Vinh Long, Vietnam, May 21, 2008 / 01:23 am
Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan of the Diocese of Vinh Long has protested Vietnamese authorities’ plans to demolish a monastery and build a hotel on land confiscated from a religious order in 1977.
The bishop recounted in a strongly-worded May 18 letter what he called “a day of disaster” for the Diocese of Vinh Long. On September 7, 1977, he wrote, “the local authorities mobilized its armed force to blockade and raid Holy Cross College… St. Paul monastery, and the Major Seminary.” Authorities arrested all who were in charge of the institutions, including Bishop Nguyen Van Tan himself.
Fr. J.B. An Dang informed CNA that last month, local authorities in the southern Vietnamese province of Vinh Long (about 85 miles southwest of Saigon) announced a project to build a new hotel on the land belonging to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
Though the sisters have staged protests at the site and priests have voiced their opposition to the office of the Fatherland Front, the government has not responded to their concerns.