The Repression

Having failed to create  a self-directed Vietnamese Catholic Church of the Chinese type in March 1979, the Communist administration sought to repress the Church by violence. On the one hand,  it intimidated the clergy and confiscate the Church’s facilities. However, facing  flexible but resolute defense of the Church, it had to manipulate the  Communist-created Union of Catholics to replace the Union of Catholic Patriots, exerting pressure on the Church.  On the other hand, it used diverse measures, both political and administrative, to maneuver tricks against the Church. To defend its legitimacy as a religious institution, on April 4, 1990, the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam published a letter of recommendation requesting the Communist administration to create favorable conditions for religious activities, to respect the rights to religious worship, to allow the Church to reopen seminaries, and  attend to the service of the poor. The requests cane to no response.

     The Role of the Committee of Union of Catholics

The Committee of Union of Catholics, an organization operating in the orbit of the Party-satellite  Fatherland Front, actually played the role of a watchdog of the Party and State  to  control the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam at all levels of the Church’s hierarchy. It was even vested with authority to designate members to work beside the clergy the local parishes. This organization, like its predecessor, was the successor to the Committee for Solidarity of Patriotic Catholics. Since the term “patriotic” sounds “too Communist.” it is then stripped off. Structurally, It  operated under the direction  of  the “Gang of Four,” (Huynh Cong) Minh, (Truong Ba) Can, (Phan Khac)Tu, (Vuong Dinh) Bich. People do not know, however, how close they were to the Party’s leadership, but had great influence on State-affiliated work teams at the parishes. Oftentimes, they tended to exert their influence on local priests and prestigious members in the hierarchy of the Church. Nevertheless, their pressure fluctuated with various circumstances. For instance, during the years of 1985-1986,  the Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien of Hue Diocese, Central Vietnam, was constantly harassed by the local civil authorities. He was finally arrested, interrogated, and detained for 120 days at the Binh-Tri-Thien police headquarters. Released, he was immediately placed under house arrest. The Reverend Tran Van Quy of the Hue diocese was coincidentally arrested and interrogated about the archbishop’s activities from 1980 to 1986. A delegate from the Committee of Union of Catholics in Saigon came to Hue with an intent  to complicate the matter. Nevertheless, the Most Reverend Nguyen Kim Dien  categorically ruled out every artful argument of the delegate in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. Facing complexities of the situation, the work of the Committee was, however highly appreciated by the Party and State. At the close of the assembly of the Episcopal Conference that took place in Hanoi from October 6-11,1997, the chief of the State Office of Religious Affairs Le Quang Vinh, on his own initiatives, spoke highly of the merits of the Committee and evaluated the role it played alongside the bishops and the contributions that this organ had paid to the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam.

      

The Bishops, on their part, pointed out that,  in the context of the politics of “doi moi” (renovation), it was suitable to let the laity only to participate in  the operation of this political organization and take charge of responsibilities as the representatives of the laity in it. Traditionally, they added, in diverse branches, the responsibilities in the direction of the Church's religious activities resided with personalities with merits.  They evidently had acquired merits or possessed honorific titles. Moreover, responsibilities should be given to specialized people. A priest must serve first his pastoral duties.   

Resentment against the presence of priests in the Committee of Union of Catholics wais strong. This organization, in the eyes of the Catholic laity, was a political watchdog of the Communist Party. The Episcopal Conference  reaffirmed the statement by the late Archbishop of Saigon Diocese Nguyen Van Bin when he had delegated the general vicar of Saigon Cathedral Huynh Cong Minh to the meeting with the Committee of Union of Catholics on November 11, 1993 with this message: “Nowadays, the situation has changed. Our country has engaged in the process of complete renovation. The economic, social, and political situation is on the path of normalization. That is why the archbishop desires that the activities of the Committee of Union of Catholics should also be normalized. Our laity brothers must assume their role. The priest should come back to his duty, that is, he should be accorded the credentials to perform his ministry services, which responsibilities lay people cannot assume.”

Pham Ngoc  Hai, a devout Catholic of Vuon Soai Parish, Saigon, recounted the circumstances in which religious practices were  conducted in the Saigon archdiocese: "The Catholics are now free to some extent to observe  their religious practices and  activities. They are allowed to perform religious practices and activities, but all these performances are  restricted to the worship place. They are mainly Holy Masses. Bible studies for converts, teenagers, and the youth. They are conducted within the church. only Al celebrations for the All Saints' Day, Christmas Eve, or reception parties are all under the writ of authorization. Outdoors activities and services of the “Legio,” the Catholic Youth Association and the Sacred Heart of the Holy Mother are strictly prohibited to operate. Even the practice of charity is forbidden. While the 1984 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognizes the right to freedom of religion, the State places the Church under its control with all forms of regulations, restrictions, and authorization. Worse still, pious Catholics are publicly derided. Bishop Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh Diocese (North Vietnam) reported at the International Caritas Conference in Rome, May 29, 1991: "Anyone who practices charity and performs religious creeds is criticized as being backward and benighted." (Trung Tan, VHRW 3 (November 2001)

   

Prior to “renovation” when the religious policy for the South had not come into force, the authorities’ measures of control varied from one region to another. In some parishes such as the Vuon Soai Parish in Saigon where the State priest Phan Khac Tu was in charge of the ministry, those priests returning from reeducation camps were allowed to celebrate Sunday Masses because of lack of priests. Seminaries were closed. Seminarians had to return home. Pious youths were barred from entering the priesthood, Dignitaries in certain dioceses sought to fill the gap by forming priests in hiding. Upon completion of this type of religious education,  if they were lucky, they had to perform their sacerdotal duties secretly. They were subject to self-isolation as police raids were continually performed against them (Trung Tan, VHRW 3 (November 1991). 

