HA NOI (UCAN) -- Members of a Redemptorist-run parish here are spending their Tet, or Lunar New Year, festival at a Church property that the communist government confiscated in 1959.

Catholics of Thai Ha parish have been gathering at the controversial 14,000-square-meter plot of land adjacent to the parish church since Jan. 6.

Parishioners had earlier protested after officials from a state-run garment company that has occupied the plot since the government "borrowed" it in 1959 started building houses on the land in early 2007. The construction stopped and Catholics ended their protests. Just a few days into 2008, however, the homebuilding resumed, and so did the protests.

Tens of young and elderly Catholics stay all day and night in two tents erected outside the plot's barbed-wire fence to prevent company officials from building houses. They also hold prayer sessions after daily Masses.

"We are determined to pray that the government return the property," a woman who asked not to be named told UCA News on Feb. 8. The Catholic, 68, said her children took her home on Tet, Feb. 7 this year, but she came back soon after. "I am very happy to be here with other parishioners, praying," she smiled. The Tet festival runs Feb. 7-9.

She said hundreds of local Catholics gathered at the plot to sing hymns and say prayers after morning Masses on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8. Before Tet, she noted, thousands, including migrant workers returning home for the festival, attended. They talked noisily and ate cakes and food they brought from home. Most returned home to sleep, since the tents do not have enough room, she added.

Hung, a young Catholic, told UCA News on Feb. 8 that he spent Feb. 7 at the plot, where he met, talked and prayed with others. They also talked and shared food with security officials, the Thai Ha parishioner added.

"I find such activities interesting and helpful during Tet," stated Hung, who has been present at the site for the past month. "We have to pray patiently and consistently, and believe God and Mother Mary will receive our prayers," he said, attributing the government's promise to return the former apostolic nunciature in Ha Noi to consistent prayers.

Thousands of Catholics will visit and pray for the return of the Thai Ha plot on Feb. 9, after their annual pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help statue at the parish, he said. Hung noted that the Redemptorists who run the parish traditionally conduct Marian devotions on the third day of Tet.

Catholics forced their way onto the grounds of the former apostolic nunciature, which the government also confiscated in 1959, on Jan. 25. They maintained a prayer vigil until the government reportedly promised archdiocesan officials on Jan. 31 that it would return the property after the Tet festival.

Hung, who visited the nunciature on Feb. 7, said a few people stood praying outside the locked gate, and others read updated reports from the Internet that people had been posted on the wall of the adjacent archbishop's house. Religious continue to gather in front of the gate for candlelit prayers every evening, he added.

The government also erected two big boards welcoming the Lunar New Year on the iron fence in front of the compound.

In a Feb. 6 message, Bishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh gave "constructive suggestions" for the nunciature's return.

The government reportedly promised to return it "as it was" when confiscated in 1959.

Bishop Sang said it would be best for the government to remove the wall it erected to separate the confiscated property from the archbishop's residence.

The bishop also suggested the archdiocese rebuild a grotto under a big banyan tree in the nunciature compound, and replace the Our Lady of Lourdes statue now located in the archbishop's house compound. Cardinal Joseph Marie Trinh Van Can of Ha Noi, now deceased, had to move the Marian statue from the nunciature.

To make way for this, he suggested Catholics remove the Pieta statue they placed under the tree in January.

Bishop Sang, 78, said Catholics had prayed in front of the Our Lady of Lourdes statue under the banyan tree for hundreds of years.

He expressed hope his proposals could be taken up before Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

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