Rights Group Urges Vietnam to Free Prisoners of Conscience Amid COVID-19

04/06/2020 Vietnam (International Christian Concern) – A Vietnamese human rights group issued a statement calling on Vietnam’s government to free all prisoners of conscience to protect them from being infected with deadly COVID-19 as the disease increasingly spreads around the country.

On April 4, Defend the Defenders (DTD) issued a press release to highlight the potential risks faced by the prisoners of conscience given the poor conditions of prisons in the communist country. They are “one of the most vulnerable groups to Coronavirus infection as the severe prison conditions have weakened their immune system.”

DTD’s latest statistics show that Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 240 prisoners of conscience in severe conditions: being held in large numbers in small unhygienic cells without sunlight and windows, low-quality food, lack of proper medical services, many of them have been placed in solitary cells or beaten by prison guards or inmates for protesting inhumane treatment.

The statement said, “Releasing prisoners of conscience and allowing them to return with their families will help them avoid being infected with Coronavirus better than being held in the crowded detention facilities, and the government will reduce expenditures spending on maintaining detention facilities. It requests Vietnam’s authorities to improve living conditions in detention facilities to raise their health to help them better withstand diseases, especially the deadly COVID-19 while still keeping them in custody(Continue to read here).”

Let’s hope they get what they want.

Vietnamese Police Attack Christian Couple for Refusal to Recant Faith

I thank my Lord and Savior for their bravery.

6/28/2013 Vietnam (International Christian Concern) has just learned that police officers attacked a Christian couple in Lào Cai province, Vietnam, on Monday after the couple refused to recant from their newly found Christian faith. Police repeatedly struck both the husband and wife until the wife began bleeding, at which point police halted the beating and released her.

The attack came after police from the Muong Khuong district of Lao Cai Province repeatedly summoned the heads of two recently converted Christian families, whose names are being withheld for their security, to the police station for questioning. The official police summons received by the families were vague, one of which stated only that they were to come in “for questioning.” However during the third interrogation sources in Vietnam report that the police began to “strongly pressure” the Christians to recant their faith, despite the fact that such pressure is illegal under Vietnamese law.
Two of the three police involved in the violent interrogation are reported to be Hàng Vềnh, the deputy chief of police of Ta Thang Commune and Vàng Tre, a ranking officer of Ta Thang Commune. It is unknown if the officers have yet faced any sort of disciplinary action for the incident on Monday.

The two families, who converted to Protestant Christianity in March, are members of the ethnic Hmong community and reside in the mountainous Lào Cai Province of Northern Vietnam. Christians among the Hmong communities both in Northwestern Vietnam and the Central Highlands regularly face pressure to recant their faith and return to more traditional animist belief systems.
The reported attack comes on the heels of an unusually positive development in Kontum Province, Vietnam, where federal authorities this month resettled four minority Christian families after their property was destroyed earlier in this year by local villagers.

The Vietnamese government maintains tight control of religious activities in the country. In its most recent annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) concluded that “the government of Vietnam continues to expand control over all religious activities, severely restrict independent religious practice, and repress individuals and religious groups it views as challenging its authority(Source).”

Vietnamese Court Sentences Eight Christians up to 11-Year Prison Terms for Religious Expression and Association

This is injustice right here and it makes me angry.

05/30/2013 Vietnam (Radio Free Asia) - A court in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on Wednesday sentenced eight ethnic minority Montagnards affiliated with an unregistered Catholic church to between three and 11 years in prison for “undermining unity” in the authoritarian state. The Gia Lai provincial court said some of the eight had worked with a banned exile organization to establish an independent state for indigenous peoples in the Central Highlands, according to state media.

The others were accused of inciting thousands of protesters to demonstrate against their relocation from their village to make way for a power plant in 2008. All eight—who are between 32 and 73 years old—were convicted under Article 87 of the penal code, a national security provision that forbids “undermining the [national] unity policy” by “sowing division” or ethnic or religious hatred.
Vietnam’s Central Highlands are home to some 30 tribes of indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards or the Degar, who rights groups say suffer extreme persecution.

In the early 2000s, thousands in the region staged violent protests against the confiscation of their ancestral lands and religious controls, prompting a brutal crackdown by security forces that saw hundreds of Montagnards charged with national security crimes. Scott Johnson of the Montagnard Foundation, a U.S.-based rights group, said Vietnam’s jailing of members of the ethnic minority for national security crimes and linking them to alleged overseas separatist groups was unjustified.

