In a Letter of Communion dated September 21 to Bishop Paul Nguyen Thai Hop of Vinh Diocese, 8 bishops from the Ecclesiastical Province of Hanoi expressed their full support to the prelate, priests and the faithful who have been victims of attacks by Vietnamese government, both physical and verbal.
The bishops in the North Vietnam condemned the attacks as a clear violation of the rights to freedom of religion or belief, calling the Vietnamese government to release the two parishioners still detained, and to halt immediately all attacks on the Church in Vietnam and lift restriction on religious freedom.
Both Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet and Archbishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, the former and the current leader of the Archdiocese of Hanoi also sent their letters to express their undaunted support to Bishop Paul Pham and My Yen parishioners.
State media outlets, meanwhile have repeatedly given extensive coverage to the meeting of the Vietnam Committee for Solidarity of Catholics, a pro-government group set up by the Communist Party in 1955 with the goal of establishing a “patriotic Church” after the model established by the Chinese Communist Party. Catholics suspicious of the group are concerned to see that 500 priests, religious, and lay people attended the 2-day meeting of the state-sponsored group to express their “full support” to the regime. The meeting was seen by many as the largest assembly ever of the group in the archdiocese of Saigon, the group’s stronghold.
The bishops in the North Vietnam condemned the attacks as a clear violation of the rights to freedom of religion or belief, calling the Vietnamese government to release the two parishioners still detained, and to halt immediately all attacks on the Church in Vietnam and lift restriction on religious freedom.
Both Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet and Archbishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon, the former and the current leader of the Archdiocese of Hanoi also sent their letters to express their undaunted support to Bishop Paul Pham and My Yen parishioners.
State media outlets, meanwhile have repeatedly given extensive coverage to the meeting of the Vietnam Committee for Solidarity of Catholics, a pro-government group set up by the Communist Party in 1955 with the goal of establishing a “patriotic Church” after the model established by the Chinese Communist Party. Catholics suspicious of the group are concerned to see that 500 priests, religious, and lay people attended the 2-day meeting of the state-sponsored group to express their “full support” to the regime. The meeting was seen by many as the largest assembly ever of the group in the archdiocese of Saigon, the group’s stronghold.