RSSLONDON (UCAN) — The government in Hanoi must get to grips with hardline local officials to stop a “definite deterioration” in religious freedom, according to the prominent British Catholic Lord Alton.
Despite a recent improvement in relations between the Vatican and the Vietnamese government, he said, recent events such as the forcible removal of a hilltop cross in Dong Chiem parish and the seizure of church properties could endanger the country’s standing in the eyes of the world.
“There has been a definite deterioration recently,” he told UCA News on Jan 20.
He had raised the issue of religious freedom with a parliamentary delegation from Hanoi which visited the British Houses of Parliament late last year, he added. “They received it politely, but without comment,” he said.
“The problem may be — as it is in China — that a powerful local politician can set the agenda, ignoring the official government line,” Alton told UCA News.
“We shouldn’t assume that what happens is government policy. But if the government wants to be well regarded around the world, it has to take action.”
Sources in Rome, who requested anonymity, suggested that the latest increase in tension had come as a surprise to both the Vatican and to the upper echelons of the government. That tends to support the view that part of the problem could be over-zealous local authorities, rather than a new hard line in central government policy.
Whatever the cause, conditions on the ground are worsening for the country’s Catholics.
As Alton spoke, reports from Vietnam told of a Catholic reporter being severely beaten when he took photographs of security officials preventing visitors from entering church premises and of police going to convents at night to check the personal papers of Religious.
A Catholic lawyer and three other people were due in court in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 21 on charges of “overthrowing the government of the people.”
On the other hand, at Christmas, local authorities in some provinces eased their policy on religion by allowing priests to provide pastoral activities for local Catholics.
Bishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh, commenting on the removal of the Dong Chiem cross, said local authorities lack understanding and do not realise how badly the incident influenced Catholics at home and abroad.
Sources in Rome added that the Vatican was eager not to let current events derail the improvements following President Nguyen Minh Triet’s friendly audience with Pope Benedict XVI last December.
Lord Alton, who as David Alton was first a Liberal and then a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for 18 years, now sits as an independent life peer in the House of Lords and is well-known as a human rights advocate. He campaigns relentlessly for the release of Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, the priest jailed in Vietnam for alleged anti-government activity.
VT08585.1585 January 21, 2010 49 EM-lines (473 words)
‘Cool heads needed in cross clash’
Bishops want softer approach from government
Archdiocese slams security officials’ removal of cross
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