Hanoi -

Nuns praying outside the building

A church on the street

On Sunday 30th December, thousands of Hanoi’s Catholics converted Pho Nha Chung - the street in front of the former Apostolic Delegate’s Office - into a church when they gathered in mass, praying that justice would triumph in the dispute between the Church and the atheist government over the ownership of the building. Peaceful protests were held after each Mass on Sunday with priests, religious and the laity sang and prayed, walking from the nearby cathedral to the front of the building.

As a gesture of arrogance, police in plain clothe threw away flowers and candles that people put on the iron fence of the building. A photographer was arrested when he tried to take some pictures of the protest. Fortunately, the protesters made a good effort to rescue him.

Seeing all these things, a young man wagged his head in a disapproving gesture. On the fence of the building, there stands a bill board which says the communist party is ‘moral’ and ‘well behaved’ as ‘well educated’ people. He looked at the board and smiled. He told VietCatholic: “It’s completely ridiculous”.

At 9h45, Vietnam Prime Minister, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, visited Hanoi’s Archbishopric Palace. After a brief meeting with Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, he came to the front of the former Apostolic Delegate’s Office, there, he, himself, saw people in long queues waiting to sign a petition to ask that the building should be returned to the Church.