“In reality all these ethnic people … want are indigenous land rights and basic human rights,” he said.
“They are not terrorists, they are not separatists, and they do not seek an independent state.”
“Basically the Vietnamese government is seeking to crush the independent underground house church movement [in the region],” he said(Source).

Vietnam: Five Christian Families Attacked, Beaten Up by Fellow Villagers

2/26/2013 Vietnam (CR) - Newly converted Christians of the Sedang ethnic minority in Vietnam’s Central Highlands were terrorized last week – their homes and personal property badly damaged or destroyed in four consecutive night raids, and some of the faithful seriously injured from beatings in broad daylight, sources said.

Since becoming Christians in the past year, five families in mountainous Kontum Province have reported constant harassment from villagers upset that they are no longer contributing to communal sacrifices and other practices because of their new faith. The attacks from Monday (Feb. 18) to Friday (Feb. 22) constituted a third wave of sustained violence since their conversion, leaving their property severely damaged and their lives threatened.

Attacks on the new Christians – who belong to a Christian Mission Church (CMC) congregation in Ngoc La village, Mang Ri Commune, Tumorong District in northwestern Kontum Province – were primarily motivated by strong tensions within the ethnic group over the families leaving the “old ways.” Ideologically opposed to Christianity, local Communist officials freely permit and even encourage such conflicts, sources said.

At the same time, local Vietnamese officials commonly incite and employ area thugs to attack Christians, whose united faith is perceived as a threat to government ideology and sovereignty. Often officials themselves put on civilian clothes or otherwise disguise themselves, joining in the attacks, sources said.

The assailants last week attacked the Christians’ homes, pelting them with bricks and cement roof tiles and swinging wooden clubs. They then invaded their houses and destroyed their belongings.

The victims managed to take photos with their cell phones, and though taken mostly in darkness, the images are clear enough to show a destroyed fibro-cement roof; a motorcycle with parts bent, broken and missing; dishes and kitchen utensils smashed to pieces; food cast to the ground; badly damaged furniture; broken windows; wooden shutters, doors and frames ripped out of walls; and wooden clubs and bricks strewn about.

The gangs on Friday (Feb. 22) beat a number of the Christians in broad daylight, with some, including women, struck below the abdomen. Several were reported to be seriously injured. One family, threatened with death if they stayed in their home, fled into the forest, where they were forced to spend nights in the cold with inadequate clothing and no shelter.

While the religious freedom environment for many Christians in Vietnam’s larger cities has improved considerably in recent years, that of many ethnic minority Christians in remote and mountainous regions of the country definitely has not, sources said. Regularly occurring incidents demonstrate that Vietnamese authorities actively work to limit and contain Christianity, even as they appear to have given up on eradicating it(Source).

Four Hmong Christians Sentenced to Vietnamese Prison After One-Day Trial

This sort of injustice sickens me.

12/13/2012 Vietnam (UCA News) - Vietnam has jailed four people from the mainly Christian Hmong ethnic group for their roles in an alleged separatist plot to overthrow the communist government, state media reports today. The men, aged between 27 and 38, were given sentences of between three and seven years at a one-day trial on Wednesday at a court in the northwestern province of Lai Chau, the Communist Party mouthpiece Nhan Dan said.

One of the men, Trang A Cho, had been sought by police since July 2011 for carrying out "propaganda against the State" and seeking to establish a "Hmong Kingdom" to "replace the State of Vietnam," the report said. The four join eight other Hmong men already jailed for "disturbing security" at a mysterious religious gathering last year, which Vietnamese authorities described as an attempted separatist uprising.

In May 2011 thousands of Hmong convened in the remote northwest, apparently awaiting the arrival of a "messiah". Authorities broke up the gathering in circumstances that remain unclear.At the time, unconfirmed reports said dozens of Hmong were killed or wounded by troops but Vietnamese officials have not confirmed any military involvement.

A local government leader later claimed that the Hmong were armed. Other officials said the Hmong were lured by unidentified "individuals with ill-intentions" who spread rumors that a "king" would arrive and lead them to a promised land.

According to Britain-based religious freedom group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the Hmong have "a mythical belief in their culture that a 'messiah' figure will appear and found a Hmong kingdom"(Source).