   

Demands for Religious Freedom

During October  12-19, 1992, twenty-six bishops representing twenty-one dioceses attended the Fifth Congress of Catholic Bishops held in Hanoi. Again, they issued a letter of opinions demanding the Communist Party to lift the restrictions on religious activities, to terminate prohibition against Catholic converts to serve their faith, to restore the Church’s right to religious propagation, and to return to it the right to property ownership. Also, in the motion to Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on October 26, 1992,  the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam demanded the rights to freedom of religious activities of the Catholics in various dioceses. As regards the legitimacy of the Church, the Episcopal Conference stressed that "being the superior organ that is responsible for the Catholic communities inside the country, the Conference needs to have proper conditions and adequate means to render its services corresponding to its role as the representatives of the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. Therefore,  "the Church has the right to free assembly, to assemble wherever it is deemed necessary and convenient. The Catholic Bishops equally have the right to free movement to perform their sacerdotal duties in their dioceses.  The  restrictions on the formation of priests have to be lifted. Of most importance, the  State is requested to return to Church the cathedrals, monasteries, seminaries, abbeys and real estates properties that are managed and occupied or  unsuitably used by the State."

The Persecution

   Arrests and Imprisonment

For nearly two decades after the reunification of the country, the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam still suffered tragic persecution due to profession of faith of  the clergy and faithful.  The Communist rule continued to ruthlessly persecute numerous Catholic dignitaries, priests, and believers. The history of Vietnam under “renovation” recorded  such cases of religious persecution as follows:      

   

In the North, the Catholic  community of the ethnic minority H’mong was targeted with persecution. Recognized among the preachers who were arrested and detained were:  1. Sung Khai Pha in Ha Giang Province was repeatedly arrested in 1992, “for spreading illegal religious propaganda,” 2. Vang Seo Sang in Ha Giang Province was repeatedly arrested in 1992, “for illegal religious propaganda”  and 3. Ly Van Dinh was repeatedly arrested in 1992, for” spreading illegal religious propaganda.”

In the South, fervent and prestigious personalities and  priests were the victims of persecution. Recognized among them were Ngo Van An, Doan Thanh Liem, the journalist Nguyen Ngoc Lan, and the Reverend Chan Tin.

 In the open letter of August 15, 1989, Ngo Van An demanded the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam to manifest strong will of independence from the State  as regards the creation of the Committee of Union of Catholics. Ngo Van An was subject to interrogation by the police in December 1990. He was arrested on February 25, 1991. He was sentenced without trial to three years of forced labor and detained at Phan Dang Luu Prison, Saigon.  

The lawyer Doan Thanh Liem was arrested without charge in 1990. The lawyer was a signatory to a letter of protest to the Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Van Binh denouncing the artful scheme of the Communist-sponsored Committee of Union of Religions and accusing the Vietnamese Communist authorities in Hue of their violations of freedom of religion, and, specifically for their detention of the Catholic Vice-archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan. On May 14, 1992, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City imposed on the lawyer  a 12-year imprisonment. The official daily Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberated), reported the Court's accusations against him such as maintaining relations with U .S. high ranking officials as well as the old officials of the Republic of Vietnam, printing and diffusing anti-socialist documents and calling for the abolition of the monopoly of power of the Vietnamese Communist Party, the dissolution of the Communist-created National Assembly, and the promotion of a regime of political plurality.  He was also attributed to as a reactionary for drafting a project for a new  constitution for Vietnam. In reality, the lawyer had served as a legal counselor for Michael David Morrow.

Sources close to the lawyer said that Doan Thanh Liem was a graduate from Georgetown University in Washington D. C. On May 14, 1992, the Ho Chi Minh City Court sentenced the lawyer to 12 years in prison. His trial aroused deep concerns among celebrities and political circles in the United States. A group of 125 politicians and celebrities signed a letter of protest to Party Secretary-general Do Muoi requesting him to release the lawyer forthwith and unconditionally. Recognized among those who signed the letter were Senator Jesse Helms, Jane Fonda, David Dellinger, David Berrigan, and Tom Hayden. Nevertheless, the protest came to no result.

On May 12, 1993, the Ho Chi Minh City police released the Catholic priest Chan Tin and the journalist Nguyen Ngoc Lan from arbitrary detention. The Reverend Chan Tin, a Redemptorist, and Nguyen Ngoc Lan, a Catholic intellectual, were always under police guard. They were the principal inspiring authors of the open letter of August 15, 1989 in which they demanded the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam to manifest more independence vis-à-vis the State and to define the assumed role of the Committee of Union of Catholics.

The journalist Nguyen Ngoc Lan, who had  been under house surveillance, was charged with secretly sending abroad a two-volume diary whose contents, according to the Communist rule, denigrated the political regime. On May 16, 1990, the police broke into and searched his home at Tan Phuoc  but found no evidence. The journalist was nevertheless placed under constant administrative detention at his home and was prohibited to leave the quarters where he was living. He had to report himself to the police headquarters every week. At every interrogation, during the time under permanent detention he refused  to answer any questions and held firmly to hiss political  standpoint.    

Along with the articles severe criticisms on the State's acts of religious repression and persecution, the Reverend Chan Tin preached in a series of sermons during the Lenten in 1990, arousing the State’s interference in the internal affairs of the Church, and thus committing violations on religious freedom.    

