Vietnam tightlipped over elevation of archbishop

~ Le Vięt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

Vietnam tightlipped over elevation of archbishop

HANOI - Vietnam's communist authorities maintained a stony silence on Thursday over Pope John Paul II's nomination of a former inmate of their reduction camps as the country's second cardinal. Nearly two weeks after the Vatican announced the nomination of exiled Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the foreign ministry insisted it had yet to be informed. "So far we have not received any official notification of this matter," foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh told reporters at a briefing.

News of the nomination had been carried by both of Vietnam's government-authorised Catholic newspapers earlier in the week. The foreign ministry spokeswoman also dodged a question as to whether the archbishop, who has long been persona non grata here, would now be welcome to return to Vietnam. She said it depended on his citizenship status, which she would have to look into. Thuan, who is a nephew of America's longtime south Vietnamese strongman, Ngo Dinh Diem, has been a bete noire of the communist authorities ever since he was appointed deputy archbishop of the then Saigon just days before the city's fall in 1975. Sensing a plot to turn the south's large Catholic community against their rule, the victorious communists immediately placed Thuan under house arrest.

Accused of "association with anti-communist regimes and counter-revolutionary acts," he was then sent off to a reeducation camp in the north where he remained until December 1988. Eventually allowed to leave the country in 1992, he was appointed deputy head of the Pontifical Council on Peace and Justice, a body dedicated to promoting human rights which he now leads. Relations between the communist authorities and the Catholic Church improved markedly through the 1990s. But while allowing private worship, the leadership here still maintains a tight control over all church activities.

Church appointments have to be submitted for government approval and the training of priests and construction of churches are also tightly controlled.

Agence France Presse - February 2, 2001.

Vietnam cool to Vatican's choice of new cardinal

HANOI - Communist Vietnam reacted coolly on Thursday to the Vatican's naming of a new cardinal who is a one-time political prisoner and a relative of a late president of the former South Vietnam, its arch wartime enemy.

``So far we have not received official notification on this matter,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh told a news conference when asked to respond to the appointment of 72-year-old Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan last month. Thuan, a nephew of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese president assassinated in 1963, spent 13 years in prison in his homeland after the 1975 communist victory in the Vietnam War. He was released in 1991, but has never been allowed to return to Vietnam.

The Foreign Ministry's Thanh said the government was pleased to see large numbers of overseas Vietnamese now returning to Vietnam. Asked if Thuan would be equally welcome she replied:

Citizenship Issue

``According to Vietnam's regulations, those Vietnamese living overseas who have not terminated their citizenship are still considered as Vietnamese.'' But she added: ``I don't know exactly whether he has terminated his Vietnamese citizenship -- I will verify the information and ask the competent authorities concerned and answer you later.''

An estimated ten percent of Vietnam's population of more than 79 million are Christians, most of them Catholics. They make up the second biggest Catholic population in Asia after the Philippines. Many Catholics were driven underground after the Communist takeover, but now Catholicism is an officially recognized religion and people openly display their faith. However, the church still complains of restrictions and interference in its activities, including training and social work and the appointment of clergy, and Hanoi and the Vatican have no diplomatic ties. At the same news conference, Thanh said the southern branch of the Protestant Evangelical Association of Vietnam would hold a general assembly this month in Ho Chi Minh City.

``The purpose of this assembly is to adopt a charter of the organization in accordance with the current new situation and to re-elect members of the central committee of the Vietnam Evangelical Association,'' she said. Since the Vietnam War, the authorities have refused to recognize the southern Protestants because of their refusal to set up a ``patriotic'' organization. Some Protestants have expressed concern the government might attempt to use the assembly to marginalize dissident elements.

Reuters - February 1st, 2001.