Campaign of Religious Cleansing May be Underway in Vietnam

07/04/2012 Vietnam (Asia News) - The crackdown on the free profession of religion in Vietnam is becoming more pronounced. The last episode of violation of religious freedom in the communist country - also a right recognized by state law - took place on July 1 last in a Missionary Chapel in Con Cuong, a rural area of ​​the province of Nghe An, in the northern diocese of Vinh; in raids on local Catholics combat troops and "thugs" in the pay of the authorities to target minorities or repress dissent were also used in.

Local sources speak of a real campaign of "religious cleansing" aimed at "wiping out" any trace of faith and worship; in particular in the rural or remote areas of Vietnam, where there is a strong revival of religious sensibility and Christianity in particular, after decades of indoctrination and atheistic communism.

The Con Cuong district authorities are increasingly willing to punish the practice of worship and spiritual needs of the local population, after having several times - in the past - hired criminal gangs and thugs to threaten and terrorize the faithful gathered in the chapel to pray . On one occasion, they also tried to blow up the little place of prayer, but all attempts proved futile.

The last incident took place on Sunday, July 1. Witnesses told AsiaNews that dozens of thugs and plainclothes officers tried to prevent Fr. JB Nguyen Dinh Thuc from entering the chapel to celebrate mass. The priest opposed the fierce resistance, trying to break through the gang, in response, the officers beat him brutally punishing the faithful who came to his rescue. Among them is Mrs. Maria Thi Than Ngho whose skull was fractured in the struggle and remains hospitalized in conditions described as "critical" in Viet Duc hospital in Hanoi. Many others were arrested and locked up in jail(Source).

Vietnam Sentences Christian Pastor To 11 Years For Having Unregistered House Church

03/24/2012 Vietnam (Bikyamasr) - Christian Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh thought he was helping Vietnam’s Christian community by having a house church. However, the church was not registered with the government and the 43-year-old has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for “disrupting national unity.”

The one-day trial in Gia Lia province has left many questioning the role of faith and Vietnam’s communism. But ultimately, the case, which saw Chinh admit to being in charge of the Mennonite church in the Central Highlands, has left Christians fearful that a backlash, even violence, could become more common.

“11 years in jail because he didn’t register a church that was not hurting anyone? I am shocked,” said Christian woman in Hanoi Pham Nhat, who told Bikyamasr.com she knew people who attended Chinh’s church.

“They always spoke so highly of him and how he was a giving person, so it is wrong that he has to go to jail for his faith,” she added. Chinh, who was arrested in April, was also convicted of handing out anti-government leaflets and “enticing ethnic minorities to commit wrongdoing,” the report said.

In communist Vietnam all churches have to be sanctioned by the state, a system criticized by rights groups.
“The overarching atmosphere for religious freedom in Vietnam is hostile,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. He called the compulsory registration of religious groups and organisations “a deeply bureaucratic process riddled with pitfalls and Catch 22s.”

For now, the Christian community will have to wait for Nguyen’s release and whether he will receive any form of clemency.

“I really hope so because he is a good man,” added Pham(Source).

House Church Leaders Attacked Near Hanoi, Vietnam

11/16/2011 Vietnam (Compass Direct News) - A gang of men attacked leaders of a Baptist house church network near Hanoi on Sunday (Nov. 13), leaving one pastor unconscious and seriously injuring several others, including women and teenage children.

Leaders of the Agape Baptist Church were participating in a spiritual renewal meeting at the home of pastor Nguyen Danh Chau in Lai Tao village, Bot Xuyen commune, My Duc district, when the gang intruded at 9:30 a.m., sources said. Beating people and smashing property, the gang seriously injured more than a dozen participants and warned Nguyen Danh Chau that they would kill him if he continued gathering Christians, the sources in Vietnam said.

With the attack underway, the sources said, some gang members ran outside and announced to the neighborhood, “Oh heavens, the Christian pastors are savagely beating up people!” This attracted a large crowd, which the gang hoped would prevent any Christians from escaping.

The seriously injured Christians included five male pastors, four female pastors and other church leaders, and several of the leaders’ teenage children. The worst wounded, Nguyen Danh Chau, lay unconscious for many hours, and as of midnight Tuesday (Nov. 15), he was still suffering severe chest, stomach and head pain.