The priest, who had also been placed under administrative detention., was charged with acts of subversion. against the regime. He was arrested while he was residing at the Redemptorists Cathedral on Ky Dong Street, Saigon. The Reverend Chan Tin was designated a new residence at a small church in the district of Duyen Hai, 70 kilometers east of Saigon. Five days later, he was prohibited from celebrating Masses and  his preaching was terminated. On June 22, 1989, after an interrogation by the police, he was put under house arrest for three days. The priest's movement was restricted within the village of Can Thanh. He was prohibited from performing his priesthood. His citizenship was withdrawn, and he had to report himself to the police every fifteen days. The authorities also interdicted his relations with other fellow priests at the Redemptorists Order on Ky Dong Street, Saigon. The police showed vigilant zeal in the search for and confiscation of the priest’ s records of preaching. A priest of a diocese in the Central Highlands who obtained one of these records was arrested and sentenced without a trial to three years under administrative detention. International organizations, such as the CIDSE was not allowed to go to and visit the priest at the  place of detention.

     

Reactions from the Laity

    

The Catholic laityhad every confidence in their Bishops' leadership as expressed in their petition to the government following the issuance of the Decree 69 HDBT. TIn it, the spiritual leaders particularly demanded the State to materialize the rights to religious freedom by opening access to the five immediate needs of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. The government was required to show respect for the execution of the Sacerdotal Order of  the Vatican nomination of Bishop P. X. Nguyen Van Thuan to the rank of Vice-archbishop and the legitimate successor to Archbishop Nguyen Van Binh of the Saigon prelacy. It should  not interfere in the internal affairs of the Church in the conduct of religious affairs such as the selection of students to the priesthood and education of seminarians, the ordination of priests, and the nomination of bishops. It should facilitate the instruction and study of catechism. It should create favorable conditions for the Church to form Catholic congregations and to open educational religious facilities and allow the Church to operate educational and charitable services. It should unconditionally return to the Church all properties it had appropriated or borrowed for temporary use. It should compensate as amends for any facility that is lost or damaged due to poor State management. It Should respect, protect, and create favorable conditions for the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam to serve  best the policy of National Solidarity and develop its international relationship with other religious communities and the Churches in other countries. It should  respect international treaties and covenants by which it had pledged to abide. 

   

Nevertheless all demands fell to the deaf ears.  Even charitable services were subject to State supervision The Decree 69/HDBT of March 21, 1991, in particular, stipulated with restrictions  that "humanitarian services are regulated by law. The ecclesiastics and religious organizations may devote themselves to  humanitarian activities in the domains of activities where permission can be granted by the State. Humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian services  that are currently sponsored by a religion is allowed to continue to function accordingly and in conformity with the orientations of competent organs of the State. All religious activities that are related or connected to those of the Churches in a foreign country have to be conducted in conformity with the State policy and approved by the Council of Ministers."

     Reactions from the Catholic Circles

On September 8, 1991, Mugs. Nguyen Duc Tien proclaimed at a conference on religious freedom in Santa Ana, California, that the Vietnamese Communist Party made at least three grave errors in its policy on the religions. It confuses patriotism with enthusiasm for socialism; it restricts the rights to religious freedom, and it lacks understanding of the noble goals of religions and the psychology of religious people. The dignitary advocated that freedom of religion is a basic human right; it is a right, and not a privilege. The Vietnam Interfaith Committee of the Struggle for Religious an the United States raised concerns about the repression of the Communist administration, enumerating incidents of  oppression and suppression of the clergy and faithful of all Churches and calling for international investigation into the religious situation in Vietnam.  

Commenting on the Decree 69 - HDBT, in its letter of opinions on April 14, 1991, the Conference of Catholic  Bishops of Vietnam had this to say:

“Although the 1992 Constitution recognizes the right to freedom of religion, the practice of this tight encounters many difficulties and complexities. Almost all resolutions on the religion in the past have been expressively carried out. Some of them are less coercive but are still aiming at restricting rather than facilitating religious activities. Stylistically, the phraseology of the law is ambiguous with  twist of words or contradiction in terms, such as “... is allowed ... but requires permission.” Of all human rights, the right to religious freedom is among the most important rights. Therefore, it must be respected as a right, and must not be regarded as a privilege. The Decree 69 HDBT, March 21, 1991, is only a series of restrictions on religious preaching, services, and activities, and the result of it is a gradual disintegration of the Churches in Vietnam. Consequently,  these restrictions will open doors to a futile struggle between the people and the political regime.

People in any place and at any period of time seek and continue to seek true democracy and the respect for their rights and opinions. Every man should be allowed to practice his own religion. Every man  should have the right to express truthfully what he thinks.  He expects his opinions to be heard, considered, and given response. With all things considered, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Council of Ministers should prove to be flexible, righting wrongs and creating  favorable conditions so that every citizen will be able to contribute to the building of the country. Of first and utmost importance, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Council of Ministers must respect the rights to freedom of religion of the Vietnamese people. It is now the right time for them to revoke forthwith the unpopular Decree 69/ HDBT, March 21, 1991 (Lu Gang, VNHRW, 1992: 7-9).

Religion Practices under "COI MO"

Contenders for freedom and democracy argued that “COI MO” (Openness) is s expressively negative. If we are not careful, we will be put at the risk of  destroying the country's traditional intellectual, moral, and spiritual values . The difficulties facing the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam remained the same ones  reflected in the motion of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam sent to SRVN Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on October 26, 1992, in which it  requested for the respect for the rights to religious worship. It reads, in part:

“We are glad and hopeful to be the witness to an era of renovation of the country in the domain of religion and every other domain of life as well. However, being people who are responsible for the building of happiness and the spiritual life of our Catholic compatriots who live within the people's communities, we cannot help from expressing our thoughts and anxiety about the remaining difficulties that are facing the Vietnamese Roman Catholic Church. Being the superior organ that is responsible for the Catholic community inside the country, the Vietnamese Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to have proper conditions and adequate means for its operations of activities and to be able to perform its functions suitable to its role as the representative of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam.

