nguyen Duy Minh, Nguyen Van Chiem, Trinh Quoc The, Nguyen Ngoc Huong (female), Engineer Hoa, Le Van An, Nguyen Chi Buu, Nguyen Van Hiep, and some other 50 Cao Dai.

During the second wave of repression, November 1976, the Communist authorities in Tay Ninh arrested the Cao Dai Pham Ngoc Trang and a number of other prominent Cao Dai. The dissidents were brought to stand trial in a People's Court in Tay Ninh Province during July 21-22, 1978. After 19 months in detention, they were convicted on ungrounded charges of waging subversive activities against the "Revolution’ without having the right to defend themselves. A number of other followers suffered the same fate. The following list recognizes their verdicts:

1. Pham Ngoc Trang was given the death penalty; 2. Nguyen Thanh Diem was given the death penalty; 3. Dang Ngoc Lien was given the the death penalty; 4. Nguyen Minh Quan was entenced to to the life imprisonment sentence; 5. Cao Truong Xuan was sentenced to the life imprisonment; 6. Ly Thanh Trong was sentenced to the life imprisonment sentence; 7. Chau Thi My Kim (female) was sentenced to the life imprisonment; 8. Tran Van Bao was sentenced to the 20- year imprisonment; 9. Le Ngoc Minh was sentenced to the 20-year imprisonment; 10. Phan Thanh Phuoc alias Rai was sentenced to the 20-year imprisonment; 11. Nguyen Van Dong was sentenced to the 20-year imprisonment; 12.Nguyen Van Doi was sentenced to the 18-year imprisonment; 13. Nguyen Thanh Minh was sentenced to the 15-year imprisonment; 14. Do Trung Truc was sentenced to the 15-year imprisonment; 15. Tran Van Phi was sentenced to the 15- year imprisonment; 16. Nguyen Tan Phung was sentenced to the 12- year imprisonment; 17. Phuong Van Duoc was sentenced to the 8-year imprisonment; 18. Ngo Van Trang was convicted to the 8 years in prison sentence; and 19. Ta Tai Khoan was sentenced to the 7-year imprisonment.

The trials were presided by Tran Trong Nghia. There were accusations, but the Court could not produce any evidences. There were no lawyers, and neither were there witnesses. The defendants defended themselves. The verdicts on Pham Ngoc Trang and the other victims served as the first step to systematically exterminate the Cao Dai Church’s clerical leadership and humiliate its fervent followers.

The repression on the Cao Dai continued. The focus was shifted to other prominent Cao Dai whom the Communist administration regarded the most dangerous elements to the regime. In a concerted effort, it sought first to exterminate the potential dissidents among the most fervent Cao Dai. Many of them were arrested on ungrounded charges and sent to the reeducation camps. On November 1, 1978, it convoked 31 prestigious personalities and believers of the Church for reeducation. They were to report themselves to the security police at Hoa Thanh District, Tay Ninh Province. Approximately 200 Cao Dai dignitaries and believers were also ordered to report themselves with the local authorities at Ben Keo Temple, Long Yen Hamlet. His Excellency Ngoc Sam Thanh was forced to sign a declaration pledging allegiance to the new political regime.

 

　

　

The "Verdict on Cao Dai Religion"

 

　

On September 20, 1978, the Fatherland Front in Tay Ninh issued an indictment accusing the leaders of the Cao Dai of such crimes as serving as the henchmen for imperialism and the old Republic of Vietnam in South Vietnam. For 50 years, it said, among other things, that "the clique that led the Cao Dai Tay Ninh took advantage of their adherents' blood and property for their purposes. They worked as lackeys for the imperialists in exchange for positions and selfish interests. Therefore, they firmly hold on to all positions in this religion. They had served as intelligence agents for the French and Japanese imperialists, and, particularly, the American imperialists and the reactionary political parties and the intelligence and police of the puppet government. These elements had sought to cough up the interests and positions in the Church to buy and lure the Church’s senior and junior officials into working as intelligence agents for them."

The Reverend Thuong Mang Thanh, in contrast, asserted that "... it’s quite contrary to the truth. The Communist Party itself is the culprit who, from the time of the August uprisings of 1945, have sought by all means to blot out the Church’s existence. Throughout the Vietnam War, in particular, it infiltrated with its agents into the Church, and at the beginning of the Communist takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975, it promoted them to the highest ranks in the Cao Dai Church’s clerical hierarchy to achieve their political schemes.

I myself personally challenged those members of that committee of the Fatherland Front in a meeting. The committee itself had meticulously prepared the so-called "Verdict on Cao Dai." The text was read to several dignitaries and a group of Cao Dai believers in a meeting at Hanh Duong Conference Hall. Their aim was to dishonor our respected and beloved Cao Dai Founding Fathers, obliterate our religious faith, and seize hold of the Cao Dai Holy Site, the Holy Temple, and the Church’s properties.

... That I a vicious slander! The French colonialists arrested His Holiness Pham Cong Tac, a founder of the Cao Dai Church. The Pope had been accused of being an anti-French politician and of using the Cao Dai Church as a shield to usurp the French colonialists. He was given the life imprisonment sentence and exiled to Madagascar. He is without doubt a patriot, but, to Him, preaching Cao Dai Faith is his sole and ultimate goal."

We should remember that, after the coup d'etat on March 9, 1945, the Japanese authorities in Indochina decided to transfer power to Cao Dai political leaders. Committed to their religious creeds, they declined. His Excellency General Tran Quang Vinh, who was then one of the prominent political and military figures, explained to a group of Cao Dai youths in a meeting that their role as patriots had been played, that power should be handed to Emperor Bao Dai, that the Emperor would then choose the ablest politicians to govern the country, and that the people of Vietnam would decide the kind of political regime Vietnam should be. A Cao Dai believer should, first and foremost, perform his duties as a citizen and attend to his faith (Van Chuong, VHRW, 1 (September 1991)."

Concerning the Communist’s false accusations of the Cao Dai dignitaries, the Reverend Le Van Mang stressed:

"The arguments behind these false accusations were arbitrary. The Resistance Movement against the French Expeditionary Corps (1945) in the South was first led by spiritual and patriotic party leaders (September 1945) and not the Viet Minh. The Nationalists of the South had fought against the French invaders long before the Resistance War waged by the Viet Minh (December 1946) in the North. The Viet Minh' s political and military forces in the South at that time were virtually insignificant. The combined political and military forces under the command of the religious and patriotic leaders, by contrast, were imminently strong. There had already been three divisions of militiamen. Divisions I and II, mostly composed of the believers of Hoa Hao Buddhism and Caodaism, was under the joint command of the military leadership of Hoa Hao Buddhism and Cao Dai. Division III, consisting of compatriots from all social strata, was under the command of General Nguyen Hoa Hiep, a Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam National Party) leader in the South. Apprehensive of the political and military forces that would abort their monopoly of power and that eventually annihilate them, the Viet Minh Headquarters in Hanoi sent Tran Van Giau, a politics commissioner, and Nguyen Binh, a military commissioner, to the South preached national union. At the Cao Dai Headquarters of Militiamen, Tran and Nguyen vowed to promote concord and solidarity. They were finally successful in convincing the Nationalist spiritual and political party leaders to dissolve their military forces and place them under the command of the Viet Minh. Militiamen were to go back to their provinces and join the Viet Minh resistance units in the local areas. Only two military detachments were retained.

General Tran Quang Vinh of Cao Dai resigned from his position. The command of the two military detachments was passed down to His Excellency Nguyen Van Chu. On his way back to the Holy Site, General Tran Quang Vinh was arrested at Cho Dem, Long An Province, on the order of Huynh Van Tien, the then-Director of Police in the South. The General was abducted to the Viet Minh Headquarters of the Resistance in Dong Thap and then to their guerrilla zone in Ca Mau where he was to be persecuted. By sheer luck, the general was saved there by Nguyen Van No, an old militiaman who had served the national cause under his command, and who was at that moment a lead-serviceman of the Viet Minh local resistance unit.

Other prominent spiritual and patriotic political party leaders, among them were His Holiness Huynh Phu So, the Founding Father of Hoa Hao Buddhism, and patriotic revolutionary leaders such as the Honorable Huynh Van Nga, the party leader of the Party for National Independence and His Excellency Nguyen Van Sam, the Viceroy in the South of the Imperial Court of Hue, were also abducted to unknown whereabouts by the Viet Minh cadres. They applied the same tricks as the French colonialists had to achieve their vile scheme. The Communists were the first to lay hands on the national leaders, exterminate spiritual leaders of the religions, and execute political leaders of national patriots (Van Chuong. VNHRW 1 (September, 1991)."