One pastor’s wife, Nguyen Thi Lan, was still unable to walk and function normally at press time after she was struck in the stomach and groin. Others remained weak from loss of blood. The Christians were punched in the mouth and face, the chest and the back. Some were savagely kicked as they lay on the floor.

The denomination’s top leader, Nguyen Cong Thanh, who rushed up from the south to visit the beleaguered leaders, reported that he planned to take the injured to a nearby hospital today; he feared, however, that he would encounter resistance. When doctors in Vietnam learn that religious motives play a role in violence, commonly they do not dare to treat or even examine the victims of persecution.

Attacking on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, observed worldwide by thousands of churches affiliated with the World Evangelical Alliance, the gang smashed a dozen plastic chairs, overturned a pulpit and tore a cross from the wall and threw it into a nearby pond, leaving no doubt as to their motivation.

They also stole valuable parts from four motorcycles belonging to the pastors before smashing the remainder of the vehicles. Valued at more than US$1,000 each, the motorbikes represent a huge loss for the church leaders. Before leaving, the gang stopped long enough to destroy the family’s kitchen garden and fruit trees, sources said(Source).

Vietnamese Authorities Finally Return Land “Borrowed” From Church In 1976

Praise God for that!!!! Maybe there is some hope in this world for my brethren in Christ Jesus.

10/14/2011 Vietnam (ICN) - Government authorities in Quang Binh province, Vietnam have decided to return property formerly owned by the Church after decades of petitions submitted by parishioners. Fr Paul Nguyen Chi Thien, a parish priest in Trung Quan in Quang Binh province, said authorities ruled last month to return the land, owned by the Church since 1921.

“We are very happy that provincial authorities have decided to return the former Church-owned plot of land to us, and we plan to build new facilities on it to meet our increasing religious needs.”

He added, however, that the decision still requires official documentation.
“We hope the district will complete documents and return the land [officially] next month.”

Fr Thien, who joined the parish last year, said the government has been using facilities on the land as a nursery and that the Church plans to build a new school for the local government near the plot of land in December, at an estimated cost of 200 million dong (US$10,000).

Benedict Tran Quang Dam, head of the parish council, said local Catholics whose ancestors converted to Catholicism as early as 1676 built a church and other facilities on the 3,730-square-meter plot of land in 1938. Those facilities were destroyed in 1968 during bombing by US forces during the war in Vietnam.

Dam, 70, said local Catholics set up a chapel in 1969 and used it until 1976, when the government “borrowed” it and then built the present pre-school building. The lay leader said the Church has petitioned the government many times since 1995 to return the land(Source).

Vietnam: Imprisoned Catholic Activists and Students Facing Trial

I pray that my Vietnamese brethren will be found not guilty at this trial, but if they are I hope they rejoice because they have been found worthy to suffer for the King of Kings.

8/29/11 Vietnam (Spero News) – A group of Vietnamese Catholics taken into custody a few weeks ago by police are set to go on trial shortly on charges of trying to “overthrow the people’s administration”. In the past week, Vietnamese authorities have cracked down on dissidents, arresting dozens of people. Catholics and Protestants are among those detained; they were protesting against the seizure of Church property and the Vietnamese government’s subordination to China over maritime borders in the South China Sea.

Recently, police said that a group of Catholics from Vinh diocese, arrested in late July and currently held at Hanoi’s 14 B temporary internment camp, would go before a court for trying to “overthrow the people’s administration”, in accordance with Clause 2, Article 79, of the Vietnam Penal Code. The five men are Peter Ho Duc Hoa, 37, Jean Baptiste Nguyen Van Oai, 31, Francis Dang Xuan Dieu, 32, Peter Nguyen Xuan Anh, 29, and Joseph Nguyen Van Duyet, 31.

In recent weeks, Vietnamese authorities have arrested and tried many activists, using the power of mass media to reiterate “false charges” against them in order to discredit their action.

Christians and ordinary Vietnamese have organised torchlight processions and prayer vigils across the country to demand the release of Catholic and Protestant activists and students(Source).

Vietnamese Priest Arrested for Work Against Communist Regime, Despite Serious Health Threats

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God" Thomas Jefferson

So by Thomas Jefferson's criterion this pastor is doing what God says when he rebels against the totalitarian Communist regime. May God bless Him for his bravery and inspire us to such bravery as well.