The Episcopal Conference requested that restrictions on  religious services and activities of  the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam be lifted, and the basic rights to serve the religious faith be respected. The faithful have the right to assembly whenever it is necessary and wherever it is convenient. The Bishops have the right to free movement to perform bishopric duties in their dioceses because, in a number of dioceses, the bishops are required to apply for permission before they go and perform their duties within their dioceses. The Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam should be free to communicate to and share responsibilities with  the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Churches in other countries, such as to participate in religious activities organized by the central ministry at the Holy See when invited and to have relationships with other Conferences of Catholic Bishops and to attend congresses, especially those organized by the Alliance of Asian Conference of Catholic Bishops, It should be  allowed to publish a monthly magazine to inform the laity of activities of the Catholic community and to disseminate materials of beliefs through Bible and catechism studies with facility and, at the same time to be allowed to print and publish with facility books relating to religion.

Like any other social organization in the country and the world, the staff formation and the administration of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam are operated in accordance with the Church's religious rules of laws and regulations and are competent within the Church's hierarchy in their service for the Church.  There should be a harmonic progression for the formation of a staff that is sufficient enough to meet the needs for the religious services of the followers. There are now only three seminaries with a limited number of seminarians throughout the country. Therefore, there are urgent needs to open more seminaries to allow the Church to receive a large number of seminarians as are required by needs in each diocese (the existing number of seminarians is very small as compared with the number of seminarians required by actual needs), to allow to establish preparatory schools for prospective seminarian, to allow to ordain, in accordance with the stipulations defined by the Church, priests whom the Bishop considers as meritorious, to allow the bishop to transfer with facility the priest from one region to another as required by the needs of religious services and are necessary for the service of the followers, to restore the functions of those priests who return from reeducation and allow them to perform religious services, to allow members of the Church to study and receive in-service training overseas when these opportunities are offered or as required by needs and to participate in conferences abroad so that they will be able to serve better when they come back home, to allow monasteries and nunneries to receive, form, and transfer their members so that these people will better perform their duties, suitable to their specialization, and to cease preventing voluntary Catholic converts from serving their faith and causing difficulties to them. As far as the properties of the Church as concerned, the Church is in need of more worship places and places for activities.  Therefore, the Government is asked  to return to the Church its cathedrals, monasteries, seminaries, abbeys, and real estate properties that are under the management  of the State and occupied by the State or that are being used unsuitably the State, and to allow with facility the Church to repair, rebuild, and build worship places and places for activities to meet the Church’s religious needs."

The Conference of Bishops stressed that above-mentioned requests are only the common proposals of any organization that is officially recognized by the government. They are also the aspirations of the Vietnamese Catholic Clergy and Laity. If they are realized, they will help create a new spirit and motive force for the building and protection of the country.

The Roman Catholic Church

     Requests and Demands

     On April 4, 1990, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Vietnam, held in Hanoi, sent a letter of recommendation to the Communist rule requesting it to create favorable conditions for religious activities, to respect the rights to religious worship, and to allow it reopen seminaries and to attend to the humanitarian services. Religious laws in replacement of atrocious reptrssive practices were used to put Catholics and followers of other religious under the control of the State. The Decree 69 HDBT of March 21, 1991, shows these vile intents.

     Remarks on the Decree 69/HDBT of March 21, 1991

The Decree 69/ HDBT of March 21, 1991 met with strong and direct criticisms among the Catholic circles, which were reflected in the articles in the newspapers overseas. One of them noted:

“ After the disintegration of the Communist parties in Eastern Europe, the Communist Party of Vietnam, fearful of similar antigovernment political movements in Europe that might take place in Vietnam, hung on to its hostile policy against the religions. The Decree 69-HDBT of March 21, 1991, which came out with the most rigorous dispositions as a result of a deliberate decision aiming at restricting religious activities and preventing opposition from the religions.

"People come to realize that this is an instrument the Vietnamese Communist administration creates to nullify the influence of religions in the life of the people. While, the State, by Article I of the Decree, guarantees the right  to freedom of religion and the right to  not to follow a religion, prohibiting discrimination against all beliefs and religions, it imposes rules and regulations with strict measures on the exercise of religious freedom. It regulates religious activities, celebrations, and practices, conditioning the faithful' s religious life to carry out the State's objectives, policies, and to enforce the laws and regulations and subject them to the circumstances under which they can hardly serve their faith.

Article 7 , in addition, stipulates that all religious activities must not hamper the State labor production, thought reform, and military obligations. The State, by this article only, has all that it desires to compel the follower to observe whatever discipline which it finds necessary for the defined tasks and to obstruct the follower’s participation in religious practices and activities. The authorities, thereby, can easily prevent the follower from attending Holy Sunday Masses or holiday celebrations, for instance. In terms of labor production and thought reform, the Decree inherently empowers the cadres with the necessary application of the law owing to which they have the full authority in the decision making process to coerce the follower to work slavishly for labor production and dutifully attend political indoctrination sessions. Thus, schedules for work hours and political education sessions are coincidentally arranged on purpose with the Church’s programs of religious services and activities. To neutralize all other religious activities, the cadres can also organize the so-called days of labor for socialist production or full-time sessions of political indoctrination on religious holidays or the days of religious celebration.  As a result, the follower, being worn out after long days of hard labor or tedious indoctrination, will  neglect their religious duty.

