Fr. Chan Tin on Catholics in Vietnam

Fr. Chan Tin was well known before 1975 for his work on behalf of
political prisoners in South Vietnam and other human rights issues.

- Steve Denney

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From: 01/28/2004 03:27


Insights into the Religious Condition within the
Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam.


Father Chan Tin


Note : This article was written by long-time human rights activist, Father
Chan Tin, to be handed over to a delegation of the United States
Commission for International Religious Freedom and some US Congressional
staff members who visited Vietnam in mid-January, 2004. It was intended to
help give the delegation an in-depth understanding of the complex
religious realities in Vietnam today.

This article also demonstrates the author's bold determination to purse
the fight for human rights and religious freedom in another way --
following his recent decision, as the Director of the religious freedom
journal Thu Nha (published in Australia), to shut down the journal due to
serious political differences with its editor, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lan. The
latter had come to favour collaboration with the Vietnamese regime on the
requirement of the "authorities' prior agreement" to practice religion,
and has justified the "silence of Vietnamese Bishops" in the face of
ongoing, systematic abuses of freedom by government officials.

(This text, translated from Vietnamese, is being circulated by a group of
Father Chan Tin's friends)

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Brazen Denials

When accused by many countries around the world of violating basic human
rights, Vietnamese government officials usually proclaim that not only do
they not violate human rights, but, on the contrary, they always guarantee
the rights of all citizens. However, in truth, their actions are
completely contrary to what they say -- they have no hesitation whatsoever
to trample on the basic and natural rights of the people. We see that they
are complete liars and have no shame for what comes out of their mouths.
On the one hand they treat the community of nations as if they were small
children, naove and easy to deceive. At the same time they consider the
countries that dare accuse them as slanderers. And yet, sadly, their lying
and brazenness does manage to bring some favourable advantages to them,
because even if one foreign diplomat expresses a little doubt about
well-founded accusations against Vietnam, they cleverly turn that to their
advantage.

In truth, there are many examples of citizens who, having expressed quite
mildly some dissatisfaction in a political opinion, have been repressed by
government authorities, terrorized, imprisoned and even executed. The
cases of people such as Father Ly, Lawyer Lj Chi Quang, Dr. Nguyen Dan
Que, and Messrs. Nguyen Hong Son, Nguyen Vu Binh... and many others,
clearly witness to this fact. And yet the Vietnamese government always
shamelessly denies it. Officials proclaim that those terrorized,
imprisoned or executed are all criminals, law-breakers, but they are never
able to give clear and implicit evidence, or convincing legal arguments
about the breaking of any laws. In very many cases they have convicted
people with different political opinions groundlessly, in hasty secret
trials, completely void of the requirements for a just trial (such things
as an open trial and the ability of the accused to chose his/her own
defence lawyer). When accused by the international community about the
violation of rights, the government issues blatant denials, acting as if
the international community is listening to falsehoods. But when
international delegations come to Vietnam to investigate to try to find
out the truth for themselves, and research what is behind all this, the
Vietnamese authorities refuse to let them go to the places from where the
news of the repression originated, and refuse to let them meet with the
people whom they say are incarcerated because of their political or
contrary views. The reason Vietnamese officials usually give for refusing
such access is that they "cannot guarantee the safety" of the visiting
delegations. This is clearly a method of intimidating the delegations, and
in fact, if the foreign delegations would persist too hard in trying to
get to the right places and meet the right people, they could well be
secretly harmed. Because of such hindrances and threats, foreign
delegations will be hesitant to return again.

I strongly suggest that such delegations not be naive and not let
Vietnamese officials take control of their investigations so they fail, or
even worse, are used to the advantage of the deceptive officials. If these
delegations intend for their investigations to be effective, they must
have the authority to go where they need to go, and meet whom they need to
meet.

If Vietnam's government officials refuse to meet these reasonable
requirements of the investigating delegations, that in itself,
automatically means that the accusations of the international community
have touched the truth. And if, in fact, the Vietnamese government has not
violated human rights, they have no reason to hide anything, or to hinder,
and they should readily enable the delegations to do their work and prove
the government's innocence.


The Policy of Subtle Repression of Religion

Particularly in regard to religious freedom, the government of Vietnam
proclaims that in its constitution, and in actual practice, it
consistently respects freedom of religion. In spite of the facts that show
they violate this freedom in very obvious ways, they shamelessly deny it.
Take for example the oppression of Christian believers among the minority
peoples in the Central Highlands, in the Northwest Provinces (Son La and
Ha Giang), or the recent incident of tearing down Protestant church
buildings in Saigon and environs?