7/26/11 Vietnam (AsiaNews) - Father Nguyen Van Ly, the priest among the founding members of "Bloc 8406", a movement that demands the end of the single party in Vietnam has been arrested again. Imprisoned in 2007 with a sentence of eight years, he was released in March last year because of his serious health condition.

Yesterday, at 14 (local time), as reported by Father Phan Van Loi, the police went to Nha Chung, the office of Bishop of Hue, where the priest had to live, and arrested him. The police agents had brought an ambulance, as Father Van Ly had suffered several strokes in recent years that left him partially paralyzed.

His precarious health, along with criticism of Hanoi by human rights groups, the U.S. governments and the European Union, had prompted authorities to suspend the prison term for a year, forcing him under house arrest at the bishop’s residence. Since his house arrest, Father Ly had begun to send written denouncements of serious human rights violations of the Communist Party and the Vietnamese government.

Father Phan Van Loi says that "before the police arrested Father Vn Ly they asked Father Vien Le Quang, head of the bishop’s office, to sign a statement. The priest wrote that 'Father Van Ly is still sick. He has not recovered from his illness'. The police at first objected, but eventually accepted the document written by Father Le Quang Vien. Within minutes they arrested Father Ly ".

In March, the police had met with Father Ly to ask him to write an application to request not to have to go back to prison, but the request was decisively rejected. It is known that Father Ly was again taken to the prison in Ha Nam, Kim Bang district, Ha Nam province(Source).

Communist-Sanctioned Church in Vietnam is Celebrated – Yet Brutal Persecution of Christians Continues

Vietnam is a country in Asia that has been barely touched by the Gospel. Only 1.2 million out of 40 million  people have been reached by and received the gospel. Pray that our Vietnamese brothers and sisters in Christ witness to the lost over there and display a bold testimony when faced with persecution.

7/20/11 Vietnam (Charisma) - The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (also known as Tin Lanh) just finished celebrating 100 years of ministry in the Communist country. Its first celebration of the achievement was held from June 14 through June 16 in Da Nang's large indoor stadium and drew a crowd of about 15,000 people with an overflow of 1,000—its largest-ever gathering.

The event was the first of four celebrations to mark 100 years since the Christian and Missionary Alliance began its outreach to Vietnam. The second celebration was held in Hanoi on June 20 with about 4,000 in attendance, the third was in Ho Chi Minh City on June 23 and 24, and the final celebration was held on July 2 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

The Da Nang celebration featured a parade of hundreds from 20 tribal groups, all with membership in the ECVN, along with a 480-member tribal choir that sang “The Halleluiah Chorus.” Thousands of believers raised their hands, responding positively to a call for total commitment to Christ, regardless of how difficult. Delegates were challenged to reach Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Europe or anywhere there are lost people.

Retired international worker Tom Stebbins preached an evangelistic message in Vietnamese on the prodigal son to a packed house. Nearly 1,000 responded to become followers of Jesus Christ.

“[The Vietnam believers] want to be a force for Jesus and the Kingdom advance to other nations. They are a sleeping giant in the cause of missions,” U.S. Christian and Missionary Alliance President Gary Benedict said, who attended the celebration.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance is a worldwide family of Christians mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission by living out the fullness of Jesus Christ in personal experience and building His Church worldwide.

Today there are 1.2 million believers in Vietnam, most of them part of the Alliance. However, of the 71 people groups in Vietnam, 52 still have less than 2 percent who follow Jesus. About 40 million people in North Vietnam do not know Christ (Source).

Vietnam Intesifies Repression of Indigenous Minority Christians

4/14/11 Vietnam (PersecutionTimes) — The Vietnamese government has intensified repression of indigenous minority Christians from the country’s Central Highland provinces who are pressing for religious freedom and land rights, Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org) has said in a just released report. The 46-page report, “Montagnard Christians in Vietnam: A Case Study in Religious Repression,” details the latest government crackdowns on these indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards. The report documents police sweeps to root out Montagnards in hiding. It details how the authorities have dissolved house church gatherings, orchestrated coerced renunciations of faith, and sealed off the border to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing to Cambodia.

Human Rights Watch found that special “political security” (PA43) units conduct operations with provincial police to capture, detain, and interrogate people they identify as political activists or leaders of unregistered house churches. More than 70 Montagnards have been detained or arrested in 2010 alone, and more than 250 are known to be imprisoned on national security charges.