    

Decades before, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Catholic faithful in the North were forced to work wage-free for the State on Sunday morning and attend political indoctrination on Sunday afternoon. To execute this measure, the cadres simply excuse themselves with the reason that they simply enforced the law. In  reality, they intentionally hindered the faithful from attending the Sunday Mass or practicing their religious duties. These servants of the people were at the same time the true lawmakers and law enforcers even though the laws can only be compiled by the legislative body. With such a legislative power, they voluntarily issued administrative orders to invalidate the admission of the Catholic laymen to the schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Pedagogy. They even assigned a Catholic civil servant to a position in the political machinery, the security service, and the party leadership hierarchy. Strict measures on a Catholic in matters of public security were evident: Their religious identity was remarked on their identification cards. In this way,  the police could easily check his social background. In any event, a citizen could be discriminated against only on  account of his or her religious faith.

Article 8 of the Decree stipulates that all regular religious services and activities (Mass attendance, religious preaching, or Bible study, and so on), at the worship place must be conducted in accordance with the customs and annual programs in the local areas. Only can  the services and activities that are registered with the local authorities' authorization be exempt from permission. Notwithstanding, special religious services and activities are subject to prior authorization.  Since the lexicon of the law is not defined, the cadres may interpret it as they see it fit. The term worship place is, for instance, ambiguous. It can be either a pagoda, a temple, or a cathedral; it can also be either a pagoda, a temple, or a cathedral and its dependent buildings. Thus, in some localities,  religious practices and activities are to be performed inside the pagoda, temple, or cathedral.  Schedules for these religious services are to be registered with the local authorities annually. The celebration of Holy Masses, the Bible study, or the practices of chants of worship for celebrations are all to be conducted or performed inside the pagoda, temple, or cathedral. The rules and regulations can be varied according to the authorities whims and wishes. In other localities, the cadres allow the religious to conduct the Bible study and the singing practices of hymns inside the dependent houses within the surroundings of the pagoda or cathedral. In other localities, the regulations are observed with strict control. Buddhist or Catholic Boy Scouts Associations, the “Legio,” the Little Souls, and so on, are dissolved, and their activities are thus prohibited.  Many followers were detained as a result of their visits to patients in hospitals or of giving aids to the poor in the name of their religious organization. Many of them were often accused of performing unlawful religious propagation. Many others were arrested and banished to long-term reeducation.

As regards religious propagation, Article 14 stipulates that the Church is permitted to print and publish prayer books and books of religious study and printed culture materials.  However, this Article only provides empty words since the printing, publication, or importation of prayer books and printed culture materials are all subject to rules and regulations. Moreover, all printing houses, exportation and importation agencies, and information and culture services are owned or directed by the State. Private enterprise in this area of business is prohibited. Even the printing of calendars used for religious services and books for religious study are subject to permission. Still, the State Department of Mass Communications and Culture only authorizes the publication of a limited number of copies of the materials of  this kind. In addition, in order to be given the permission, the Church is required to find recommendation of a State-affiliated dignitary, Buddhist monk. or Catholic priest. The Church finds difficulty to publish journals or bulletins. Only those journals published by State-affiliated  religious organs are permitted to publish unconditionally. They naturally carry out the Vietnamese Communist Party’s policies, propagandizing its goals and canvassing the followers' support to serve its purposes. Religious teachings in these journals is often diffused to the advantage of the Party and State.

Not much less rigorous are the regulations on the practice of humanitarian services. Article 16 of the Decree stipulates that all dignitaries, priests, religious associations and humanitarian services are allowed to operate in the areas of activities permitted by the State. Nevertheless, since  the takeover of political power in South Vietnam in 1975, the government has proceeded with harsh measures to nationalize physical resources of all religions. The Church has thus been devoid of material resources for humanitarian services; neither has it had access to humanitarian activities. The Communists certainly doubt that these services will only accredit certain religious leaders with prestige. Therefore, all humanitarian activities must operate under the control of Party-affiliated associations and the Fatherland Front. Consequently, after decades in power, the Communist administration has failed to replace the religious associations in  promoting maintain humanitarian services with success. This failure  also  results from the irreparable irresponsibility of the cadres whose corrupt practices plague  the nomenclature.

The population, on the other hand, does not support the Party and State in these efforts since humanitarian aids do not always reach the needy. Many State-operated camps for the blind and lepers, deprived of budget, have sent their patients back to their families, which, in turn, can hardly afford to take care of them and have to send them back to the camps. Having found no support whatsoever to subsist, these unfortunate patients have no choice but wander around the streets of large cities and survive at the mercy of passersby. Foreign visitors to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, could see groups of lepers trailing behind them in the streets and begging for alms. To cope with this situation, the State authorities, in the recent years, have invited the nuns they had been repudiated from humanitarian services to return to help them in the camps for the blind and lepers, orphanages, hospitals, and nursing homes since the State cadres are incapable of handling these tasks. State authorities may have come to think that these services would not accredit the members of religions with a political role  Nevertheless, humanitarian service in other areas such as the rescue for or giving aids to the victims of floods or fires were specifically  considered the tasks of the officials. They must be operated and supervised by Sate-affiliated organs and the Fatherland Front, instead. In Saigon, humanitarian aids to the needy by the Catholics were for years conditional on the approval by the Catholic priest Huynh Cong Minh, a Hanoi protégé and prominent member of the State-affiliated Union of Patriotic Catholics. Sources said that  restrictions in these instances could stem from the fact that rescue aids to the needy which, especially those from international humanitarian foundations, were generally luxurious gifts, and were thus an easy prey to the cadres. 