Persecution took place again and again. During December 8-9, 1979, the Ho Chi Minh People's Court brought to trial several dozens of prominent Cao Dai. These devout believers were charged with crimes of subversive activities. They ere given the death penalty or long-term imprisonment. The following list recognizes their names and sentences:

1. Nguyen Van Manh was given the death penalty on December 8,1979; 2. Le Van Nho was given the death penalty on December 8, 1979; 3. Pham Ba Hung was given the death sentence on December 8, 1979; 4. Tran Minh Quang was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 8, 1979; 5. Dinh Tien Mau was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 8, 1979; 6. Nguyen Thai Dung was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 8, 1979; 7. Doan Van Bach was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 8, 1979; 8. Nguyen Thanh Liem was given the death penalty on December 11, 1979; 9. Huynh Thanh Khiet was given the death penalty on December 11, 1979; 10. Ho Huu Hia was given the death penalty on December 11, 1979; 11. Le Tai Thuong was given the death penalty on December 11, 1979; 12. Nguyen Anh Dung alias Phan Dang Chuc was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 11, 1979; 13. Truong Phuoc Duc was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 11, 1979; 14. Nguyen Ngoc De was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 11, 1979; and 15. Vo Van Thang was sentenced to the life imprisonment on December 11, 1979 and died in prison.

Altogether, the Tay Ninh authorities arrested as many as 1,291 Cao Dai, sent more than 1000 Cao Dai to the reeducation camps, and executed 39 Cao Dai, from 1975 to 1983. The Cao Dai Church was eliminated as an independent social political force (Porter Gareth, Ibid. 1993: 183).

The persecution ever persisted throughout the country. In a trial in Da Nang, Central Vietnam, the People's Court sentenced to death two senior members of the Cao Dai Boy Scouts Association, Tran Ngoc Thanh and Nguyen Van Bay, on false grounds of "subversive activities against the "Revolution." On August 1, 1985, Ho Thai Bach, the eldest son of His Eminency Ho Tan Khoa, was executed in Saigon on charges of waging a people's war against the Communist regime. Ho Thai Bach was a Cao Dai follower of virtue and prestige. He was the president of the Cao Dai Boy Scouts Association. Surely, his death had links with the local Communist authorities' false accusations against his father. In 1988, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court accused, on unfounded charges, Professor Nguyen Manh Bao of "subversive activities intending to overthrow the administration of the Revolution." He was given the death sentence. The penalty was later commuted to the life imprisonment. He was then reportedly imprisoned in a reeducation camp in Xuan Loc District, Long Khanh Province (Van Chuong. VHRW 1 (September, 1991).

THE PERSECUTION

 

　

　

Hardly had the first campaign to dislodge the comprador bourgeoisie from the economy ended, the persecution against religious dignitaries began. On November 11, 1975, only six months after the Communists took control of South Vietnam, the Venerable Thich Tue Hien and eleven monks and nuns of Duoc Su Pagoda in Can Tho Province immolated themselves by fire in protest of the government's repressive measures against their religious practices. The Catholic Bishop Nguyen Van Thuan of the Saigon prelacy was taken into custody. The Hoa Hao Buddhist dignitary Luong Trong Tuong and his wife were imprisoned. Fourteen Catholic priests and followers at the St. Vincent Cathedral on Tran Quoc Toan Street, Saigon, were arrested on charges of counterrevolutionary activities. The Reverend Nguyen Huu Nghi and two former officers of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Duc Hung and Nguyen Viet Hung, were given the death sentence without a trial. Sporadic search-and-destroy operations against religious "reactionary elements" were carried out throughout the country. The repression lasted until the Statr dispossession of the monastery and its dependent premises of the Order of Motherb Coredemptrix in Thu Duc in 1987.

Beginning in 1985, Hanoi entered the first phase of "advancing towards socialism" and "establishing the People’s democracy" in South Vietnam. It pushed forward the "policy of northernization" of the South, incorporating all the remaining industry and trade establishments of the private sectors into the State industry and trade unions, companies, and cooperatives. The legitimate Cao Dai Church, pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and the Churches of Evangelical Christianity were subject to dissolution, and the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam underwent revision. To implement this new State policy, the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City put forth a comprehensive socialist transition of the South. Third Precinct, the city’s most populous most prosperous urban area, served as a pilot test. In the domain of religion, it selected the suburban Thu Duc district where grass roots Roman Catholic parishes, religious and educational establishments, and monasteries were located to serve this purpose. Similar plans were executed in other cities and the provinces throughout the South. Some 200 security specialists who had been trained in the "religions discipline" in Czechoslovakia were assigned to key positions to perform the task in various regions in the South. Their efforts particularly focused on neutralizing all religious organizations’ activities. Temples, pagodas, churches, houses of worship, abbeys, monasteries, and nunneries were all placed under inspection. Priests, monks, seminarians, student priests, and novices were advised to return home or to get married.

Religious oppression and repression became increasingly rude with the arrest of the Catholic priests and the confiscation of the abbey of the Order of Mother Coreedemptrix in Thu Duc in 1987. Other religions suffered persecution. The Cao Dai Church and Hoa Hao Buddhism, the two indigenous religions in the country, which posed serious political problems to the Communist regime, were also under constant threat. Instead of creating favorable conditions for reconciliation, the Communist State decided to denote their legal status, dismantle the leadership, dissolve the organizations, and stepped up repression against opposition and resistance. Devoid of conditions to exist, not only Caodaism and Hoa Hao Buddhism but also the legitimate the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam suffered a tragedy. They were no longer recognized the established social and cultural institutions, but became certain forms of association. They were stripped off their right to exist as religions. They could only operate under State supervision. As a consequence, the propagation of all faiths was limited to the worship place, disallowing the followers’ access to it and placing the clergy that served it under constant surveillance.

Hoa Hao Buddhism, notably, faced utmost difficulties. The Church’s central organization was entirely dismantled, from the national to provincial and local levels. All high dignitaries of the national Hoa Hao Managing Board were arrested. The venerable Luong Trong Tuong and other top Hoa Hao leaders were banished to the reeducation camp. Village Management Boards were allowed to remain in existence only after screening scrutiny for political backgrounds. Only pro-Communist elements, cadres, or agents could stay. Party officials in Dong Thap Province disclosed that the Vietnamese Communist Party had planted its agents within the Church’s organization and operated in hiding within the local Hoa Hao congregations for many years before the Communist takeover of South Vietnam.. Many of them had even assumed higher functions in the Church’s boards of administration before the fall of the Republic of South Vietnam.

To restructure the organization of the Church at the base, the local authorities dissolved the old Hoa Hao Executive Boards, dismissing their chiefs and board members from office as they were all considered the reactionaries --"the blood debtors to the People." They were brought before crime revelation rallies organized by the local officials. They were charged with crimes of treason. Many of them were abducted to unknown whereabouts; others were deported to the reeducation camps or prisons. The legitimate Hoa Hao Church was finally outlawed. Pure Hoa Hao Buddhists were disallowed to visit the To Dinh (Hoa Hao Ancestral Temple), other worship places, and preaching halls. The To Dinh was strictly limited to the State-affiliated members only. (Porter Gareth, 1993:183)

THE OPPRESSION

 

 

The elimination of the bourgeoisie after April 1975 brought with it the repression of religions. Being attributed to as hostile elements to the political regime, the Churches were targeted with suspicion and hatred. Religious practices were regarded superstitious. All religions that operated legally and that were nationally recognized by the former Republic of Vietnam were subject to revision. The clergy were placed under State surveillance. Charitable, educational, and cultural establishments were dispossessed. Many of them were brought down for unfounded reasons. Their legitimacy as Church of Cao Dai and Hoa Hao was subject to question. The capacity as clergy of religious faith of priests and monks was disregarded. Local authorities sent home nuns, novices, seminarians, and student priests for "socialist" production.

Approximately 600 military chaplains including Catholic priests, Buddhist monks, and pastors serving the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam were to report with the Military Councils and sent to reeducation. Others were abducted to unknown whereabouts. Still, others were arrested, tortured, and imprisoned on ungrounded charges of counterrevolutionary activities As a consequence of such a Maoist-style repression, all Churches suffered tragic losses. Their human resources wore out due to attrition, their material resources were doomed to exhaustion, and their very religious structures were dismantled. Worse still, their leaders at the highest level were decimated. The Churches faced utmost destruction as they entered a phase of resistance for survival.

 

　

Ideological Premises and the Practices

As soon as it took over the power, the new political regime found itself in face of a society that was abysmally dissimilar in every aspect from the one in the North. In the years that immediately followed 1975, theoreticians and historians of the Party and State, in the light of Maoism, devoted themselves to sophisticated studies of and inquiries into the social, economic, political, and cultural situations of the South. Their conclusions led to a systematic "socialist transformation" based on the examination, evaluation, and delineation of all forms of production of the economy and all social, political, cultural, and religious institutions of the South. Accordingly, the regime carried out the so-called the "Revolution of People’s Democracy," appropriating all the properties of the bourgeoisie, landlords, and religions and transferred their legal ownership to the working class of workers and peasants following the laws and rules of class struggle.

