Fr. Joseph Nguyen Trung Thoai celebrating the Mass

Police filming but did not interrupt the Mass as usual

Faithful attending the Mass

Today marked the first day in the history of Son La Catholics religious life as they can enjoy celebrating Mass and other activities without being interrupted and harassed by the local government.

It has been known to all Catholics in Vietnam and to many foreigners that Son La Catholics as well as followers of other faiths are the worst sufferers from governmental abuse when it comes to freedom for religion until today, when Father Nguyen Trung Thoai once again ventured into uncertainty in terms of religion, fully expecting the unknown as he has been dutifully doing over the years just to see if he can bring the Good News to his long abandoned flock in the remote, mountainous province of Son La. What he was about to witness first hand had amazed him and many others. It is something they had never dreamt of before, a more relaxing form of freedom of religion, when the local government has somewhat reduced their level of harassment on the Christians activity during the celebration on the feast of Lady of Rosary.

Son La is situated in the far north-west corner of Vietnam by the Laotian border, home to about 6,000 Catholics out of a total population of 1,153,000 residents. Though local diocese was set up since 1895, Catholics in the diocese have never gone through a day without being scrutinized for their faith.

Beginning after 1954, when Northern Vietnam had been put under control of Vietnamese communist government, the hate campaign aiming at Christians from mountainous especially in Son La had worsen to a bottom, in comparison with all other regions in the entire country. Just as recent as last Easter, while Vietnam top ranking officials claiming there was no citizen of Vietnam who had been persecuted for their religious practice, Fr Nguyen Trung Thoai and his parishioners had to fight off local, both plain clothed and uniform police in order to engage in a much anticipated Easter celebration at a resident's home. Their plan was ruined due to the government’s sheer determination to disperse them by force, and because their priest asked them to give up the fight out of the fear for their safety and uncertain future should they kept resisting the government’s “no religious gathering" order. Many H'mongs in the region had been forced to give up their new found faith in Christ and encouraged to go back to their old pagan practice; others had been threatened to be cut-off from economical aids in a large scale scheme to eradicate Christianity by the government.

But the burning desire for a day to freely practice religion has never died in these brave Catholics' heart. They cried out to the world and they had touched so many as the news got across the border by means of the Internet. The amount of political as well as spiritual support they received has been tremendous, and their prayer seems to be answered for the first time on Oct 24, 2009, when father Nguyen Trung Thoai reported that he had encountered no significant resistance when arriving in Son La City on the feast of Lady of the Rosary. More than a hundreds of brave parishioners have gathered to participate in a floral offering ceremony, a Vietnamese tradition to start off the month dedicated to Lady of the Rosary, and then a mass was celebrated in its entirety without major interruption from the same government officials. This time they come only to video tape and to stand guard outside but seem to restrain from interrupting and abusing both the priest and his flock.

Son La Catholics in return have shown the atheist officials how peaceful and religious the celebration really is, in contrary with what the communists used to think would happen. They have come and gone home feeling grateful for a day in history when our Lady of Rosary has heard their tearful plea for help and granted them just that.