To decimate the Churches' influence over the faithful and deprive them of their authority over their clergy, the administration, by the Articles 19 and 20 of the Decree vests the authorities with full control over the Church, giving them the authority to approve of the legality of the ordination, assignment, and displacement of  a dignitary, priest  or monk.  Abuses of power engender correspondingly. Officials could easily eliminate a prominent and prestigious dignitary, priest, or monk from a key position and substitute a religious of prestige with a State protégé,  and thus gradually consolidating the State-affiliated clerical contingent.

This and other vile schemes, in the last analysis, revealed the Communist administration the mastermind of a rigorous policy of attrition against the religions, not only to restrict their religious services but also intentionally uproot the legitimate Churches from the Vietnam soil. It intentionally transformed them into servile State-affiliated organizations, artfully  destroying any potential opposition from them. Until 1992, the Communists had not approved of the Vatican's confirmation of a cardinal in replacement of the late Cardinal Trinh Van Can, who had passed away many years before that. Still, Hanoi furtively canceled the Vatican’s official Episcopal nominations for the dioceses of Hanoi, Thai Binh, Hung Hoa, Thanh Hoa, and Hue. It even banished the priests of prestige to the parishes in the suburbs or remote areas in  the countryside.

      Contenders of a Bad Faith

To move on its path of socialism, Hanoi introduced a new economic reform plan in its effort to stabilize the totalitarian Communist State. In September 1992, the Communist-instituted National Assembly elected General Le Duc Anh the President of the State and reelected Vo Van Kiet the Prime Minister of the government. This legislative organ also adopted a new constitution, codifying in many areas “the free market economy in the direction of socialism” and recognizes in the area of religion the rights of the citizens  to ”practice or not to practice a religion.”  This is only a half of the truth. The State, in practice, always looks for way to bring the religion under its control. Restrictions have been already devised to compel a believer to submit himself to the State authority, with such provision as “no one shall be allowed to take advantage of belief and religion to violate the laws and policies of the State.”     

The believers in Vietnam  are incontestably bound by many restrictions of the law to practice worship.  The Decree 69 of the Government Council on March 21, 1991 and, later, the Circular 02 of February 1993, as a case in evidence, establish more intricate guidelines and instructions to implement the previously-promulgated laws on the religion. The latter decree, indeed, prescribes provisions that are ambiguous and vague with twists of words, such as “the places of worship shall be protected by the State” (Article 11); and “all religious denominations are allowed to have their places of worship, prayer-books, worship articles necessary for religious use  and all priests, to print and publish prayer-books (Article 14). The latter article proves to be ambivalent as religious practices are bound by the restrictions of the law, they are limited to and performed within the worship place, and religious denominations are not allowed to open seminaries and training establishments  (Article 77). 

The law, again, invigorates the authority of the security police in this respect. The Decree 69/HDBT, indeed, specifies rules and regulations with strict requirements: 1. Ordinary religious activities inside the worship places such as reunions for prayers, preparations  for a ceremony, assemblies for catechism studies and so on must be conducted in conformity with the religious customs of the religion concerned and in accordance with the annually-registered programs, and all these activities are subject to prior authorization. Special religious activities that are different from the ordinary religious ones are subject to prior approval of the authorities (Article 6); 2). 2. The clergy, adepts, and organizers for religious activities including those followers who are responsible for the religious services, i.e., who are in charge of the religious services in the area where they conduct religious activities, need prior approval from the local administrative authorities (Article 20); and 3. For religious congregations (or religious collective organizations or the like), if they wish to set up religious activities other than those described, they will have to solicit permission and obtain authorization from the Council of Ministers or the agencies to which authority is already delegated by the Council (Article 21). 

Evangelical Christianity in the South

    

 

    The House Church Movement

 

Among the thorny problems facing the Church were the lack of scriptures. Restrictions on the distribution and the circulation of Bibles and religious literature intensified. The propagation of the faith was strictly forbidden while the Christian population ever increased, from 160,000 in 1975 to 1.2 million in 2000.  In 1994, only 25 percent of the faithful in Saigon owned a Bible. In the Central Highlands this figure could be as low as 10 percent. Until May 1994, the State-sponsored Christian Evangelical Church could receive approval from the Ministry of Sports and Culture  to  produce its own Bibles. Nevertheless, Bibles printed under government control must not be made available to unregistered groups. In September 1994, a training school was projected to open. Some 60 students were allowed to register for Bible studies, following the compromise between the authorities and the local Church in Da Nang. However, until 2002, after 27 years under communism, only one class for theology study with 15 students was authorized to operate.

 

As the house church movement expanded, the political regime sought to place the Christian Evangelical Churches of the South under strict control. Nevertheless, it always met strong opposition from most pastors who resiliently refused to come to terms with it. They particularly refused to accept the State authorities’ proposal for the creation of a  unified State-affiliated Evangelical Church. The house church movement came into being and spread throughout the country, regardless of raids and instances of suppression The number of followers of this unregistered house church  ever grew, and because of this, the Church endured serious difficulties and harsh persecution, particularly, members of the ethnic minorities in the Central highlands who constitute a large part of the Church population.

 

    Arrests and Imprisonment

 

The report submitted by Mr. Abdelfattah, U.N. Special Rapporteur, in accordance with the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993/25, noted cases of arrests and imprisonment concerning the Evangelical Christian clergy and believers as follows:

 

 In 1991, there were at least 11 pastors who were arrested on charges of conducting religious activities without a permit. They were such personalities as Tran Mai, Dinh Thien Tu, Tran Dinh Ai, R’Mah Luan, Phan Quang Thieu, Le Quang Trung, Vu Minh Xuan, Hoang Van Phung, Bui Thanh Se ,Vo Van Lac, and  Pham Phu Anh.  Of particular attention were the cases of unjust prosecution of prominent leaders of the Church:

 

1. Pastor Vo Van Lac, the leader of a Protestant Church in southern Vietnam, is said to have been taken to police custody in June 1991 and questioned with regard to his relations with foreign Christian organizations. He was released in July 1991 and believed to be under police surveillance afterwards.