Again, Do Muoi was nominated the Chief of the Trade and Industry Reforms Bureau to execute the plans of "northernization" of the South. In a coordinated effort, this organ set up priorities, liquidating one by one the counter- revolutionary elements, the comprador bourgeoisie, and the religions which it considered the hostile elements to the regime. By means of this s nationalization of private resources, it gradually eradicated the supra- and infra- structure with all their deep-seated political, social, economic, cultural, and religious institutions and values. As in any activity in other sectors of the social life of society, the function of religion was to be redefined. To achieve this purpose, the Communist rule decreed a new law providing the rules and regulations to place the religions under State control.

     

　

The Resolution 297/CP on Religions

 

On November 11, 1977, the Communist rule promulgated Resolution 297/ C P, instituting rules and regulations required of the religions to fulfill their obligations to the State. The law opens with a preamble that chants religious freedom. Inversely, the provisions that follow it prohibit and restrict religious freedom. It specifies that any one who takes advantage of religion to violate the independence of the Fatherland, to counteract against the socialist system, to decimate the solidarity of the people, to obstruct the religious followers from fulfilling their obligation of citizen, and to resist carrying out the policy and the law of the State will be punished by the law. The corollary of this politically tainted resolution thus gives itself its legal validity.

The resolution also postulates such obligations as "priests of any religion have to mobilize the followers to carry out the State's policy. They are required to obtain permission from the authority prior to any religious performance." Section 2B of this law vests the administration with more judiciary authority, to appropriate and to administer the churches, pagodas, temples, and other religious facilities for the administration's purposes. In principle, this enforcement of the law is only applied to abandoned worship places, the worship places where there are no guardians or resident priests, and the worship places that the followers no longer frequent to pay respect to, Buddha, saints, and geniuses.

Furthermore, the authorities, in any case, have full authority as vested by the law to adjust the regulations, and if they wish, to enforce the law to close down any church, pagoda, orphanage, school, and other religious institutions for some presumable purposes After April 30, 1975, these regulations were applied to all religions throughout South Vietnam. In all, the resolution prohibits without distinction the performances of religious services and the practices of superstitions. This resolution can also be a measure with which the administration uses to suppress the practices of certain traditional popular worships performances by adepts of Taoism and sorcery practitioners. Almost all of these prohibitions are reprised in the Decree on Religions 89 HDBT of March 21, 1991 (Hoang Xuan Hao. Vi Pham Nhan Quyen. Manuscript, 1993: 21).

In 1985, facing the failures in the economy due to financial foreign aids cuts by Communist European countries, Hanoi looked to Western democracies for economic investments and aids. To woo world religious and political leaders, it loosened its grip on the Churches, allowing a few religious institutes and seminaries to reopen to admit students to the priesthood. On the other hand, it furtively tightened control on them lest they would demand for more freedom. Exercising its monopoly of power, Hanoi nominated Buddhist monks and Catholic priests from State-affiliated associations to higher ranks and placed them in key positions in the clerical hierarchy while eliminating from the hierarchy those priests and monks it thought to be dangerous to its power. To consolidate its power within the Roman Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy in Saigon, for example, it nominated Huynh Cong Minh of the state-affiliated Association for Patriotic Catholics the director of Saigon Seminary. It dismissed, at the same time, the veteran professors at this institution and replaced them with the priests from this State-run association. In their scheme, the Communists expected these docile priests one day would become high dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. Although they dominated the Catholic Church with strict measures as such, the Communists still feared that the seminarians, including those who were trained in the Marxist-Leninist discipline, might not become the .adherents to communism since other factors might affect their thinking and ways of life. The religious faith and ideals, even if distorted in one way or another, would ever create a factor.

THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AFTER THE FALL OF SOUTH VIETNAM (1975-1986)

　

　

THE RELIGIOUS POLICY

Overview

　

All through the Vietnam War (1960-1975), the Communists manipulated the religion instrumentally in the war against the "My-Nguy" (Americans and their lackeys). Such organizations as the Cao Dai Tien Thien (Worship of Supreme Cao Dai), Hoi Hoa Hao Yeu Nuoc (Association of Patriotic Hoa Hao), Uy Ban Lien Lac Phat Giao Yeu Nuoc (Liaison Committees of Patriotic Buddhists), Uy Ban Lien Lac Nhung Nguoi Kinh Chua Yeu Nuoc (Liaison Committees of People who Adore God and Love the Country), and so on were created to serve this purpose. The Communist Party planted its members in these organizations to hold key positions. Religious nonparty members were used instrumentally to serve as clothes to attire the sympathy of the faithful of diverse religions and get support from them.

Upon seizing power in the South, to destroy the infrastructure of the old society, the Communist administration called for the appropriation of properties of the bourgeoisie, landlords, and religions which it considered the allies to feudalism and imperialism and then, transferred their legal ownership to the working class and peasantry. They called this process the "Revolution of the People's Democracy." All religions resisted with firm determination the arbitrary dispossession of properties of the Party and State yielded signs of impotence. The religions, on the other side, resolutely maintained independence from the State, resisting devious manipulation of its policy. They became the primary target of punishment of the regime. It executed even with violence harsh measure, prohibitions and restrictions against all religious practices and activities. It then conditioned them to submission under State control and dissolved several of them It carried out plans to eliminate the two legitimate Cao Dai Church and Hoa Hao Buddhist Church. During the period of 1954-1975, under the mask of liberation of South Vietnam, the Communists appealed to the people of the South for support. They believed that it was then an ill time to eliminate  these indigenous faiths. After the takeover of the administration of the South, they found no need for their support, they dissolved these two hostile Churches outright. Other Churches and religious organizations suffered division, disintegration, or gradual dissolution. Religious, social, educational, charitable, and cultural establishments of all Churches were dispossessed, religious orders and associations were outlawed, and religious and practices and activities were subject to restrictions and prohibitions.

The Measures

　

Tran Van Tri, the former secretary-general of the Vietnam Interfaith Council, presented from his experience how the Communist regime executed its hostile religious policy towards the Churches in the South following April 30, 1975:

"After the takeover of Saigon, the Communist administration executed strict discipline security measures to manage the religions in the newly- liberated South Vietnam. First, it organized indoctrination courses for the security police and cadres in the administration, preparing ground for the operations of dislodging reactionary elements. The General Directorate for Religions had full authority in the instruction and direction of the administration personnel for this purpose including the Saigon Directorate of Public Security, coded A16, and the province security directorates, coded Bureaus B16 or Sections 16.

To conclude his lecture on the political situation in the South, The Vice General-Director of A16, instructed his cadres and agents how to execute plans and stratagems. Repress any opposition from the Churches and be ready to destroy reactionary elements quickly and cleanly. "We punish them mercilessly at their very base and sent them to reeducation. Their political organizations are virtually disbanded in their entirety. Therefore, our crucial task in the days ahead is to concentrate our efforts on attacking the religions. They are the backbone on which reactionary elements --the supporters of the old regime --will lean to actuate opposition since they still have popular support, inside the country and abroad as well. The methods need to be persistent and systematic. They include such major measures as: 1. Close all abbeys, seminaries, and institutes for religions; 2. Nationalize all cultural, educational, social establishments, health centers, and, especially, the financial agencies belonging to all Churches; 3. Confiscate all printed materials of religious and cultural matters. Prohibit the printing of materials of religious matter and the propagation of religion and dissemination of materials of religious matter; 4. Control, with strict measures, all religious activities of the spiritual leaders, officials, and the masses at all levels; 5. Stop all religious activities, dissolve all religious associations and incorporate them into other popular Communist organizations; 6. Punish, without mercy, all reactionary elements who disguised themselves as priests whose intent is to subvert the Revolution (Vietnamese Communists); 7. Support all organizations operating within the religions whose activities are beneficial to the Revolution; and , 8. Develop internal conflicts within a religion and among the religions and manage them to destroy themselves."

