Vietnam, a former French colony, has Southeast Asia’s largest Catholic community after the Philippines — about six million out of 84 million people. The Hanoi People’s Committee last week wrote to church leaders telling them to stop the "illegal activities" or face action by the authorities, said website www.vietcatholic.net publishing an image of the letter.
"Those activities have disturbed public order and negatively affected the good cooperative relations between the Vietnamese bishop’s council, the archbishop and the local authorities," said the letter, monitored by BosNewsLife. The rallies had given a "pretext for wrongdoers to… spread distortions" and "affected the image of Catholics in the community and the improving relation between the State of Vietnam and the Vatican," it said.
Christians have held nightly prayer vigils since December 18 outside the property, located near Hanoi’s central St Joseph’s Cathedral, with the meetings at times swelling to thousands of people and blocking traffic.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung — who a year ago became the first communist Vietnamese leader to visit the Vatican — met Archbishop Kiet during a mass prayer meeting in late December and pledged to consider the issue.
Prayer meetings have also reportedly continued at the site of a former textile factory near Hanoi’s Thai Ha Church that Catholics say was taken in the 1950s. The building has been demolished so the land can be sold, according to church media.
While all religious activity remains under state control in Vietnam, the Communist government has said it wants to start a talks with Catholics, which led to the milestone Vatican visit last year by Prime Minister Dung.