However, Vietnamese communist authorities also repress religion in very
clever, more subtle ways, through the legal system, with its laws, decrees
and ordinances. They do this by cleverly combining various legal points,
which if taken independently, on their own, give no appearance of being
repressive at all. But oppression is implemented when various legal
provisions are maliciously combined. For example, there is a legal
requirement that religious believers must carry on religious worship
activities only in approved places such as churches, pagodas or temples.

At the same time, there are legal building codes, and building projects
cannot commence without prior government approval. If one takes these two
laws independently, there is no appearance of repression. But if they want
to stop religious believers from doing religious worship activities, all
government authorities have to do is withhold the permission to build the
church or pagoda. And then, naturally, if believers have no church or
pagoda in which to worship, they are obliged to worship at home or in
another place. And thus this practice of religion is made illegal, and is
turned into an infraction of the law - criminality! Government officials
have used such cases as a pretence to beat, detain, and imprison believers
who have thus been made into criminals, and do it in such a way that they
do not suffer the accusation of violating religious freedom. In such
circumstances, religious believers who wish to practice their faith in a
legal way are caught in a dilemma and don't know what to do !

In another example in the legal field, the law has a provision saying that
citizens are free to propagate their religion, and another provision that
requires a person propagating the law to be an ordained priest or pastor.
But, in order to become a recognized priest or pastor, one has to have the
approval of the government. There are very few circumstances where the
legitimate requirements (for ordination) are granted, and so because of
its normal requirements the Church has to create 'secret' priests (that is
those who take the role of a priest but are not approved or accepted by
the State). Because of this, if such unofficial priests or pastors, or
ordinary believers propagate their faith, they are persecuted, beaten,
imprisoned or even murdered as we have seen in the past.

With such conflicting laws or interpretations, then, government officials
have the ability to persecute and imprison religious believers because
they ostensibly "break the law", and not because of their religious
activities. The intentional misuse of such entwined laws to suppress
religion is only applied to those churches or religious organizations that
refuse to accept the control of the State. Those churches or religious
organizations that accept the control of the State, are, not surprisingly,
somewhat freer by comparison. For example, concerning the activities of
practicing religion in the home, if those believers are part of a
State-sanctioned religious body, local officials may look the other way
and allow the activities. But if the religious practitioners are not part
of State-sanctioned group, local officials may cause difficulties or
simply persecute them outright without mercy. The goal of the government
remains to force all religious bodies to accept the control of the State.

Because of such subtle realities, those looking on from the outside are
only able to see those circumstances that at least have an appearance of
freedom, but they are unable to perceive those circumstances that have not
even the slightest element of freedom. If it becomes necessary to provide
evidence that Vietnam has religious freedom, the authorities will
naturally point to the former circumstances, but never admit to the later.


Religion Policy toward the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam

In particular reference to the Roman Catholic Church, a church with
significant international stature and organizational structure, government
officials must show some measure of respect. On the one hand, they are
keen to show the world that the Catholic clergy enjoys religious freedom,
but on the other hand, they take advantage of the fact that the Catholic
clergy only seldom speaks out when it is squeezed, oppressed or when
church land is confiscated. As a reward government officials make things
comparatively easy for the Church. But, in order to pay for such
accommodation, the Church must accept manipulation of its internal
affairs!

Today, in a widely-known matter, it can be easily seen that government
officials are interfering in the internal affairs of the Church. The
training, ordination and assigning of the clergy of the Church, all
require the approval of the government. And so, gradually, those who work
within the Church or for the Church, will eventually only be those who
consent with the government, and readily agree with the demands of
government policy, regardless of the negative consequences for the Church.
People who are capable and virtuous, those particularly needed to build
and guard the authentic nature of the Church for its essential life and
health, are denied positions of leadership in the Church. This most
certainly will lead to the deterioration of the quality of the Church, and
to losing its essential essence even while it still exists. Ultimately,
little by little, the Church will become a compliant tool in the hands of
the government.

