Hanoi, Vietnam, Jan 7, 2008 / 21:02 pm
Hundreds of Catholics held prayer vigils in the Vietnamese capital over the weekend as part of a continuing effort to recover confiscated church lands, Agence France Presse reports.
After Saturday and Sunday Masses clergy and laity lit candles, placed flowers, and sang at the iron fence surrounding land once possessed by the Holy See’s delegate to Hanoi before his expulsion in the late 1950s.
"It's the land and the property of the church. We have the certificate of ownership of the property since 1933," one priest from the Hanoi archdiocese, told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The 2.7-acre lot and the large French-colonial villa it holds have been put to other uses by the Vietnamese government. The building has been used as a discotheque, while its garden has been turned into a parking lot.