Tran Quyet, the General Director of the A16, who later became the Vice-Minister of the Ministry for the Interior (1976), further explained the administration’s hidden scheme more explicitly. "Those directives are only guidelines as regards the policy of religions of our [Vietnamese Communists] Party. Our comrades must be aware of the fact that religions are like the opium that decoys and poisons the people. They are the enemies to the proletariat. We have to eradicate them with persistence, restricting their activities, stopping heir expansion, and immersing them into self-destruction according to the law of selection of socialism"

The cadres and security agents were instructed to execute plans and methods of application with such stratagems as:

I. Close down the abbeys, seminaries, and institutes of the religion. All members of the leadership of the religion will pass away, one after another, within 30 or 50 years or so. This situation will eventually lead to a shortage of priests, then a crisis of leadership, and eventually the extinction of the religion;

2. This measure is executed in accordance with the three following measures: a) All schools, hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages, printing houses, and business enterprise that lend support to the operation of the Churches are to be automatically confiscated. The axiom is: ‘Only the State is empowered with the rights to administer the religion’s institutions of education, health, social welfare, and financial establishments. The religions are all private organizations; therefore, they are not entitled to these rights.’ b) The second measure is to create pressure on the Churches. Since the State has not yet the current laws to confiscate religious establishments, pressure must be applied on the leaders of the Churches, coercing them to offer their properties to the State. The Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith on Tran Quoc Toan Street in Tenth Precinct, in Saigon; the offices of the Lasalle Taberd Order; the St. Joseph Seminary; and the White House, which was not a school, for example, were to be offered to the State under pressure.; and. The third measure is to execute the laws of the jungle. The Communists secretly planted firearms in a cache inside a religious establishment and charged the religious leader in residence with crimes of subversion to the State confiscate it. The confiscation of the Roman Catholic Alfonso Institute of the Redemptorists Order is an example. They created a quarrel at the church, stirring disorder, and accusing the religious leader in residence of creating subversive activities to dispossess it. Those religious establishments of the Cao Dai Church in Tay Ninh Province and of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Temple in Chau Doc Province, and the properties of the Evangelical Church in Saigon were confiscated with similar vile tricks;

3. To dispossess all religious materials and literature. The Communists closed all Churches' libraries after they had appropriated all printed materials --newspapers and magazines, documents, and religious teaching materials. Small quantities of books, magazines, and documents that religious leaders had secured for personal use were also dispossessed. State-affiliated religious organizations later used them at wiil at their State-owned libraries. In this way, when the Church’s clergy wish to decry a certain State-affiliated religious organization, they will no longer have access to necessary documents with which they reverse the evil contentions of lackey churchmen. For instance, the Communists resorted to trickery to calumniate the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam, assailing it with misleading arguments to distort the cause for the Canonization for Martyrs (1987-1988). They nevertheless failed to achieve their purpose. Much to their surprise, the Communists and the State-affiliated priests did not know how the Church's priests and faithful could have saved the necessary documents with which they countered the Communists' calumny and aborted their lackeys' deranging activities;

4. Execute strict measures of management on the religions. In particular, during the 1975-85 decade, religious leaders were subject to rigorous control. Movement outside the church, pagoda, or temple of priests, monks, and dignitaries was required by permission from the authorities. They were often called to work with the police at their headquarters. Catholic dignitaries and priests in the dioceses of Hue, Da Nang, Ban Me Thuot, Vinh Long, Xuan Loc, Phan Thiet, and Kontum. Buddhist monks and nuns, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao dignitaries, pastors of Evangelical Churches, and religious leaders of the B'ahai throughout the South were alt their targets. Many were placed under strict administrative management. From 1986 on, the Communists appeared less conspicuous in their conduct of public service. They nevertheless planted their secret agents within the leadership of each religion in the local area to follow the religious leader more closely, spying on his religious daily services and activities;

5. To disintegrate religious organizations and associations. Throughout the country, religious associations were all forbidden to operate. In the beginning years of the 1990’s, upon the State abrogation of the legitimate status of religious organizations and associations, local authorities loosened grip in some respects on religious activities of State-affiliated religious associations. Many of them attempted to rekindle their activities. However, religious association that operated without State permission were still regarded as illegal, and local authorities sought to stifle their activities were stifled in the bud. Moreover, these Communists can easily reverse their decisions any time. They may arrest and detain the associates with these organizations depending on their whims and wishes. As regards the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam, the Salvation Army, the Legio Mary, and the Pax Romana are among those associations the Communists have itemized on the black list. They are attributed to as the armies that recruit volunteered soldiers to counter the Revolution (!). As for the Catholic intellectuals, they distrust them as they are regarded the intelligence agents for the foreigners (!)

6. To destroy the clergy of all religions. During the first years of the takeover of South Vietnam, if the Communists wanted to expropriate a church, a preaching hall, or a temple, they only needed to execute an administrative order to appropriate the establishment and expel the priest, monk, or dignitary in residence. The victim was charged with an ungrounded political crime --a reactionary who is intent on overthrowing the "Revolution" --the Communist regime. They then confiscated the establishment and sent the religious to reeducation. Unlawful incidents of expropriation of religious establishments expanded and electrified shocks in the population. In 1978, being apprehensive that the Catholic Alexandre de Rhodes Center (at 161 Yen Do Street, Saigon) would attract a large number of Catholic youths and organize religious activities and events, the Communists frightened and closed it down. They charged the Catholic priests of the Dong Dong Cong (Order of Mary Co-redemptrix) residing at the Center with being the accomplices to a fictitious anti-revolutionary plot the instigators of which were Nguyen Van Hien and his group. They then arrested the priests in residence and confiscated the center, which is now the headquarters of the daily Tuoi Tre (The Youth). As regards Buddhism, being hostile to the straightforward statements on the Communist despotic regime by the Monks Thich Tue Sy (Pham Van Thuong) and Thich Tri Sieu (Le Manh That), the Communists framed up the so-called the "Gia Lam Plot." They arrested the two monks on April 1, 1984. Worse still, they harassed the Most Venerable Thich Tri Thu into depression, intermittently convoking him to their headquarters to "work with" the cadres and tormenting him into a gradual death. The Order of Mary Co-Redemptrix incident during May 19-20, 1986 is another example. On the pretext of inspecting the Order’s facilities for suspected anti-revolutionary activities, the Communists confiscated the Order's main monastery in Thu Duc District. The monastery with large premises, which possession they had long craved for but failed to take by force due to resilient resistance of the Most Reverend Tran Dinh Thu, the Superior priest of the Order. The confiscation of the chapels and houses of worship of the Evangelical Churches began with the expropriation of the chapel on Tran Cao Van Street in First Precinct, Saigon. The incident took place on the Christmas Eve of 1986. It was instigated with the similar pretext;

7. To create State-affiliated religious organization to replace the traditional legitimate ones. Only state-run organizations such as the Association of Patriotic Buddhists and the Association of Solidarity for Catholics are accorded the privilege to disseminate newspapers and magazines, publish printing materials, and establish contacts with the foreigners or foreign humanitarian organizations coming to Vietnam to assess information on religion. In the years following the takeover of South Vietnam, other state-sponsored agencies operated in this category were the monthly magazines Cong Giao va Dan Toc (Catholicism and the Nation and The People. They were directed by the state-affiliated Catholic priests. Among them were Phan Khac Tu and Truong Ba Can, a Communist whose real name is Tran Ba Cuong. The weekly magazine Giac Ngo (Coming to Reason) and the magazine Nguoi Yeu Nuoc (The Patriot) stationed on Phan Dinh Phung Street were also run by a group of state-affiliated Buddhists;

8. To act out the division within a religion and among the religions. Their stratagem was "to use religion to destroy religion.' This is the most malicious trick the Communists have executed to eradicate the religions. The legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhism was outlawed and a State-affiliated Hoa Hao Church was created to vie for the leadership. Similarly, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was outlawed, and the State-affiliated Buddhist Church of Vietnam came into being. At the Tay Ninh Holy See, a Supreme Council of Administration was created in replacement of the Church’s legitimate leadership. Concerning the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam, the Communists commanded the state-affiliated Catholic "Gang of Four" (Phan Khac) Tu, (Truong Ba) Can, (Thien) Cam, and (Vuong Dinh) Bich for this purpose. These "gangsters" used the magazine "Catholicism and "The Nation" for the service of the Communist Party. They themselves aggressively attacking the Church’s dignitaries during the year 1987-1988 when the preparations for the Canonization for the Vietnamese Martyrs were under way in Rome. Above all, with vile trick and dupe, the Communists sowed division between and among the faithful of the Churches. After the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang' s letter of protest against the Communist authorities had circulated in the population, the Communist administration and their secret agencies operating abroad sought to complicate the relationship between the Buddhist Church and the Roman Catholic Church, outlawing the former while granting the former favors, sowing doubts, creating quarrels among the faithful of these two faiths; and

9. Tighten control on the religious of prestige. The Communists undeniably use any means possible to annihilate the religions. The Gia Lam incident of April 1984 reveals this artful scheme. They arbitrarily arrested the venerable monks residing in Gia Lam Pagoda’ among whom were the two editors of the weekly magazine Giac Ngo (Coming to Reason), on charges of "doing silly things." They even mounted repression on resilient monks of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam in Hue. Facing strong protests with self-immolation by fire of the Buddhists in Central Vietnam, the Communists tightened control on the Unified Buddhist Church pagodas in many cities and provinces. They arrested Monk Thich Tri Tuu, the guardian monk at Linh Mu Pagoda, after the May 1993 incident in Hue. At the same time, they tried to please the Catholics by freeing the Most Reverend Tran Dinh Thu of the Order of Mary Co-redemptrix from prison and free the Catholic priest Chan Tin and the Catholic writer Nguyen Ngoc Lan from house detention." (Tran Van Tri. Sach Luoc Tieu Diet Ton Giao. Hiep Nhat 7 (July 1993:40-43).

