Hanoi, Vietnam, Sep 15, 2008 / 15:43 pm
Fr. Vincent Nguyen Trung Thanh, the provincial superior of the Redemptorists in Vietnam, on Sunday issued a letter lamenting that the Vietnamese government has not stopped leveling false accusations against Catholics demonstrating to recover confiscated church properties. The religious superior said that his hope for dialogue with the communist government is vanishing.
Basing his remarks upon the biblical passage “No servant is greater than his master (Jn 15:20),” Father Vincent Nguyen’s letter told his fellow Redemptorist priests that the talks with the government have reached a stalemate.
“We had opportunities to talk with the leaders of the nation who are in charge of the Committee For Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security... to present our aspiration for justice and peace,” he wrote, in the letter.
However, the Vietnamese government did not accede to his requests to halt its false media reports, release all those who have been arrested, and “to dialogue seriously on the Thai Ha dispute and return the land to us.”