Prayers and church songs reverberated throughout Hanoi’s central St Joseph’s Cathedral where Christians demanded justice, witnesses said. On Sunday, January 6, and on Saturday, January 5, priests and other Christians also lit candles and placed flowers near the Cathedral at the iron fence around the property Christians say belonged to the Catholic Church.
A large French-colonial villa and the 1.1 hectare (2.7 acre) the property sits on are former office of the Vatican’s former delegate to Hanoi but were confiscated by the state when he was expelled in the late 1950s, Christians say.
"It’s the land and the property of the church. We have the certificate of ownership of the property since 1933," one priest from the Hanoi archdiocese was quoted as saying by French News Agency (AFP), speaking on condition he not be named.
CATHOLICS HOPEFUL
Catholics have reported said they are hopeful the dispute will be resolved after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet during a prayer meeting with thousands of followers in late December, pledging to consider the issue. Vietnam, a former French colony and a reunified and Communist country since 1975, has Southeast Asia’s largest Catholic community after the Philippines — about six million out of a population of 84 million, according to estimates.
Yet, religious issues remain sensitive and secret police on Sunday, January 6, reportedly milled in the crowds protesting church land seizures, taking video and photographs, a priest told AFP. "Some Catholic followers were questioned by security officials, and some say they were pressured not to attend the prayers."
This weekend’s prayers came after previous demonstrations from other Christians, including the predominantly Christian Degar-Montagnard community in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
Hundreds of Degar-Montagnards have been imprisoned across Vietnam and some of them have died after torture, the Montagnard Foundation Incorporated and other rights groups have said. Vietnamese government has consistently denied human rights abuses. (With BosNewsLife reporting and BosNewsLife News Center).