IN THE JAWS OF ATHEISM

The Communists considered Catholicism as a reactionary force that ever opposed the "Revolution" --communism. Repression against the Catholics resumed following the takeover of Hanoi after the Agreements of July 1954. It ran high along with campaigns for confiscation of private business and industry property and eradication of the petty bourgeoisie. The Catholic clergy, being regarded the mastermind of the exodus to the South, became the target for vengeance, and the Catholic faithful, the target for suspicion. Catholic priests who stayed and had nothing to do with politics met with difficulties. The priests performed under watch their ministerial duties, and the faithful practiced their faith in fear. Religious intolerance persisted with violence. The administration expelled from the country all foreign missionaries. Among them were the Dominicans and the Jesuits who served faith at the "Missions Etrangeres de Paris" and the Phuc Hung Center. All religious institutions and establishments belonging to the mission were dispossessed. Fr, Dupont was killed at Ke So. Ha Nam, and Fr. Fournier was assassinated in Hanoi.

"Normal church activities were not permitted to continue, albeit they were only conducted in the shadow for fear of repression. The seemingly active normalcy of the religious life of the Catholics was apparent. The Church’s The major part of them were either dispossessed or requisitioned. The autonomy as a social institution was banned The Church was tripped off the authority to operate its own systems of educational institutions and humanitarian establishments --schools, hospitals, dispensaries, social shelters, and orphanages. Priests and nuns were required to devote part of their time to productive labor in agriculture. Nevertheless, officials claimed that Catholics had complete freedom of worship as long as they did not question the principle of collective socialism, spurn manual labor, or jeopardize the internal and external security of the state (Ronald J. Cima, 1989:123-124)."

Catholicism resisted enmity and destruction in silence. Unable to destroy the faith with violence, the Communists diluted the Catholic Church with repressive measures to wear out its clergy and religious Orders and cowed its faithful into submission. 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 the new rulings, Marxism - Leninism should play the dominant role 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. To achieve their purpose, the Party created "work teams" to operate within the Fatherland Front. High dignitaries and priests of the Church were targeted with control and isolation from the faithful. The Church’s direction is placed in the hands of State-affiliated priests among whom were Vo Thanh Trinh, Ho Thanh Bien, and Vo Xuan Ky. In the same year, the Liaison Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics was created with an aim to win over the Catholic faithful’ s confidence. The Catholics who had chosen to remain were, in fact, reluctant to cooperate with the Communists. They were slower than the non-Catholics to embrace the political regime that tried with violence to "reintegrate" them into "the great masses of the people."

All through the Vietnam War (1960-1975), the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam suffered tragic losses, materially and spiritually. The clergy was paralyzed in their religious services. The faithful served their faith under rigorous circumstances In the most populated province of Thai Binh, for instance, church attendance presented a picture of loneliness and sadness. In many parishes, Sunday Mass was celebrated without a celebrant. The one-time most-frequented cathedral in Thai Binh Township and the one in Thai Ninh Prefecture were` all dilapidated. The Sa Cat Cathedral and Luong Dong Cathedral were deserted. There were no residential priests, and the followers were like a flock of sheep without a shepherd." To execute the tactics of "civil action," the administration occasionally loosened their grip but kept close watch on the Church. Religious services were allowed but under watch. Texts of preaching. were censured, and religious activities could only performed on prior authorization.

A Protest

Vietnam is a one-party rule. A single ideology, which is communism, governs the entire life of the citizens. The Communist Party of Vietnam, under the aegis of communism, assumes power in all sectors of the public life of v the people, legal, administrative, and judiciary. Democratic centralism allows only Communist party members voice aspirations, concerns, and ideas, commonly predisposed by and actuated with approval of the Party. The people have little voice in the process. They nevertheless seek to manifest aspirations by different forms of protest whenever opportunity presents itself. Witnesses who survived periods of hardship and religious repression in North Vietnam (1956-1960) told a Vietnam Human Rights Watch representative that the Catholic faithful never trusted the Communist Party and State.

Nguyen Duy Nhat, 48, was educated and grew up under Communist North Vietnam. A Catholic of Bui Chu Diocese, Ha Nam Ninh Province, Nguyen and his family survived misery during the Vietnam War. In 1977, the Nguyen family immigrated to the South. They settled in Cai San, Long Xuyen Province, where they sought by all means to escape from their one-time land of dream. The family came to the United States in 1988 and lived in Phillips Ranch, California. Nguyen recalled the difficulties life faithful in Bui Chu Diocese had faced the period following the Communist takeover of Hanoi in 1954:

"The spiritual life in the diocese under the new independent and free Democratic Republic of Vietnam wasn't better. In my childhood, I had learned from my experience that the Communists and the Catholics are incompatible. They are like fire and water; the one cannot exist in the presence of the other. There is no wonder if we, the Catholics, are subjected to Communist control. The local cadres are after us everywhere. Their target us with harm. Like devils and ghosts, they haunt our home day and night .

Bui Chu is one of the largest dioceses in North Vietnam. It is the birthplace of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. The Catholics there are fervent. They serve their faith with resilience under the most extreme circumstances. By the time the Democratic Republic Government of Vietnam returned to Hanoi, there were approximately two hundred parishes throughout the diocese. Bishop Tinh was the Master of the Flock. Every follower, of course, venerated him. His goodness, integrity, and devotion to God were self-evident. The Communists knew that they could not, in any way, disunite the congregation under his leadership and neither could they disband the religious associations in the diocese by denigrating the Church and defaming the bishop. The local Communist cadres then staged up campaigns to denounce "the priests in the parishes to crimes of misconduct." They organized a so-called Congress of Catholic Youths at Quan Phuong Village. They selected "representatives" from the parishes, who, in reality, were the cadres disguising themselves as prominent, pious Catholics to participate in it. Their main objective was to disunite the Church members. They disabled the clergy, asking the Bishop to discharge certain priests.

Perceiving their vile scheme, Bishop Tinh, at the celebration of Holy Mass at Bui Chu Cathedral, pronounced he invalidated the cause of congress. His warning was clear: "Any Catholic youth participates in it will face excommunication." The congress was nevertheless proceeded inside the Main Cathedral. All "representatives" were in attendance. The parishioners quickly unveiled them. Whispering to one another, everyone came to recognize these scabby sheep. The atmosphere became tense. Everyone was furious as their vile intention was brought out. Right after the inauguration Mass, the parishioners, in groups, raked for them and challenged them with fists and feet. The cadres failed to trace out masterminds since the believers from one parish only chose the representatives in another parish as the targets for their furor.

The Communists never easily give in, however. They failed to use the masses to create pressure on the Church, disable, and disorganize it this time. Nevertheless, they bought the time and sought other means to avenge it. Step by step, they pushed forward legal measures, officially applying all rules and regulations on religions such as the resolutions, orders, and notices by the central government or by themselves to put the Church under control. They closed down the seminary at Ninh Cuong, Hai Hau District and the Orders at Trung Ninh, Luc Thuy, and so on, and confiscated the properties and lands of the Church. Father Luong Huy Han, Director of Ninh Cuong Seminary, who resisted the orders, was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and forced to starve in prison. He set a shining example to all Catholics. He sacrificed for his duties as a servant of God. Short of physical means, the seminary fell to decadence. Later, only 10 of the 29 seminarians that had been ordained were allowed to continue their priesthood; the rest were stopped short of their studies and were to return home. At last, the seminary ceased to operate, and, as consequence, the formation of priests was put to an end.

The shortage of priests became increasingly severe. There were 10 priests replacing the old priests, who passed away as years went by, to serve the Church in the diocese of nearly 200 parishes during nearly 40 years. All of them in their turn became old, but there was still no hope for replacement. In 1955, a priest had to take charge of the ministerial services at an average of 12 parishes at a time. This difficulty deeply affected the religious preaching and services tremendously. Sunday Masses rotated among the local cathedrals. The believers had to walk for miles and miles from the very early morning to go to church and attend Masses. The Communists thought that, by creating difficulties and mounting pressure on the Church, the Catholics would eventually renounce their faith. Contrary to their wishes, the more oppression they exerted on them, the more faithful to God they would become. On the annual celebrations, such as the Diocese’s Patronage Saint Day, the Commemoration Day for the Saint Martyrs, and the Commemoration Day for Our Immaculate Mother, as many as tens of thousands of the faithful came to the Diocese Main Cathedral to profess their faith!

A Vile Trick

Nguyen also said: "We should not underestimate the Communists. They are very cunning in using their artful tactics to destroy their adversaries. They are clever at deceiving people to win the final battle. They know how to wait for the right time to execute their scheme. The right time came with the agrarian reforms in 1956. Seizing this opportunity, the local cadres immediately carried out artful measures not only to wipe out the landlords but also to exterminate those whom they considered the enemies of the regime. Among these "enemies" were the intellectuals and officials of the old regime, the clergy of all religions, and, especially, Catholic priests and the followers of virtues and prestige. Nguyen’ s father-in-law, Dinh Van Tac, a pious and virtuous Catholic of Quat Lam Parish, was one among them. These "reactionaries" were brought to trials before the People's Court, chaired by the cadres themselves and persecuted by their henchmen. In every parish, there were two or more victims sentenced to death and shot on the spot. Father Dinh Quang Hien of Phu Nhai Parish was also brought to trial. Unable to accuse him of any crime, the local cadres charged him with the crime to evade the taxrs: He had not paid land taxes for uncountable years, dating back to the founding of the parish (200 years)! He was imprisoned for 6 years afterwards. This artful trick was certainly a warning on the part of the local authorities and the first step in executing their tactics to destroy religion and silence any opposition that might occur in the future (Trung Tan, VHRW. Interview with Nguyen Duy Nhat, October 20, 1994)."

