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Vietnamese authorities try again to seize Thai Ha Parish land
The neighbourhood People’s Committee says it wants to build a plant to treat wastewater from a nearby hospital. Parishioners protest. In a letter, the Redemptorist superior writes that the only solution “is the end of the water treatment project and the return of the property”.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) – Hanoi’s Thai Ha Parish is under attack again. Between 20078 and 2009, it was at the centre of a dispute with municipal authorities that ended with the expropriation of land owned by the Church since 1928 and a phony trial that saw eight Catholics convicted.
The new attack, reported by Eglises d’Asie, began on 8 October when the parish priest was summoned by the Dong Da Neighbourhood People’s Committee to be told that a piece of land owned by the Redemptorist Order, which runs the parish since its foundation, would be seized to build a plant to treat the wastewater from a nearby hospital.
Upon hearing the news, about 50 parishioners staged a protest near the place threatened by expropriation. The parish priest wrote to the Dong Da Neighbourhood People’s Committee, asking the authorities to abandon the project and return to the Church the land it lost.
On 11 October, the hospital director visited the parish to defend the water treatment plan before priests and parishioners. When the parish reiterated its demand for the return of what was taken and refused to countenance further seizures, the hospital delegation refused to sign the minutes of the meeting.
On 15 October, a letter from the Redemptorist provincial superior, addressed to all the members of the order, said, “The whole of the Redemptorist convent in Thai Ha is the legacy of our ancestors, an inheritance that is not only material, but also a precious spiritual heritage.” In addition, “It is the cradle in which a generation of our older brothers was born and raised.” For this reason, the only possible solution “is the end of the water treatment project and the return of the property”.
The letter, which contains an appeal for prayer, cites past, unsuccessful attempts by Card Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Mân of Saigon and the Vietnam Bishops Council to find a solution to the many cases of Church properties seized by local authorities.