Church land disputes in Vietnam has come to another episode when Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan of Vinh Long diocese, 135 km South West of Saigon, sends a letter to priests, religious, and lay people of his diocese denouncing that the local government has illegally seized the monastery of Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul since 1977, and recently decided to demolish the monastery to build a hotel.

St. Paul Monastery was demolished

A hotel is to be built on the land of the monastery

On a letter read in all Masses on the last weekend, Bishop Nguyen Van Tan says that the September 7, 1977 was “a day of disaster” for the diocese of Vinh Long. On that day, “the local authorities mobilized its armed force to blockade and raid on Holy Cross College.., St. Paul monastery, and the Major Seminary”, and arrested all those who were in charge of the premises. He, himself, was among the detainees.

Since then, the government has seized these properties and used them for various purposes. Last month, local authorities announced a project to build on the land of 10,235 m2 of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul a new hotel. Sisters of Vincent de Paul have staged protests at the site, and a group of priests has voiced their protest at the office of the Fatherland Front. Despite all this, the government has not changed its mind. Rather, it “has summoned residents in the town to meetings in which they vow to take strong actions against those who dare to prevent the construction”, the letter says.

The letter goes on with strong words calling the injustice imposed by the government of Vinh Long “a great suffering of Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul who have been in Vinh Long since 1871 and have been continuously serving people in the provinces of Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long”. The injustice is also seen by the bishop as “a great suffering of the entire diocese”.

With strong words that probably have never seen in a pastoral letter of Vietnamese bishops, Bishop Thomas urges his priests, religious, and lay people of Vinh Long diocese not to “consent with the decision imposed unjustly by those who have power in their hand.” He even warns them not to “stay silent in the face of this outrage.” “Being silent means complicity and a compromise with injustice”, he explains.

Vinh Long is a province located in the Mekong River Delta of southern Vietnam. Its capital is Vinh Long. Its population is 1,023,400 living on the land of 1,475 km². Its unemployment rate in recent years stays persistently at more than 34%.