Hanoi (AsiaNews / EDA) – A visit of solidarity by two Redemptorists and some Catholic to the Phuoc Huê pagoda, in Lâm Dông, South Vietnam, where the 400 monks and nuns of the Buddhist community of "Plum Village" have sought shelter after being forcibly expelled from their convent in Bat Nha (see photo) on September 27.
Their story recalls those of some Vietnamese Catholic communities, who have also been forcibly deprived of their churches by authorities.
The fate of the Buddhist monks, who have so far found shelter with brother monks is, nevertheless, on a knife’s edge because of the continuing pressures and threats they are receiving from the police, as well as against those who are hosting them. They have been ordered to remove them in a few days before 31 December this year .
As reported by Eglises d'Asie, the Venerable Thich Thai Thuân, superior of the Phuoc Huê pagoda, was actually forced to sign a document pledging to end hospitality by that date. In the three days prior to the visit of Catholics on 12 December, the monks had suffered the "invasion" of a mob of thugs and police, who called themselves Buddhists. Three times they entered the pagoda, ransacked the cells, hung banners offensive to the religious, insulted them through loud speakers shouting slogans and threats. All under the eyes of the police, which confined itself to watching the show, filming and photographing what was happening.
From what the Venerable Thich Thai Thuân told Radio France Internationale, the target of the assailants, who were not Buddhists, was precisely to obtain the removal of the "Plum Village" community. The name is that of a community founded in France by the Venerable Thich Nhât Hanh. The religious, well known also in his home nation, in January 2005 after a long period of exile spent in the United States and France, returned to Vietnam. Greeted with much respect by the authorities, had made another visit to the country in 2007. On that occasion he presided over the solemn ceremonies of national reconciliation, which were officially authorized. In that climate he founded a community of his "Village" in Vietnam.
Subsequently, most likely because of statements and positions taken by Thich Nhât Hanh, the Vietnamese community's relations with the authorities deteriorated. In June of this year, the monks were warned that they had to leave the monastery. On August 4, a representative of the Office of Religious Affairs accused them of not respecting the law. Officially, it was described as a contrast between the community and Official Buddhism. But some leaders of that structure, while pro-government, have protested against the treatment meted out to the monks of the "Plum Village", who await the expiry of the latest ultimatum with a calmness that has astonished their Catholic visitors.