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Vietnam: Cau Ram: thousands of Catholics protest against property seizures
At least 5 thousand people demonstrated in the diocese of Vinh, waving Vatican flags. The faithful have demonstrated for the restitution of church property and the arrests of young activists. Hanoi Priest : more incidents of repression against the Vietnamese Church.
Monday, August 08, 2011 By Asia News
Hanoi - Brandishing Vatican flags (pictured), over 5 thousand Catholics from the parishes of Cau Ram, Yen Dai and Ke Gai - Diocese of Vinh, North Vietnam - marched through the streets of the city. The faithful were protesting against the local authority decision to seize land in Ram Cau belonging to the Catholic Church to build a park and monument dedicated to soldiers of the Vietnamese army. The protesters also denounced an undercover police operation aimed at kidnapping young Christian activists.
The question of land ownership – a tug of war between Catholics and the local or central government - is a widespread and unsolved problem in Vietnam. At the time of the war, the church of Cau Ram was transformed into a military base, becoming a target of the U.S. Army. After the war, the Hanoi government declared the area a “place of memory” to “preserve and protect for future generations, in memory of American war crimes.”
Requests to have the land returned to Catholics - to rebuild the church, whose original building dates back to the early 900 – have so far remained unanswered. In contrast, the area was at first divided into lots for the construction of a road linking Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh’s birthplace, about 330 km north.
speroforum.com/a/58348/Vietnam—Cau-Ram-thousands-of-Catholics-protest-against-property-seizures
At least 5 thousand people demonstrated in the diocese of Vinh, waving Vatican flags. The faithful have demonstrated for the restitution of church property and the arrests of young activists. Hanoi Priest : more incidents of repression against the Vietnamese Church.
Monday, August 08, 2011 By Asia News
Hanoi - Brandishing Vatican flags (pictured), over 5 thousand Catholics from the parishes of Cau Ram, Yen Dai and Ke Gai - Diocese of Vinh, North Vietnam - marched through the streets of the city. The faithful were protesting against the local authority decision to seize land in Ram Cau belonging to the Catholic Church to build a park and monument dedicated to soldiers of the Vietnamese army. The protesters also denounced an undercover police operation aimed at kidnapping young Christian activists.
The question of land ownership – a tug of war between Catholics and the local or central government - is a widespread and unsolved problem in Vietnam. At the time of the war, the church of Cau Ram was transformed into a military base, becoming a target of the U.S. Army. After the war, the Hanoi government declared the area a “place of memory” to “preserve and protect for future generations, in memory of American war crimes.”
Requests to have the land returned to Catholics - to rebuild the church, whose original building dates back to the early 900 – have so far remained unanswered. In contrast, the area was at first divided into lots for the construction of a road linking Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh’s birthplace, about 330 km north.
speroforum.com/a/58348/Vietnam—Cau-Ram-thousands-of-Catholics-protest-against-property-seizures