Nuns demand return of seized properties

Published Date: November 5, 2009

Saint Paul de Chartres nuns in southern Vietnam are demanding the government return land it seized, saying they can prove ownership.

Sister Patrick de la Croix
Huynh Thi Bich Ngoc

Sister Patrick de la Croix Huynh Thi Bich Ngoc, provincial superior of Saint Paul de Chartres of My Tho, said that in 1874 nuns from her congregation bought a 10,235-square-meter plot in Vinh Long City and built a convent there.

However, on Oct. 30 this year, the People´s Committee of Vinh Long province began building its Vinh Long City Square on the site.

In a Nov. 2 interview posted on the website of the Vietnam Bishops´ Conference, Sister Ngoc said her congregation still has the documents of ownership and construction.

Sister Ngoc said the nuns had housed and cared for orphans, disabled people and other underprivileged people at their convent before 1975, when the country was reunified under communist rule.

On Sept. 7, 1977, local security officials raided their convent, confiscated their belongings and forced those under the care of the sisters to leave, she said.

Security officials forced 17 nuns to stop their work after detaining them at a school for one month. Officials also detained the head of the convent at a police station for two months.

Sister Ngoc said the congregation was given no reason for the raid and detentions until Aug. 27, 2005, when they received papers dated July 6, 1977, from provincial authorities. These papers charged that the orphanage “was a place where unhappy children were trained to fight against the people´s government.”

The nun said the government used their convent as a hospital for years before they started constructing the square.

“Since 2002, we have petitioned all levels of government to return our properties,” Sister Ngoc said, adding that her congregation has also sought help from local Church leaders.

She noted that in 2006 government authorities offered the nuns 1.5 billion dong (US$84,600) and 3,000 square meters of land on the outskirts of the city.

Authorities recently asked the nuns to lodge plans for a building permit on the new site, a request Sister Ngoc has rejected. “We want a resolution (of the dispute) to be based on truth,” she stressed.

Sister Ngoc said if the nuns accepted the government´s offer of new land, it would be tacit agreement that the nuns had violated the law during the incident in 1977 and had been “pardoned” by the government.

“We did not violate the law. We have to return to our convent where we lived for more than a century. We want justice and our rights to be upheld,” said Sister Ngoc.

The Saint Paul de Chartres nuns have been living in other areas in the city since the seizure of their properties.

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