　

Glory in Faith

However repressed under control, the Catholic faithful lived their faith’ The Catholic clergy, in particular, showed courage and tenacity, setting the example to the faithful. Fr. Pham Dinh Tung was eminently known for his devotion to the services to the Church. In 1950, he was assigned for the direction of Bach Mai Center of Social Works. In 1955, he was appointed the director of the Little Seminary Saint Jean. He met with difficulties from the authorities who sought to put the seminary under their control. In 1960, the authorities increased control on the Church. He resisted with resilience the instruction of Marxism - Leninism in the seminary. As a result, the institution was closed down, which fact he accepted with bitter grief to maintain independence from the State. In 1963, he was nominated the bishop of Bac Ninh Diocese. Facing regulations and restrictions from the administration, he overcame difficulties in silence, not only to let the religious life of the diocese subordinate to the ciil authorities but also helped to develop it in others. Over 40 years in the jaws of atheism, he humbly devoted himself to the service of the Church. He was nominated the Archbishop of Hanoi and became the second Cardinal of Vietnam on November 11, 1994.

All through the period following the Geneva Agreements of July 1954, the religious life was stifled. In large cities, Haiphong, Nam Dinh, and Hanoi, religious services and activities were paralyzed. The little body of priests who stayed after the exodus to the South became the target of hatred and suspicion. Catholic priests were summoned to interrogation at local headquarters or offices of the administration. They were required to attend meetings at local street wards’ offices to be indoctrinated. Many of them were attributed to as the collaborators with or henchmen of the French. Many were brought to stand judgment before the People’s council. In Nam Dinh, Fr. Quynh was restricted to solitary detention, Fr. Nhan was targeted with harassment, and Fr. Trong was placed under house surveillance. Everywhere, the clergy were in constant insecurity because of their commitment to observance of religious duties and resistance to the interference of the authorities in the Church’s internal affairs.

The resistance to atheism of Fr. Giuse Lasan Nguyen Van Vinh, the pastor of the Main Cathedral of Hanoi Diocese was self-evident. Fr. Ngguyen was born on October 2, 1912 in the village of Ngoc Lu, Binh Luc District, Ha Nam Province. He was Intelligent, pious, and gifted in music. Under the auspices of Fr. Depaulis, he was admitted at his early teens to the ecclesiastic school of Puginier in Hanoi. He attended the Secondary Seminary Hoang Nguyen at Ha Tay in 1928, the Grand Seminary St. Sulpice, Paris, France, in 1935. He was ordained priest on June 20, 1940. A graduate from both the Paris Institute of Music and the University of Sorbonne with a "Licencie en Philosophy." He returned to Vietnam in 1947, after 17 years of study abroad. Bishop Francois`Chaize -Thinh of Hanoi Diocese appointed him the Pastor at the Main Cathedral of Hanoi. After the Geneva Accords Agreements of 20, 1954, the then Bishop Trinh Nhu Khue of Hanoi entrusted him to take the seminarians to immigrate to the South, he nevertheless insisted on asking his superior the privilege to stay in the diocese of Hanoi.

In the capacity of the principal of Dung Lac High School, he and his fellow priests such as Fr. Nguyen Ngoc Oanh, Fr. Nguyen Minh Thong, and Fr. Nguyen Han Quynh organized and conducted courses of catechism for converts. The administration of Hanoi forbade these activities for security reasons and issued an administrative order to ban all religious activities in the school. New rules and regulations were to be executed, instead. A picture of Ho Chi Minh must be hung on the wall in each classroom. The students had to stand at attention and sing Viet Minh national anthem and praise glory to Ho Chi Minh. Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh, in the capacity of the pastor representing the diocese of Hanoi concurrently the principal of Dung Lac High School refused to comply with the order. The Holy Cross on the wall was kept intact. The high school was closed down.

To show to the world that there was religious freedom in Vietnam, on the Christmas eve of 1957, city cadres were sent to the diocesan cathedral to make ground for an inspection. The diocese was fined for extravagant decoration of the cathedral, wasting the time and money of the people on meaningless activity. The following year, the administration renewed the trick. The new pastor, Fr. Trinh Van Can, resolutely protected the Church’s rights to worship, disallowing the civil authorities, who were all plain-clothed security agents, to cause trouble. The cadres resolutely made a row. To protect the cathedral from unlawful intrusion, the pastor had the bell tolled. Crowds of parishioners rushed to the worship place. The two parties exchanged arguments with shouts. Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh successfully prevented the agents from exercising abuse of power.

On Christmas Day of 1958, the civil authority forced Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh to hang the Viet Minh red flags alongside with the Church’s banners around and inside the cathedral. He adamantly had the Church’s banners hung only. Fr. Trinh Van Can, Tr. Nguyen Van Vinh, and several parishioners were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court of Hanoi. The Pastor Trinh Van Can, the organizer of the celebration, was sentenced to 12- month house arrest, Fr, Nguyen Van Vinh was charged with the crimes "to assemble illegally the masses, cause public disorder, calumniate and denigrate the regime, and cause division of the population." The priest was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was imprisoned, first, at Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi then removed from one prison to another. The last destination was Cong Troi (Gate to Heaven), a devastated camp in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains.

Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh lived the Catholic faith, taking side and sharing hunger and misery with fellow inmates. His benevolence was regarded as an act of opposition. He became the target of rancor. He was constantly placed under solitary detention. A senior official from the Ministry of the Interior, on his prison tour, told him that if he willingly cooperated with Fr. Nguyen The Vinh, the President of the Liaison Committee of Patriotic Catholics, which was a satellite organization of the Communist Fatherland Front, he would be released from prison immediately. The priest categorically refuted the proposal. His unbending will made him a lifelong prisoner. He never came back to Hanoi Diocese Cathedral. He died a doubtful death on February 18, 1971.

To Serve Faith in silence

During the Vietnam War, the religious life the South was in bloom. New parishes and dioceses mushroomed, notably in the areas surrounding Saigon.. Pagodas temples, and monasteries thrived. Educational institutions and humanitarian establishments multiplied. Schools, orphanages, dispensaries, and hospitals belonging to various religions extended to the rural areas.. In the North, where communism dominates in every aspect of life of the citizen, the State imposed strict laws, rules, and regulation on all sectors of the social life. The religions were not an exception. Worse still, they became the targets for elimination. Catholicism was regarded as the most dangerous reactionary counter-force. Catholics who survived the periods of hardship and religious repression during land reform talked with fear about the State control. It was such a severity that even the most fervent Catholic could only resign himself to inaction.

In the distant rural areas, religious intolerance became much more rigid. The agricultural commune kept a close watch on the daily life activities of every laborer in it. All was for socialist production. Religious practices were flatly banned from schedules of daily housework. Priests could only perform religious services in the early hours of the days. The followers thus could rarely attend morning masses. In many communes, movement outside of the parish of the priest was forbidden. Celebrations were most often performed in hiding. Cathedrals and chapels were closed down as a result of shortage of priests. The teaching of Bible was outlawed. Assembly for prayers were strictly forbidden. The faithful served their faith in silence.

During the second phase of land reform (1956-1958), the administration confiscated or requisitioned the Churches' properties. Many Catholic cathedrals and Buddhist pagodas were converted into meeting halls or granaries. The religious life was put at risk. The formation and ordination of priests was at a deadlock. Catholicism in the North fell into a decline. Being regarded as a counter-reactionary force that was ideologically detrimental to the "Revolution," the Party and State resolutely stifled the Church’s formation and ordination of priests. In 1955, after the exodus for freedom to the South, there remained only some 300 priests to serve approximately 600,000 followers.

From 1970 to 1975, the various Churches in North Vietnam, especially the Roman Catholic Church, survived the extreme difficulties. The invasion into Kampuchea of the Armed Forces of the Republic of South Vietnam aggravated the war situation. Fearful of a similar invasion into North Vietnam, the Hanoi administration particularly executed stricter control on all Catholic parishes. Those followers who were active in the service of the Church were arrested and sent to the reeducation camps, and a number of them were detained, without trial, and only released until 1985. Until 1990, the number of Catholic priests in the North was still meager. There were only 7 priests for the faithful of 145,000 in Haiphong Diocese, 15 priests for the 72,000 faithful in Bac Ninh Diocese, and 5 priests for the 95,000 faithful in Phat Diem Diocese.

