Posted on 07/09/2016 11:50:40 AM PDT by marshmallow
The head priest of a Catholic monastery in central Vietnam’s Thua Thien-Hue province has sent a petition to national and foreign officials in the country protesting what it says is the local government’s illegal appropriation of its land, RFA’s Vietnamese Service has learned.
Antoine Nguyen Van Duc, head of Vietnam’s Thien An Catholic monastery sent the petition dated June 27 to the provincial People’s Committee, the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Hue, the European Union commission in Vietnam, and the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, complaining about the illegal seizure of land and the disrespect authorities had shown to a cross.
Hoang Ngoc Khanh, the director of Thua Thien-Hue People’s Committee office, told RFA that authorities there received the petition on the day it was written and sent an official request to central-level authorities for a meeting to discuss this issue.
“We will arrange a time to invite representatives from the monastery to meet with us to discuss the issue and address it in accordance with the law and the constitution,” he said.
Founded by French missionaries in June 1940, Thien An monastery is home to a community of priests, nuns, and seminarians who carry out pastoral activities in three different churches, according to a May 2015 article on the AsiaNews website.
Hue Archdiocese, which covers both Thua Thien-Hue province and Quang Tri Province, included nearly 70,000 Catholics in 78 parishes as of December 2010, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam.
No right to appropriate land
Cao Duc Loi, a priest who lives at the monastery, said local authorities have acted wrongly if the appropriation is measured against the constitution.
“According to the law, the prime minister has no right to appropriate our land,” he told RFA. “Their order to take our land was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen.....
(Excerpt) Read more at rfa.org ...
I travel to Vietnam regularly for work. In the former South Vietnam, one sees churches everywhere, and on Sunday, they are literally overflowing with worshippers. I went to a mass at a typical, small church there that probably had 800 people jammed inside and another 1000 standing in the courtyard outside.
What? Communists suppressing Christianity? Gee, that hasn’t happened before...//
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