And when the government has achieved this, it will grant the Church
complete freedom. But at that time, although there is freedom, the Church
will only have the ability to follow the orders of the Party and the
State. This is an extremely wicked and subtle policy. If there is no force
to interfere or hinder this policy, it will gradually lead to the
government's desired ends. In that eventuality, the Roman Catholic Church
of Vietnam will no longer be a church in the sense of churches in other
free countries, possessing the authentic qualities of a true Church.

Today, in the approved curriculum required for the training of priests,
seminaries are obligated to include the study Marxist-Leninist philosophy,
a philosophy reserved for the less than two per cent of the population who
are Party members. What is this but the evil intention of the Party and
the State to train seminarians to become their tools among the clergy in
the future !

The fact that the State is able to manipulate the Church, is a result of
the long, hard-to-understand silence, or the very feeble speaking out of
the clergy, both religious and diocesan, in the face of many abuses. In
reality their consciences should make them cry out strongly against the
abuses, such as :

- When the State uses it power to confiscate land and the institutions of
the Church (for example, the Monastery of Thien An - Hue, the Holy Place
of La Vang - Hue, and the Redemptorist institution - Hue, the property of
the Presbytery Residence - Hanoi, the Papal University - Dalat, and so on.

- When the government demands the study of Marxism-Leninism in seminary.

- When recent dramatic events occurred which seriously harmed our nation
and our people (such as the surreptitious cession of our historical
national territory to China), and so on...

These things show that prophetic truth-speaking has greatly declined among
our clergy, both secular and religious -- an outcome of the policy of
manipulating religion. And precisely because of the loss of quality inside
the Church, the manifestations of religious freedom which are readily seen
on the surface, hide the great harm done internally. Today in Vietnam,
people can see the churches overflowing with worshippers on Sundays and on
magnificent holy days such as Christmas and Easter, and this causes many
superficial-thinking people to optimistically believe that the Roman
Catholic Church is experiencing true freedom. But if the Church loses its
essential nature, of what use is its continued existence and freedom?


* * *

What I want to underline in this article are not only the disadvantages
and hardships that the Communist regime causes the Church of Vietnam
today. All these hardships and disadvantages will pass with the demise of
the Communist regime. What I want to emphasize is the deep damage being
caused by the Communist regime in the present, which will last many years
after the regime has disappeared. This is the religion policy of the
regime to nefariously transform the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam, and
the churches of other faiths in our land.

I am afraid that long after this Communist regime is gone, the Catholic
Church will no longer be the true Church that it should be. At that time
the Church will not be able to proudly lift its gaze because of its
courage, as could the Church of the past which produced hundreds of
thousands of martyrs. I am afraid at that time my Church will have to bow
low with eyes cast down because it will see on the inside the wounds and
scars of the deceiving regime on our own descendants. Because today and in
the future, my Church will bear in itself the marks of this regime, borne
of its efforts to make us tools in its hands.

I am afraid that after this regime has passed away, the serious damage
bequeathed to the people of Vietnam will last a long time in my Church -
and in other churches - and we will have to accept some responsibility for
our fearful silence, our failure to risk raising our voices. Silence
without positive action is not without sin, but instead carries with it
some complicity.

What is most fearful about what the regime is doing to my Church, is the
perverse transformation of its inner qualities. A Church which has enough
leadership strength to function independently, to lead the Christian
masses, resigns itself and lets go, giving a free hand to the regime to do
what it wants, and is content to be silent ! A Church which should be as
yeast in bread, and as a savoury salt in order to transform society into
something better, is losing its freshness and its savour. If the yeast is
spoiled, and the salt has lost its savour, of what use is it any longer?

My sincere and deepest desire is to raise my voice to appeal to the
Christian community, and to human rights and religious freedom
organizations in the world, to ask, how can my Church - and the Churches
of others - be truly independent, not divided by this regime and not
interfered with in their internal affairs, especially in the training and
ordaining of Church workers. The matter of confiscating land and other
properties of the Church, the matter of continually forbidding,
prohibiting and hindering religious activity, will all pass away, and in
future be relatively easily recovered because they have to do with rights
and material things. But the influence of the State into the internal
affairs of the Church is much more damaging, and that damage will last for
a long, long time, and it will be exceedingly hard to repair, because this
interference has the ability to change the essential nature of the Church,
and its spiritual and moral values, causing the Church to no longer be the
true Church. At that time, even though there may be freedom, the Church
will no longer be able to carry out its mission.


Father Chan Tin
Saigon December 2003