Typical of the religious life in North Vietnam in the postwar period is the case of the Christendom of Khac Can, Thanh Liem District, Ha Nam Ninh Province. This is a small congregation of poor peasants living on the left bank of the Day River, about 60 kilometers south of Hanoi. Their settlement dates back to the second half of the 19th century at the time the French invasion was expanding to the North. It built a chapel and, later, a cathedral. Its members could only recite Sunday Mass once a month due to shortage of priests. They nevertheless served their faith with fervor. They attended Holy Masses and celebrated ceremonies and events at nearby churches all around the year.

A distant and isolated Christendom, Khac Can survived sufferings of the days of hunger of March 1945 and misery after the Viet Minh uprisings of August of the same year. It sustained even more hatred and violence during the Indochina War. Misfortunes fell on the small Christendom in the years of agrarian reform 1952-1956. The impact of campaigns of denunciation of crimes swept away with it the ways of life its members held dear. The agricultural commune with its cooperatives conditioned the peasantry’s life, molding the poor peasants of Khac Can into a new life of slavery.

Like life elsewhere in the country, traditional religious manners were gradually made to disappear. The century-old cathedral was requisitioned and transformed into a multipurpose shed where farm implements of all kinds were stored. Religious groups were disbanded. Religious services and practices were banned, and could only be performed in hiding. The worship of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Malenkov, and Ho Chi Minh replaced the worship of God. On the wall of the central compartment of the house were hung on order the pictures of world Communist leaders. Icons of worship were taken away from the altar for God and the Holy Mother Mary, and a picture of Ho Chi Minh was put in their place. The children of God could only bury their faith deep in their hearts.

The Vietnam War broke out. Young recruits were sent to the B battlefront, and those young Catholics from Khac Can were among them. On the day of departure, they were given each a Holy Cross which they kept with themon the way to the battlefront. The Holy Icon would protect them from all hazards and a certain death in the distant South. All through the war, like the Vietnamese elsewhere in the North, their family members lived miserably, "to bite the grain into four and save one fourth of it for the support of the South." They barely survived the hardships of the war under the rules and regulations of the agricultural commune and its cooperatives.

The Communist takeover of South Vietnam paved the way for revival of God worship. Witnessing the prosperity and freer ways of life of the people in the South, the "liberators" from the North who survived storms of B52 bombs raids along the Truong Son Trail and hopeless hard-fought battles at Khe Sanh, Pleime, Dak To, Dak Sut, .. . came to realize that they deserved a better life. They brought with them the memory about the life in the South on their coming home to visit their families. Curious members of this small Christendom sought with all means to come to the South to see with their own eyes of what they had only heard. On their returning home, they brought with them compassion of their relatives in the South and gifts among which were bibles, icons, priest tunics, and articles of worships. Their love for God that had been buried in their hearts and their faith that had been forbidden to serve revived. To live the faith became a "sina que non" spiritual need. They boldly gathered for prayers and resolutely gained back their worship place. The century-old cathedral was almost in ruins.

Little by little the bird build its nest. Every member of the Christendom clubbed together to rebuild their church, the poor with their labor, the rich from afar, in the South and abroad with money. The whole congregation regained their faith that they had been forced to renounce. A dutiful self-sacrificed priest assiduously formed separate groups of laymen into competent catechumen. Children were taught the Ten Commandments, to say prayers, and sing Holy songs. A group of two, then, three and four Sisters adamantly served and practiced their faith in hiding without fear of threat. By 2008, they successfully built and ran a preschool and a dispensary with financial aids from a generous family abroad. The local administration have sought in vain to attenuate the vigilance in the service of faith of this mall congregation at Khac Can Commune (Nguyen Yen, A letter from the North. Manuscript: March 19, 2001).

On the Path to Socialism

The Geneva Agreements of July 1954 ended the Indochina War but partitioned the country into two zones with two different political administrations, the North came under the administration of the Communists and the South, the Nationalists. In the North, the Communist administration set in motion a "socialist transformation." The new policy aimed at transform the country’s infra- supra- structures into the new systems of socialism in accordance with the Maoist views of human life and society. In this way, not only all base structures of the social, economic, political, and cultural life of the society as a whole but also the behavior of the individual and the masses in every aspect must be transformed accordingly. To move on the path to socialism , the Workers’ Party of Vietnam, first, pushed forward the struggle for what they called the three-dimensional people’s democracy, essentially paving the way for the establishment of a socialist society. These goals were developed into theories, policies, and methods of reasoning and practices destined to level up the eradication of theories of representative democracy, of "imperialist" concepts of private ownership, and social, moral, and spiritual values that elements of feudalism ever cherished.

Eradication of the Bourgeoisie and Petty Bourgeoisie

This socialist transformation is, as conceived by Maoists, total and radical.

Only a few days after it took over the administration in Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh government carried out with strict measures to eradicate the urban bourgeoisie A special tax was levied on goods "remaining in the store" in Hanoi. Cadres were sent to all the shops to list all goods. Tax-payment in Indochina bank-notes, which largely exceeded the price of the goods, was affected without delay The city petty bourgeoisie mostly went broke. The second measure was to change the bank-notes. The government ordered the entire population to change its Indochina bank-notes for its newly-issued currency. However, they only received a small amount of money in return The measure was applied to every individual. There was no exception whatsoever to any organization or establishment. The measure was a victory of the class of workers over the class of oppressors in a class struggle without violence. Vietnam became a classless society whereby every citizen enjoyed the same social status on an equal footing. The third measure was to collectivize private properties and annihilate the private ownership of private means of production. All came under the possession of the people. Private enterprises, and establishments including all religious and humanitarian institutions of the Churches or humanitarian organizations. The owners were to join the State occupiers and might be kept as managers.

This elimination of the petty bourgeoisie in the cities went hand in hand with the suppression of its "tri, phu, dia, hao" (intellectuals, rich peasants, landowners, notables) in the countryside. and the clergies of all Churches were included. In the countryside, the transformation affected with great changes the life of the people. The traditional village was radically deformed, culturally, socially, and economically. The Maoist-style agricultural commune, which replaced the council of administration, exercised control on every aspect of the peasantry’s social and-economic in conformity with the Maoist doctrine of class struggle. The commune’s agricultural cooperatives, on the other hand, governed all activities of the social and economic life of the peasantry. They conditioned all acts of the villagers who became all their members. Everyone contributed to socialist production. Every activity was devoted to the construction of the socialist fatherland.

Having destroyed the bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie dispossessed all their properties, the Communist administration instituted all means and modes of production in accordance with the principles of the Maoisr - style socialism. State cooperatives formed the backbone of the economy. Subsequent to the land distribution, the agricultural commune system was established (September 1960) to regularize the economy in the rural areas., 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. New rulings came into force. One of them specified that Marxism - Leninism should play the dominant role 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. The religions and their faithful are not an exception.

Eradication of Religious Beliefs and the Religions

Article 4 of Decree 19/SL of December 19, 1953 stipulated that only superfluous cultivated land, cattle, and farm implement were confiscated. However, landowners were thrown out of their houses, guardian monks out of their pagodas, and pastors, out of their parishes. Many of them were brought to stand trials before the People’s Court for their crimes as the enemies to the people. The Decree on the Protection of Freedom of Conscience of June 4, 1955 stipulated that "the Government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe upon these freedoms (Article I, Chapter I," that "churches, temples, pagodas, sanctums, religious institutes, and articles of worship belonging to any religion shall be protected by the law (Article 6, Chapter I)," and that in the process of land reform, a part of land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government either with or without reparations for distributions to the peasants, shall be left to the church, pagoda, or sanctum concerned an area large enough to ensure the performance of religious dignitaries in order for them to carry out their religious activities (Article 10, Chapter III)." Contrary to the provisions stated by the laws, geniuses and saints were derided and monks and priests were ridiculed In many villages and parishes dignitaries and priests were executed. Communal houses, churches, pagodas, and temples were prone to vandalism. Many were transformed into offices, classrooms, and granaries. In the villages, neighbors spied on one another. Landlords and their families were mocked, beaten, or killed without mercy.

The new policy with an aim to put into practice the elimination of the "feudal" supra-structure --the old system of social and cultural values and all forms of religious practices and celebrations being characterizedas superstitious. Communal houses, churches, pagodas, and temples were transformed into the communes’ offices, granaries, storage sheds, classes, .and thus ceased to be centers for religious worship and seasonal ceremonies and celebrations. Many fell in ruins, and others were destroyed to the indifference of the authority. Many historical sites were prone to pillage. The centuries-old Tram Gian (one-hundred-compartment Pagoda) in Ha-Son-Binh Province is a case in point. The worship place was sacked. The construction materials and articles of worship were gradually dismantled piece by piece and taken away. It was until the recent years that it was reconstructed for commercial purpose.

