Amid widespread rounds of persecutions being done ruthlessly on Catholics throughout Vietnam, came the News of the Vatican visit of the head of the country, Chairman Nguyen Minh Triet, in the upcoming month of November. The Vietnamese people in general and Catholics in particular have been receiving the News with mixed feeling of both hope and fear as the memory of the aftermath of the Vatican visit of the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is still fresh on their minds.

On July 20, 2009 police in Quang Binh province launched a surprised attack on the unarmed parishioners of Tam Toa - a struggling parish of the diocese of Vinh in Central Vietnam - when these Catholics were erecting a makeshift tent as a temporary place for worshiping services. The assault resulted in hundreds being injured, and dozens were taken away in police vehicles and detained indefinitely.

But the government's rage did not end there. The peace loving, God fearing and law abiding people of Tam Toa in wildest dream would not imagine what was being in store for them by the government of Quang Binh.

On the following days, series of articles on almost every state media outlets filled with false accusations against the victims had flooded the newsstands, putting Tam Toa parish in spot light extremely unfavorable to them. This time the victims have been portrayed as stubborn, organized criminals who were out to disturb and destroy the national security and the integrity of the state. Their fate now is in limbo as no one knows their whereabouts and how badly they have suffered in the hands of the police. Respected, devoted priests were not excluded as two priests in the central coastal city of Dong Hoi were badly beaten and left in critical condition.

Almost simultaneously with the accusatory articles on the Tam Toa's priests and faithful, came the News of the Vatican visit of the head of the country in November. Anyone who has known well enough about this regime would understand that the publicity of such News and its timing would have been calculated carefully and would carry a hidden message as it had happened in the past.

Too often, the ordinary Vietnamese citizens throughout history of communism have to witness the staging of a picture: promises of a perfect record of human rights and religious freedom ultimately end up with bloody persecutions and abuse from left to right against the very people whose leaders have just returned from an official visit to the international forum or country where they have proudly reassured the foreigners on keeping such a spotless record on human and religious rights in Vietnam.

On Jan. 25, 2007, Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung paid a landmark visit to Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican officials. Three weeks later, on Feb. 19, 2007, security police surrounded and raided Hue Archdiocese to ransack the office, confiscated computers, electronic equipments, and arrested Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest who had been imprisoned for 14 years for allegedly disseminating material criticizing the government's limitations on religious and political freedom.

The rage did not end there. The Church in Vietnam has since then been suffering more than ever. Masses have been denied for Catholics of Son La, and of numerous towns in the Central Highlands, even celebrations on major holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Monasteries at Thien An - Hue, Vinh Long, Long Xuyen, and Nha Trang were in turn seized and bulldozed to build hotels and tourist resorts. Redemptorists in Thai Ha and their faithful have continually suffered from physical attacks. They were even tried in criminal court for holding peaceful protests which ended up with unjust verdicts. Even Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet was not immune to malicious attempt, either. He had conveniently become victim of defamation on state media for months after the haste conversion of Hanoi nunciature into a public park.

Vietnam became the WTO's 150th member on Jan. 11, 2007 after struggles to mask the real picture of human and religious rights abuse in Vietnam. Among these efforts, Dung became the first Vietnamese communist leader to make an official visit to the Vatican.

The anticipated visit of Nguyen Minh Triet to the Holy See in November is no exception. It has been carefully designed to take place at the time when Vietnam needs more than ever to mask its notorious records of human and religious rights abuse. The visit has been a double standard tool to paint a picture of a government willing and ready to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Holy See, one of the most prestigiously religious institution in the world, and in the meantime to brag about its impeccable rights record which its victims rarely have a chance to make it known to the outside world without severe consequences.

Everyone in Vietnam has learned from the state media especially from the mouthpiece of the Politburo – the "Nhan Dan" Newspaper - that besides the much talked about presidential visit to the Holy See in November, there would be an official Papal visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Vietnam government.

This development seems encouraging and might be a sign of hope to those who do not have a clue on what have been happening behind the iron curtain in this communist country. For those who have first-hand experience with how this government usually stages its image for political gains on international forum would know that reality is a far cry from what the regime has been trying to present.

The Vietnamese communists undoubtedly will seize Triet’s Vatican visit as an opportunity to "present" to the world that Vietnam is no doubt a country with freedom and respect for human and religious rights.

With due respect to the Pope and the Holy See, to which they are always loyal faithfully even at the cost of grave suffering, Vietnamese Catholics do not want to see the most trusted universal Church become the latest casualty of Vietnam government’s deception by cheap tricks and false representation of the not so flattering record of abuse.

The fact is when diplomatic efforts between the Holy See and Vietnam government do not yield a realistic outcome; Catholics in the country would always end up being the victims of that failure. That is, when the government successfully charmed the world into believing that there is indeed religious freedom in Vietnam, they can escape the scrutiny of being watched closely by the international watch groups, and feel free to do what they wish to do to anybody, Catholics or else. More than ever, not only the Catholics but also people of other religions would risk being severely mistreated by their own government without a chance to expose this ugly truth to the world.

