I wonder if the Obama Administration has made a statement on this yet…
Two stories from CNA on anti-Catholic violence in Vietnam. Here and here.
Two short tastes of the articles
Dong Hoi, Vietnam, Jul 30, 2009 / 01:51 am (CNA).- Anti-Catholic violence and police raids at several Catholics’ homes in the Vietnamese coastal city of Dong Hoi have prompted many parishioners to flee for their own safety. Local government officials reportedly wants to create a “No Catholic Zone.”
Police and gangs on the city streets have stopped anyone who wears any Catholic religious symbol in order to beat them savagely.
And this…
Dong Hoi, Vietnam, Jul 28, 2009 / 09:29 pm (CNA).- Two priests were hospitalized in the central Vietnamese coastal city of Dong Hoi after being beaten brutally by plain-clothed police and a gang employed by the local government. One of the priests, who is now comatose, was thrown from the second floor of the hospital where he was visiting the first victim.
On Sunday, Fr. Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu, parish priest of Du Loc, was attacked by a group of plain-clothed police and thugs when he was travelling to Tam Toa parish to concelebrate morning Mass with five other priests of Trooc Deanery.
At 7 a.m. that morning, 170 priests and 420 women religious led hundreds of thousands of Catholics from the Diocese of Vinh and neighboring dioceses in peaceful protests throughout Vinh’s 19 deaneries. The protesters were demanding justice for victims assaulted by police on July 20 as they were trying to rebuild their place of worship at Tam Toa parish. Seven of the Catholics arrested by the police on July 20 remain in custody.
On their way to protest at Tam Toa with the Trooc Deanery on Sunday, three Catholic women were beaten by a group of men. Fr. Paul Nguyen reported that he tried to intervene to rescue the women.
“Before I could open my mouth, they left the women and turned on me as they recognized me as a Catholic priest,” he said. “They kicked me brutally.”
“There were at least 30 police in full uniform standing nearby,” the priest added, but “they looked indifferently at the attack.”
Loading ...
I know this is a very un-christian thought but I’m currently day-dreaming of Apache’s and Wagner
Pray for today’s martyrs in the Church Militant.
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude. Amen.
Time for prayer and self-denial.
Given the nature of the government there and its history, I can’t say I’m all that surprised. (Yes, I am a Viet Nam war vet, no, I never cared for or trusted the Communist government in Hanoi, during the war or after.) On the other hand, the Church was apparently tolerated (sort of, if you ignore the taking of Church property and, I believe, repressive laws). So I am wondering what has changed to make the Communists that openly afraid of the Catholic Church.
I will pray for our Catholic family in Vietnam. I take for granted, sometimes, the safety I have here in the U.S.
Bill I agree something in policy has changed. My wife is from Saigon and I have worshiped in parishes in Saigon when we visit and with the Vietnamese Catholic Community in Honolulu. They are very devout and loving people. It is hard to see this going on. I will pray that this stops and not spread and become a common practice by the government in Vietnam.
St. Theophane Venard and the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam, pray for the suffering Catholics of that nation!