The communist regime in VN demolishes the former Apostolic Nunciature

beside the Archbishop Office in Hanoi and gang ransacked Redemptorists’ chapel

In an action which is considered the most violent since 1954 in North Vietnam, the communist regime liquidated two targets of struggle (in land disputes) in its view as reactionary: the former Apostolic Nunciature and the Redemtorists’ chapel at Thai Ha church (all in Hanoi)..

Information sources from Viet Catholic News and international information agencies such as Asia News, AP, CNA etc all reported the happenings at 42 Pho Nha Chung Street (the former Hanoi nunciature) and 178 Nguyen Luong Bang Street, Ha Noi (Thai Ha parish), in the days from September 19 to September 22, 2008; as the former Apostolic Nunciature was demolished and turned to a park and a library (Sept. 19 - 21) and the Redemptorists’ chapel at Thai Ha church was vandalized (September 22). For the sake of a detailed analysis of the two events, let’s quote the happenings reported by CNA (Hanoi, Monday 22 September 2008):

Friday, September 18:

"The former papal nunciature site has been surrounded by rolls of barbed wire and a police cordon with dogs. Within the cordon, workers were pulling down the building. Outside the cordon, protestors sang and prayed.

On Friday the Associated Press Hanoi Bureau Chief Ben Stocking was detained by police while covering the demonstrations at the site. He left police custody with a gash in his head requiring four stitches, charging that police had choked, punched and bashed him with his own camera, the Associated Press reports"

Sunday, September 21:

"Over at Thai Ha Church, a Redemptorist monastery which is also the center of a property dispute, a street gang attacked a chapel at the church from late Sunday night through early Monday morning.

According to local Redemptorist priests, the gang yelled out slogans calling for the head of the Archbishop of Hanoi and Father Matthew Vu Khoi Phung, the religious superior of Thai Ha monastery.

Protestors who slept inside the chapel were evacuated into the monastery.

The gang reportedly dispersed after they failed to gain entry to the monastery itself.

Nonetheless, the ruffians did take their fury out on Church property. All statues of Our Lady where protestors pray every day were completely destroyed. They left pieces of the statues inside the yard of the monastery, the Redemptorists at the monastery added.

More details were revealed in Father Matthew Vu Khoi Phung’s letter of complaint, which was released Monday and addressed to the People’s Committee of Hanoi City and police agencies of Hanoi and Dong Da district.

According to the letter, at 11:20 pm local time "a crowd in great numbers surrounded our monastery and our church. They yelled, smashed everything on their way, threw stones into our monastery, and shattered the gate of Saint Gerardo Chapel."

The gang yelled out slogans threatening to kill priests, religious, faithful and even our archbishop. The monastery’s superior clergyman wrote.

Father Matthew Vu continued, saying everything happened clearly in front of a large number of officials, police, security personnel, anti-riot police, and mobile police - those who are in charge of keeping security and safety in the region.

But they did nothing to protect us, he charged.

Father Vu also reported that on Sunday evening a gang of about 200 young men wearing the blue shirts of the Youth Communist League, came to Thai Ha Church to disturb order, smear and spit on the face of our priests, religious and faithful.

In this case, too, police did not intervene"

(vietsi2002@yahoo. com: Chinhluan@yahoogrou ps.com, 9/23/08, 1.26AM)

What can we do for the Hanoi Archdiocese and the Thai Ha Church?

This seems to turn to a permanent struggle for JUSTICE, as the Apostolic Nunciature has been demolished and a new park and library built. The next goal is to get back the land on which the Archdiocese can build whatever they see fit for their services and religious practice. This will take time. Only the Thai Ha parish that the Catholic followers can do something. With a lot of pressure from every component in the homeland and the overseas Vietnamese + the world community’s pressure, they may not step up their violent forces to liquidate Redemptoruists’ chapel of Thai ha church, as the event of gang ransacking on Sunday night September 21, 2008 could cause division on the part of the authorities.