Maran Turner, the executive director of Freedom Now, observed that: “It has been argued by proponents of enhanced US-Vietnam ties that enhanced trade relations and economic progress would bring a commensurate improvement in human rights, civil liberties and religious freedoms. Two years since Vietnam joined the WTO and nearly three years after it ceased to be designated by the US as a CPC, that progress clearly has not been forthcoming. Rather, there is growing evidence that Vietnam is backsliding on its stated commitment to uphold and respect basic human rights.” (Vietnam failing rights standard - http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KG22Ae01.html)

The Holy See did, has done, and will do whatever it can to protect Catholics in the world. However, realistically speaking, the Vatican is neither an economy power nor a political one like the Americans and other rich Western countries. It has certain limitations on pressing Vietnam government to uphold and respect basic human rights and religious freedom. Any attempts to overestimate its capacity to intervene on behalf of the Vietnamese Catholics only end up with more disappointments and sometimes suffering.

On Jan. 30, 2008, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone wrote to Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi: "I kindly request you to intervene, so that acts which could disrupt the public order be avoided, and that the situation comes back to normalcy." The cardinal then urged dialogues with Vietnam's authorities in a "more serene climate" and pledged that the Holy See "will not fail to explain to the government of your country the legitimate aspirations of Vietnamese Catholics."

Such legitimate aspirations of Vietnamese Catholics have so far still been trampled. Archbishop Joseph Ngo, himself, as well as numerous priests, religious and faithful have continually been insulted by the state media, physically beaten by police, tried and jailed unjustly. The whereabouts of many Catholics remain unknown. Whether they are dead or still alive- remain unknown as well.

The Church in Vietnam, in the jaws of history, has always been plagued with suspicion by communists. For years, under the communist reign, Vietnamese Catholics have been facing persecution, finding it difficult to get jobs or to enter colleges. Even the school children had become the casualty of such horrible, unfair policy. Long-term sufferings have led to a wide range of approaches in order to live in peace with communists.

In one extreme end of the spectrum, stand those who are willing to express their submission to the Party. They can be Catholics who join the Party making their oath to be loyal faithfully to Marxism – Leninism. They can also be priests in the so-called “Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics” who virtually cut off their communion with the Successor of Peter when they intentionally ignore the Prayer for the Pope in their Masses, or when they run “Catholic” magazines, which, despite their name, are controlled by the Communist party rather than the Church – to carry a series of anti-Vatican articles to lay harsh criticisms on Vatican and the Pope in order to prove their loyalty to the Party.

The approach has been proven ill-fated. Those involved risk losing their Catholic identity in the wake of mounting demands of the Party, and being boycotted by the absolute majority of Catholics who are loyal to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church even at the grave cost of suffering.

A more popular approach involves the withdrawal of Catholics into the walls of their churches. They can be happy seeing churches packed with faithful. The communists are happy too. As long as the Catholic community remains silence in the wake of the pervasive corruption plague, the growing poverty of the population, the awful rate of abortion that is highest in the world, and other social crimes then it’s OK. Anyway, crowded churches can help to draw a good picture masking the real conditions of religious freedom in Vietnam.

The approach has seemed to work for quite a long time. However, the Church in Vietnam has faces other serious problems. Typically, for past decades, the growth of the Church in Vietnam has been persistently much smaller than the population growth. The “withdraw-into-shell mentality” has discouraged Missionary zeal while major means to relay the Christian message to the socio-cultural, religious, political and economic reality of Vietnam such as schools, hospitals have been seized and social services have been forbidden.

As the corruption plague becomes more and more pervasive, local authorities get bolder and bolder in seeking illegitimate personal gain. They have started looking at Church properties that have been seized for years as in the case of Thai Ha land, Hanoi nunciature, and monasteries in South Vietnam. Church properties that are still in the Church’s control can not escape their hungry eyes either.

These mounting harassments lead to a tendency among Catholics to hope that if Vietnam-Vatican relation improves then the new relation can help them get rid of their problems overnight. Hence comes the exaggeration of benefits from the process of re-establishing diplomatic ties between the two states.

But in a country where the plague of corruption and other social evils already got far out of control, it's virtually impractical if not naive to think that way.

Catholics in Vietnam, who have long been regarded and treated as second-class citizens on the socio-political ladder in the country, should not put their hope in a sudden change of their fate and “privileges” they could enjoy from Vatican visits of communist leaders. These “privileges” are un-real. They only cause envy from believers of other faith who have not their own international structure to support them.

To be true witnesses of Christ, Catholics in Vietnam should be ready to share the same fate with a long suffering population and ready to stand up to teach the regime to observe principles of democracy as Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet reiterated in such a powerful and eloquent message during the Hanoi nunciature episode, in front of the Hanoi People's Committee on August 20, 2008: "Religious freedom is not a privilege – No, it’s NOT- it's a basic human right that the state must respect."