 

2. The Reverend Bui Thanh Se, the leader of a Protestant church in southern Vietnam, was arrested in late June 1991, reportedly on suspicion of having links with foreign Christian organizations. He was released in July but was reported to be under close police surveillance.

 

3. Pastor R' Mah Loan, a pastor to the H'mong minority, was in charge of 14 congregations in the Dak Lak region. He was arrested in June 1991 for unknown reasons and \was believed to be held in administrative detention at a prison at Buon Me Thuot, Dak Lak Province, reportedly without formal trial or conviction. Ha Hak, a minister belonging to the Koho highlands minority, was reported to have been imprisoned in December 1991.

 

4. The Reverend Tran Dinh Ai, the leader of a Protestant movement in southern Vietnam, was arrested on February 27, 1991, allegedly because of his contacts with the overseas Pentecostal Church. Rev. Ai was reportedly sentenced to three years of administrative detention, without going on trial or being convicted. He is said to have been detained at Phan Dang Luu prison in Ho Chi Minh City and was not allowed to receive family visits for four months. In November 1991, he was moved to a labor camp in Song Be Province and was reported to be suffering from severe headaches, back pain, and a liver infection.

 

5. The Reverend Tran The Thien Phuoc, the leader of a Protestant Church in Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested in November 1989 while on his way to a meeting  with other Christians  and was allegedly charged with "disturbing the peace."  He had lived in Cay Truong II, Ben Cat, Song Be Province. Pastor Tran The Thien Phuoc was reportedly detained in a re-education  labor camp for the third time and was serving a three-year administrative detention sentence at a camp near Tong Le Chan, Song Be Province, although he had never been formally tried or convicted.

 

6. Pastor Ya Tiem, a minister belonging to the Koho minority from the highlands, was arrested in June 1991 for unknown reasons. He was believed to have been held in administrative detention in a prison in Dalat, Lam Dong Province, although he had reportedly not been formally tried or convicted.

   

7. The Reverend Dinh Thien Tu, the minister of the largest independent Protestant movement in Vietnam which reportedly comprised several thousand worshippers, was arrested on February 22, 1991 in Ho Chi Minh City, shortly after midday, allegedly for operating a social work program without the approval of the government and for alleged unauthorized contacts with foreign Christian groups. The arrest warrant presented to his wife in the afternoon, allegedly charged him with "using religion as a pretext for disturbing peace." His house was searched, and documents were confiscated. He was believed to be under a three-year administrative detention sentence, although he had not been formally tried or convicted. According to the information received, the Reverend Dinh Thien Tu was initially detained at the Phan Dang Luu prison, Gia Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City and was not allowed to receive family visits for four months. He was believed to have been moved at the end of November 1991 to a labor camp in the  Song Be Province. The Reverend Dinh Thien Tu, according to sources, had been accused of "teaching false theories and not observing the rules and regulations of the Church," and consequently was suspended from all pastoral duties and evicted from the Church parsonage.

    

8. The Tran Xuan Tu, a minister from Vo Dat, Duc Linh District of Thuan Hai Province, was reportedly forced to remove the cross from his church, which was subsequently occupied by the authorities. He was initially arrested in 1985 during a church meeting held in his home and reportedly served a three-year administrative detention sentence at the same camp in Vo Dat.

     

10. The dignitary Tran Mai, the leader of a Gospel Church in southern Vietnam, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on October 31, 1991 and alleged to have been charged with using religious activities to fight the government. He was reportedly serving a three-year administrative detention sentence in a labor camp at Tong Le Chan, Song Be Province. According to sources, he had not been formally tried or convicted. Ha Wan, a minister belonging to the Koho minority, had reportedly been detained in a prison in Lam Dong Province since December 1991.

 

10. The Reverend Nguyen Ngoc Anh had been detained since December 1989, allegedly without having been formally tried or convicted. He was reportedly to have been beaten on several occasions.

 

Sources also indicated cases of arrest in Saigon. The pastors Phan Quang Thieu, Le Quang Trung, Vu Minh Xuan, and Hoang Minh Phung were alleged to have been arrested in 1991 in Ho Chi Minh City and in the central highlands on charges of "pursuing religious activities without permission" and were reportedly detained on the basis of a People's Committee administrative order.

 

     Control

 

 Hanoi never loosened its r grip on independent religious groups. House Church leaders in Saigon said that the religious atmosphere throughout southern and central Vietnam fluctuated between periods of police harassment and seasons of relative religious freedom. The Christian communities in the city still resisted the unification of the Vietnamese Christians under the patronage of the Fatherland Front. The difficulties facing them were the formation of pastors, the slow development of the religion, and the closing of Christian worship places, and the arrest of pastors.   

 

   Tension between the police and unregistered Christian groups in southern Vietnam ever persisted as security forces carried out raids on rallies of the members of the House Church Movement in Saigon, beginning in February 1994. In early April 1994, the Ho Chi Minh City police in Binh Thanh Precinct launched a raid on an unregistered church associated with the Pastor Tran Dinh Ai' s House Church Movement. While there were no reports of arrests during the raid, the security officials were reported to have threatened the church members with further police action if they continued using their pretexts for "illegal assemblies."  The church group was fined 400,000 “dong” (US$ 38), and the authorities were reportedly to have placed the Church under police surveillance. The pastor was dismissed from his pastoral functions. Security forces, also raided a Ho Chi Minh printing house that was allegedly being used to  print clandestine religious literature for distribution among the house churches. Arrests made in connection with that raid were not known. The leader of another large House Church movement said that the police had detained eleven of the group's members throughout southern Vietnam during the Easter weekend and launched ten raids against the movement's meeting places. There were no further details available regarding these arrests and raids.     

