Religious Liberty in Vietnam

 

Report Published by Aid to the Church in Need

 

Here is an adapted excerpt from a report entitle Religious Liberty in Asia by the charity Aid to the Church in Need on religious freedom.

 

 

ROME, JULY 28, 2006 (Zenit.org).

In 2005 Vietnam was characterized by the coming into force of the new law of religious policies -- with mixed consequences for the communities of believers -- and by novelties in relations between the communist regime and the Holy See.

Persecution of the faithful of all confessions is still widespread, however. According to some analysts this is more of a local issue than an attitude established by top government levels, but the result is always ferocious repression, especially against the leaders of communities in the central areas of the country.

The new law -- entitled "Ordinance on religion and religious beliefs" -- was approved by the Permanent Committee of the National Vietnamese Assembly on June 18, 2004, and became effective on Nov. 15 the same year amid criticism from Catholics, Buddhists, Caodaists and Protestants.

The Holy See and Vietnam do not have diplomatic relations, but for a number of years have established a "modus vivendi" allowing them to at least partly overcome most of the problems experienced by Vietnamese Catholics.

There is, however, on the horizon a positive evolution that may lead to establishing diplomatic relations between Rome and Hanoi; in July 2005 the Holy See expressed "the hope that they would move quickly" toward a "normalization" of relations.

Persecution against the Montagnards, the ethnic group inhabiting Vietnam's central highlands and mainly Christians, showed no signs of abating.

In 2005 the unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam -- the CUBY, not recognized by the government -- reported increased repression with monks arrested or threatened, believers closely supervised and repeated slandering of its morality by government press.

  

 

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