Widespread violations of religious freedom in Vietnam became more evident and more brutal during Christmas. Curfews were even applied to block Catholic faithful from Christmas midnight celebrations.

A tough road to Son La
Four years after bishop Anthony Vu Huy Chuong of Hung Hoa diocese had filed a petition to the local government of Son La province asking the permission for Catholic priests to say Mass, at least twice a year in Christmas and Easter, nothing were improved. This year seemed to be even worse as Catholics could not gather for reciting Rosary as in previous years.

In 2004, Nguyen The Thao, by then Chair of the Committee of Fatherland Front rejected bishop Anthony Vu’s petition stating that “since there has been no religious follower in Son La, there should be no need for activities". Thao’s statement was seen by Church leaders not only as an evidence of violations of religious freedom in Vietnam, and an effort of Vietnam government to hinder Church’s missionary effort, but also a blatant lie. There were at least 3000 Catholics of 40 different ethnicities in Son La at that time.

So far, Catholics in Son La, a remote region in a rugged terrain 300 km northwest of Hanoi, have to travelled to other nearby provinces to attend Mass despite a tremendous effort from the diocese to improve the situation.

The faithful gathered to pray at a warehouse
Or in the basement of an unknown building
Son La is among the three mountainous provinces that belong to Hung Hoa diocese. Church's record had documented the first 700 Catholic families since 1985 in Son La who have been constantly living and suffering under pressure from the local government for their Catholic faith. Their agony has grown larger since the day the government responded to bishop Anthony Vu Huy Chuong's request to establish religious activity and got "NO" for an answer as stated in official correspondence CV 1336/CV-UBND signed on May 24, 2006. From the early days of the local Church until present time, all of them had to conduct their celebration and prayers in hide outs, usually from the basement of a private facility or a warehouse and notice of an outlawed prayer service had to be given in secret to each known faithful to avoid persecution.

The priests who came to the region for their pastoral duties had received no better treatment. They often had to put their safety and dignity at risk for government harassment in order to perform their duties and to share with their Christian brothers the agony of those who have been suffering the absolute lowest form of prejudice against religion in the country.

Local people can remember vividly what happened from last Christmas season when Father Joseph Nguyen Trung Thoai was trying to make his way to celebrate mass with the faithful of Son La. He ended up spending most of Christmas day in police custody since they were informed of his coming before hand and did everything to deter the congregation from celebrating the birth of Jesus in a formal, meaningful way. Father Joseph was detained but not left alone. His parishioners had gathered outside the detention center to demand for his release. The mass celebration was ruined but Christmas spirit was among them right outside the detention center. Son La faithful and their priest fully understood that Jesus' love was with them mass or no mass.

To the witness' account, ever since Mr. Thao Xuan Sung had become the head of the Communist party in the province along with his deputy Hoang Chi Thuc, together they had turned Son La into a model of a Chinese- like autonomous province, strictly adhering to the Stalinist- Maoist ideology thus became the province with the most severe condition for freedom of religion to survive. This duo had been consistently applying strictest monitoring measures on the Catholic religious activities. They also tried their best tactics in persuading the faithful to abandon their religion in order to continue getting financial support from foreign aids as well as utility necessary to their living such as clean water or electricity. Another successful way of preventing or steering Catholic from their Catholic faith was to constantly harass them and their loved ones until they agreed to sign the agreement in which the parishioners promised to abide the rule of not to congregate at their homes for religious activities (in Nong Truong, Moc Chau 2006) in accordance with official notice 1336/UBND- Son La issued on June 29, 2006 which denied the priest's request for celebrating masses with their congregation.

Chairman of the People's Committee Nguyen Dinh Thuan of Quyet Thang was out himself to enforce the celebration ban. He introduced curfew to block Catholics from gathering for prayers.

Last year there had been some development to the Church in Son La which appeared to be a sign of easing and hope for the faithful. They had been encouraged by a surprised visit of the European Union's representative as well as of Vietnam’s President to bishop Anthony Vu Huy Chuong during which he directed his subordinate Mr. Thi -chair of Central Committee on Religion - to "get the issue resolved quickly". In the beginning of 2007, a high ranking officer from the Central Security Agency had told father Thoai "rest assured you can perform your duties as you wish, this year is different from 2005, even from 2006"

But so far, there is no evidence to indicate the government's words have been completely backed up by their actions. Parishioners told VietCatholic reporters for the first time the Catholics were able to gather up to about 500 people at the basement of an automobile repair shop in anticipation of Christmas celebration. Plain clothed police showed up as usual but this year their verbal abuse seems to be more subtle and less brutal compared to the previous years. However they were determined in preventing any gathering of a large congregation and would tighten their grip on any visitors from other areas to join the celebration in Son La. According to the local Catholic, from mid November of this year the local police had received the order to keep an eye the movements of the parishioners closely, while any out- of- towner’s visit will be discouraged and dealt with accordingly after conferring with their superiors by phone. An elderly man from Son La city had told a Viet Catholic News reporter:"It might seem nonsense to you but we're been suffering like this for many years without anyone coming to our rescue". The man also said petitions from the faithful always were turned down by the government, citing "There is no need for religious activities in Son La". Any religious service or gathering was therefore strictly prohibited.

It has becomes more visible that as long as the government refuses to loosen their grip on Son La faithful's right to freedom of religion, an official Christmas celebration remains a distant dream to all people of Christian faith in Son La, as it has been dubbed " the white-out area" meaning there is no religion of any kind is allowed to practice in this region.