“Montagnards face harsh persecution in Vietnam, particularly those who worship in independent house churches, because the authorities don’t tolerate religious activity outside their sight or control,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “The Vietnamese government has been steadily tightening the screws on independent Montagnards religious groups, claiming they are using religion to incite unrest.”

Human Rights Watch documented the abuses in the Central Highlands, which is off-limits to independent, international rights groups, through interviews with Montagnards who have fled Vietnam and reports in Vietnam’s government-controlled media. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, one Montagnard described his treatment at T-20, the provincial prison in Gia Lai, after he was arrested for participating in a protest calling for religious freedom and land rights:

He said, “They questioned me at any time, even midnight. The police would get drunk, wake me up, and question me and beat me. They put me in handcuffs when they took me out for questioning. The handcuffs were like wire – very tight. They used electric shock on me every time they interrogated me. They would shock me on my knees, saying, ‘You used these legs to walk to the demonstration.’” Sentenced to five years in prison for “violating national solidarity,” he remains partially deaf from repeatedly being boxed on both ears:

“They would stand facing me and shout: ‘One, two, three!’ and then use both hands to box both of my ears at the same time. They would do this three times, the last time putting strong pressure on the ears,” he went on to say. “Blood came out of my ears and my nose. I went crazy from this. It was so painful, and also the build-up made me very afraid and tense.”

Using official Vietnamese media sources, Human Rights Watch documented the controversial practice of forced recantations of faith. Government officials have forced hundreds of Montagnard Catholics and Protestants to renounce their religion in public criticism sessions, violating internationally protected rights to freedom of religion and conscience. Those who resist and insist on their right to independent worship facing beatings, arrest, and imprisonment.

Provincial courts often hold “mobile trials” of people charged with national security crimes before hundreds of people, reinforcing the message not to follow unsanctioned religious groups. “Freedom of religion does not mean freedom for state-sanctioned religions only,” Robertson said. “Vietnam should immediately recognize independent religious groups and let them practice their beliefs.” (Source)

Rare Rally Tests Vietnam’s Religious Tolerance

5/6/2011 Vietnam (Reuters) – Vietnam has deployed troops to contain a rare mass protest by ethnic Hmong people that is testing the government’s tolerance of minority Christians, just weeks after human rights activists accused leaders of persecuting another hill tribe.

As many as 7,000 Hmong people began to gather several days ago in the far-flung mountains of Dien Bien Province, near the northwestern border with Laos and China, apparently for religious reasons although some were advocating an independent kingdom, according to diplomatic, government and other sources. The unrest was unlikely to pose a threat to the government but the demonstration is the biggest involving ethnic minorities since unrest in the Central Highlands region in 2001 and 2004.

Details were scant from the hard-to-access region but a Catholic priest close to the area cited followers as saying troops had been deployed and the protesters had detained at least one government official sent to negotiate. (Source)

Bishop Kontum being held by Police for baptizing people.

4/27/2011 Vietnam (AsiaNews) – He was able to celebrate Easter Mass, but was detained and brought to the police station, on charges of of having baptized people. It is yet another violation of religious freedom by the authorities of Lang Son, K’Bang County  (central Vietnam), in the area of the Montagnards and it happened to Bishop Michael Hoang Duc Oanh, who was previously prevented from celebrating mass for Christmas in the same village.

In view of Easter, the bishop had sent numerous petitions to the authorities at all levels, asking for permission to celebrate Mass in a village where it has never been possible to celebrate the Eucharist. Permission was granted.

But when Msgr. Duc Oanh arrived, along with a priest, he found a hostile atmosphere because police and women of the Communist League women outnumbered the faithful, controlling and mocking the Catholics and the bishop. A long queue of Catholics requested permission to confess. The celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation took place to the sound of laughter and jokes at the gestures of the faithful.

And after the Mass, the bishop and the priest were brought to the police station and subjected to interrogation for hours. The officials accused the bishop of violating the permit that “only allowed the celebration of Easter Mass, as he had also” baptised persons “,” deliberately exceeding what was allowed”.

The bishop protested, denying that he had “baptized people,” he explained that he had only helped the faithful to reconcile themselves with God. “Before eating – he said – you wash your hands. Likewise, before attending the Mass, we wash ourselves, reconciling ourselves with God(Source).”