Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb 10, 2008 / 09:42 am
Following a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Ngô Quang Kiệt on Saturday, approximately 3,000 Catholics joined parishioners from Our Mother of Perpetual Help to peacefully protest the seizure of 14 acres of their land by the Vietnamese government. Ten thousand Catholics in Saigon expressed their solidarity by holding a vigil at the same time.
The mass demonstration began with the Redemptorists leading a procession to the property that they have been asking be restored for the last 10 years. The demonstrators chanted and sang for hours in front of dozens of crosses and icons of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, which are hanging on the fence that surrounds the confiscated property.
Support for the disenfranchised Catholics has spread at the grassroots level, with word of the protests reaching locals through bulletin board postings at parishes and news reports on the internet.
Throughout the day on Saturday, hundreds of vehicles were busy ferrying people back and forth from the dioceses of Bắc Ninh, Hải Phòng, Nam Định, Hà Tây, Vĩnh Yên to the protest site. Some supporters even traveled up to 250 miles to show their solidarity with the parishioners.