 

  Discrimination    

 

In 1999,  a sociological research sponsored by a foreign embassy was conducted  within the Stieng ethnic minority in the commune Bu Gia Map, Phuoc Long District,  Binh Phuoc Province. Independent researchers noted that 41% of the population said they were the adherents to Evangelical Christianity. The researchers also mentioned that the mode of life of the Christians was spiritually improved owing to the abandonment of practices of traditional animism. According to the researchers, animist practices blocked the development of social life.  The Christians seemed to have a better spiritual life than other people. Nevertheless, they were targeted  with discrimination. A Koho missionary deplored the this suffering. The young Christians of his ethnic group were the object of jeers and derision in their schools simply because of their religious faith.. 

 

Converts to Evangelical Christianity grew in great numbers, regardless of interdiction and repression. The district of Back Lieu in the province of Minh Hai is  the southernmost region of Vietnam is a case in evidence. Many new settlers were the military personnel and civil servants of the government. They were given land and accorded other privileges from the government. Nevertheless, they experienced the least confidence in it and turned to other systems of faith, particularly, Christianity, instead. A movement of domestic Churches in the district saw a rapid progress, from 2 to 102 congregations, were formed only within a period of 10 years. Among the new converts to the faith  was Tran Ngoc An, a captain and hero of the People’s Army.  He benefited an invalid retirement pension for diverse wounds of war. During an operation  in the Soviet Union, a part of his cranial stature was replaced by a metallic plate. His suffering was such that it led him to seek consolation in alcohol and drug. However, intoxicated, ill-tempered, and neglected, An realized in despair he still had a way out. He had glimpse of a message of Christianity he had heard from certain new converts. He came to reason and believed in the message of redemption and  experienced himself a miraculous liberation from his intoxication. Excited by a new and hopeless for confidence in life, he studied with much assiduity his new faith and sooner became a missionary.

    

On December 22, 1999, Tran Van An and two other missionaries, Nguyen Khanh Tung and Tran Van Chinh accepted the invitation of a widowed lady of an officer killed  during the war and considered as a martyr of the “Revolution.” The lady had equally heard the Christian Good News and became a believer. which is for her an easy decision to abandon the cult of spirits of her spouse. To give testimony of the abandonment of her ancient beliefs, she invited the three missionaries to help her to put away the alter for the spirits. When they left the house, the three missionaries were arrested, kept in, and interrogated after that.  Brutal treatment of the security police worsened the wounds of Tran Van An, and he fainted.  Fearing that An would die, the police released him the  night before the Lunar New Year's Day. Having recovered his health, he related the story to the two other missionaries, who had also been maltreated during interrogation.   

 

     The Formation

 

A number of Christian denominations of Evangelical Christianity are members in the sanctioned Evangelical Churches of Vietnam. Pastor Huynh Thien Buu, the editor of the Yearbook of the Evangelical Churches in 1999, noted that 119 pastors practicing their ministry in the mountainous region were nor registered by the government. It is also the case of the majority of 1,500 preachers formed after 1975, and most of them are from the ethnic minorities. The yearbook cited as proof 282 regional communities are recognized by the authorities, but  283 others are non-official. These congregations are implanted in the regions inhabited by the ethnic minorities. In all, the Evangelical communities until the year 2000 totaled one million adepts. The State estimated the Christian population at 500,000 only.

 

Among serious difficulties facing the Churches of Evangelical Christianity is the shortage of ministers and pastors.. Until the 1990’s, 20 years after the reunification of the country, the Communist authorities in the South had authorized only 13 students to receive pastoral formation. No theological school could be opened, and no ordination was allowed. The replacement of pastors was very difficult. There existed only a clandestine formation of pastors thanks to which the needs for the religious life of the Christians were partly met.

 

     Other Obstacles

 

The Church has faced with numerous obstacles. Evangelical leaders are all concerned about the formation of leaders for a great member of ever-growing congregations in various areas of the country. It was not until September 1994 could the pastors Duong Tanh and Le Cao Quy of Da Nang receive permission to start a Bible training school for 60 students. Constraints placed on the training of new clergy ever remained. To this disadvantage,, there existed only one seminary in the country. The number of graduates, therefore, would never match the spiritual needs of the fast growing Evangelical congregations throughout the country.  In addition, as Bibles printed by government-run printing houses  were limited to State-sanctioned groups, the lack of Scriptures posed a serious problem to the preaching and religious education of the Church as a whole. Not much less deplorable was the lack of physical facilities for religious services. 

 

Until 1999, various denominations of the Evangelical Christian Church of Vietnam had called for a decision from the urban People’s Council to return to it its property in An Dong. Worse still, dispossession of worship houses prevailed in the provinces. In  July 1999, the local authorities of the district of Bu Dang in the province of Binh Phuoc voluntarily destroyed three modest churches of the H’nong ethnic minority and threatened to destroy seven more other churches. The information was quickly communicated to overseas Vietnamese Evangelical Christian congregations. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman in the news conference belied the information, speculating that  such things could not occur in Vietnam. However, the investigators from  Hanoi who had come to the region and the destruction was stopped. It was the president of the People's Council of the district, Ba Chia, who had given the order to destroy the worship places. He was dismissed from his functions in December 1999.