The Religious Life

Nearly a million people, Catholics and non-Catholics, left their homeland to take refuge in the non -Communist South. Those believers, especially the Catholics, stayed in the North for one or another reason became the target of hatred and suspicion. Almost all faced difficulty in their religious life. The clergy suffered, in most cases, religious persecution. The Churches in the North were subdued with serious consequences not only as a result of this exodus but also of the animosity as a consequence of hostility. "Religion is the opium of the people." To carry out the policy of religiously inspired assimilation,, the Vietnamese Workers' Party, within 10 years, had eliminated all Buddhist organizations in North Vietnam. It instituted in their place the "Patriotic Buddhists Committees" and subdued them under the control of the Fatherland Front. At the same time, they closed down institutes of Buddhist studies. They prohibited young monks to continue their priesthood. Most pagodas were without monks. Religious education and renewals at monasteries were strictly forbidden. The Buddhist faith could only survive in the family." Even before their takeover of Hanoi, the Communists dissolved outright the Inter-zone V Patriotic Buddhist Congregations (1951), regardless of their great contributions to the Resistance. They forced all Buddhist organizations and followers to join the Lien Viet Front, the predecessor to the present National Fatherland Front. The Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, who was the president of Duddhist Associations of Inter-zone V including the provinces Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh nd Phu Yen, was arrested in 1952 and was only released subsequent to the Geneva Agreements (1954).

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM (1954-1975)

                                         

　

THE LAWS

 

In the wake of the takeover of North Vietnam (1954), the administration applied again the methods it had learned from other Communist countries, frustrating the effects of the religions and negating their role in the people's life. On July 22, 1954, prior to the withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps from North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh called upon the Vietnamese, regardless of social status, religious belief, and political opinion and all parties irrespective of political tendencies to which they belonged to cooperate with him to work for the Fatherland and struggle for peace, national unity, independence, and democracy. In his 1954 Christmas message to his fellow countrymen of the Catholic Church, he promised that "the Government sincerely respects freedom of religion. As regards deceived Catholics who have gone to the South, the government has issued instructions to the local administration to take under its custody their rice fields, gardens, and other properties and to restore these to them on their return."

On June 14, 1955, before the land reforms resumed, Ho Chi Minh promulgated the decree 234/SL on the protection of freedom of conscience and worship. Among other things, the law stipulates that "... the government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to. infringe these freedoms. Every Vietnamese citizen shall have the right to practice a religion or not to practice any (Article 1)," that "In the process of land reform, a part of the land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government, either with or without reparations for 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. The size of such allotment is to be determined by peasants in the locality in which such church, pagoda, or sanctum is situated. In rural areas during land distribution, church and pagoda servants are entitled to receive their lots as any other working peasant (Article 10)," and that "the authorities at province level shall not interfere in the domestic affairs of the various religions (Article 13). 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 and help the people in the practice of these rights (Article 15).

Ideological Premises

The official daily Nhan Dan (The People), on July 4, 1955, ran a long article praising the new religious policy of the Vietnamese Workers' Party, saying,

 

" ... the respect for and guarantee of freedom of religion has always been a consistent policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam and the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The Workers' Party is a Marxist-Leninist Party, professing dialectical materialism, which is founded on the scientific analysis of the laws of nature and society. It does not admit the existence of divinities, and it has always propagated its socialism and encouraged patriotism. But, at the same time, on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist outlook, the Party recognizes that religion is a social objective phenomenon, and its appearance, development, or disappearance have deep economic and social origins and are not dependent upon the subjective will of any group of individuals.

 

The Party always recognizes that religion is a matter of freedom of creed and freedom of opinion for the people, which neither force nor coercion can infringe or suppress. The Party entertains unqualified 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. The Workers’ Party of Vietnam advocates unity with any patriotic Vietnamese, regardless of political tendencies, race, or religion, in the struggle for a peaceful, united, independent, and democratic Fatherland. Historical facts have shown that communists and followers of other political doctrines and believers of different religions may and have come together in a united National Front. This Front is, at present, expanding and being further consolidated. Respect for freedom of religion and the unity policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam is a sincere and long-term policy.

The Party’s Declaration has made it clear: "Believers of all religions must have the right to freedom of conscience." Ever since its foundation, the Party has always stuck to this policy. Respect and guarantee of freedom of religion has been also a major policy of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It is the reflection of the feature of the people’s power, which always looks after the material and spiritual interests, of the people including freedom of religion and freedom of opinion. This policy is embedded in many practical policies and deeds of the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

 

A resolution passed by the National Assembly in its 4th session, has laid down in clear terms principles for the guarantee of the right to freedom of conscience. Implementing this resolution, on June 14, 1955, President Ho Chi Minh has enacted a decree concerning the guarantee of freedom of religion. This act once more defines in no uncertain terms the main principles of the policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam, with regard to religion and to freedom of religion and of worship and at the same time indicates clearly and comprehensively practical steps to guarantee such people’s rights. Article 15 of the decree reads: "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 and help the people in the practice of these rights." Such are the intents and purposes of the decree. It is a fresh evidence of the concern and care given to the people’s interests in every field by the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Freedom of religion is one of the people’s rights. It has now been enacted by the laws of the State, and everyone must correctly carry it out. Those who infringe this people’s right contravene the laws and shall be punished in accordance with the law.

The gist of the decree is the guarantee of the people’s freedom of religion and worship. It clearly points out that " ... the Government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe these freedoms. Every Vietnamese citizen shall have the right to practice a religion or not to practice any." (Article I)." The authorities shall not interfere in the domestic affairs of various religions." (Article 13) On the other hand, the decree underlines that those who use the signboard of religion to serve imperialism by destroying peace, unity, independence, and democracy shall be punished in accordance with the law. This provision is not at all repugnant to freedom of conscience. On the contrary, it constitutes the very substance of the guarantee of this freedom ... (Foreign Publishing House, 1956., pp. 20-23).

The Flip Side of the Coin

 

The flip side of the coin proved to be true as soon as the laws were promulgated. The Geneva Accords of July 20, 1954 partitioned the country into two regions, the one north of the 17th Parallel was the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the other south of it, the Republic of Vietnam. After the withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps and the Viet Minh troops took over Haiphong, the city of last hope of the immigrants to the South, Ho Chi Minh, again, made "volte face." The Communist regime carried out oppressive measures against all religions they had learned from the Soviet Union and Communist China to put them under its control.

 

The Workers’ Party of Vietnam, the reincarnation of the Communist Party of Indochina, within 10 years, had made efforts to repress the religions, especially the largest Churches, the Buddhist Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Party and its administration, step by step, eliminated all Buddhist organizations. They instituted in their place the Association of Patriotic Buddhists and placed them all under the control of the Communist-linked Fatherland Front. hey closed down all institutes of Buddhist studies. They returned home monks and nuns. Only old bonzes were allowed to perform religious services in State-patronized pagodas. Religious education and renewals at monasteries were strictly prohibited. The Buddhist faith could only survive in silence.

 

As regards the Roman Catholic Church, unable to destroy the Church's religious organizational structure, the Communists stroke at the Church’s pastors and priests, diluting their clerical duties with interdiction and restriction. They sought to separate the faithful from the clergy, wearing out the clergy’s prestige, and frustrate their influence among the faithful. Still, they made efforts to prevent the faithful from practicing their religious faith and restricting the priest from performing their religious services. Other measures consisted of cancellation of the formation and ordination of priests, denial of permission to provide monks and novices at abbeys and monasteries with foods and the necessities of life, and the prevention of the faithful from attending masses.

Under the direction of the Party, the authorities and cadres initiated the so-called anti-superstition campaigns to ridicule Christ and saints and deride religious practices and activities. They fabricated incidents of opposition activities, intimidated the clergy and laymen, and placed them under strict surveillance. They even attributed to certain priests or prominent laymen as the reactionary elements to arrest and send hem to reeducation camps. To weaken the Church’s propagation of the faith, they prohibited all religious associations to operate. They created the Association of Patriotic Catholics to direct religious activities. Like its fellow Buddhist association, this organ evolved within the orbit of the Father land Front, trying to replace the bishop as the representative of the Church beside the Communist leadership.

To divert the faithful from their religious practices, the atheists oriented them towards achieving to their purposes --to dutifully serve the Party’s political policies. With a scheme in sight, from 1954 to 1975, the Party tried hard to dismantle the Church and win over the faithful’ s minds. As a result, all through the period after the partition of the country, the Roman Catholic Church suffered tragic losses, both materially and institutionally. The formation and ordination of priests were in alarming decline. There were only 277 priests, including the priests who were ordained in hiding, for the whole North. The total number of priests was lesser than that of the clerical body of Saigon Diocese. In many regions cathedrals and chapels turned into granaries or store houses or became ruined.

 

By a similar approach, the atheist regime neutralized all religious services and activities of Evangelical Christianity. Ministers’ and pastors’ religious services at chapels and houses of worship were restricted. All congregations became the target of suspicion and control, and religious activities were made inactive. Only few pastors were allowed to practice the faith, being used as an instrument in the hands of the administration. Their role as the representatives of the Church was nominal. Bui Hoanh Thu, the President of Hanoi Congregation, was one of them.