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PAGE 3-May 22, 1975
Vietnamese Communist Policy on Religion Recalled
BY FATHER PATRICK O’CONNOR
Society of St. Columban
(NC News Service)
The Revolutionary Government
proclaimed “freedom of religious belief
and practice” shortly after taking
Saigon. Freedom to propagate religion
was not mentioned in the press report.
The same omission occurs in the
constitution (1960) of the Democratic
Republic in North Vietnam.
Vietnamese Catholics cannot help
feeling doubtful about the pledge
recently proclaimed in Saigon.
I was in Hanoi when the cease-fire
agreement was signed in Geneva by the
communist forces and the French Union
command, on July 21, 1954. By this
pact the communists gained control of
North Vietnam.
Next day the communist radio
broadcast a soothing statement. It
promised: “Protection of schools and
hospitals will be assured. .. Full
religious freedom will be guaranteed;
every citizen will be free to profess and
propagate the religion of his choice,
subject to respect for national
independence, social order and the law;
churches and pagodas will be under the
protection of the state.”
Then what happened?
Within two years the communist
government had taken over every
Catholic school in the north. Marxism,
including its basic doctrine, dialetical
materialism, that is, atheism, was and is
taught in all schools.
Some priests, Vietnamese and
foreign, were arrested. Some of them
were subjected to the rigged “people’s
courts,” before regimented, intimidated
crowds. Vietnamese priests suffered
more than foreigners. Two Vietnamese
Redemptorist Brothers were sent into
prison camps, where they died. The
priests who remained free were
restricted in their contacts with their
people. So were the bishops.
Letters addressed to the bishops of
North Vietnam, all Vietnamese, calling
them to the Second Vatican Council
were sent back, marked “unknown.”
The authorities prevented three
Vietnamese bishops-elect, appointed by
Pope John XXIII to vacant North
Vietnam dioceses, from receiving
episcopal ordination. The charge
d’affairs of the apostolic delegation in
Hanoi, Irish-born Father Terence
O’Driscoll, was expelled in 1959.
The Catholic hospital in Hanoi, the
Clinque St. Paul, was taken over on Jan.
1, 1957. The Catholic printing press,
Imprimerie Ste. Therese, was taken. By
the end of 1960 all foreign-bom
missionaries, bishops, priests and Sisters,
had been expelled.
The government has adopted many
devices to strangle religion. Prolonged
indoctrination classes late on Saturday
night make it hard for Catholics to
attend early Mass on Sunday, wherever
Mass is still celebrated. Children are
summoned to activities at hours that
conflict with religious duties.
Churches are indeed open in Hanoi
and some other places, but those who
frequent them incur the disfavor of
local communist authorites.
These authorities control
employment, promotion, rationing and
issuing of permits.
In some places Catholics were
forbidden to go to confession., In others
the communist “can-bo” (cadres)
insisted on listening.
Seminaries are required to have
courses in Marxist. Some closed. One of
two, now reportedly open, have only a
handful of students.
Nobody who practices religion can be
appointed professor in a Hanoi
university.
In March, 1955, the government
organized a congress of Catholics Loving
Peace and the Fatherland. According to
the official radio, “more than 200”
attended. It is known for certain that
some came under duress. Others were
fellow-travelers, including about 15
priests, none in good standing. From the
ipeeting came a declaration favoring the
government. The 15 priests became a
“liaison committee” that publishes a
government-financed journal, Chinh
Nghia (Just Cause) in which Marxist
ideas dominate. Distrusted by the
people, these priests, now numbering a
dozen or less, have made no gains. But
they represent a familiar communist
tactic of trying to destroy the Church
from within.
The same tactic may be used in the
south now.
Non-Christians who have lived in
North Vietnam and served under its
government have testified to its
anti-religious policies. Some of these
statements have been made in my
presence.
All ' that goes with religion is
threatened.
“Our code of ethics is communist
ethics,” North Vietnam Gen. Song Hao
declared in the official Hanoi review,
Hoc Tap (Study), in May, 1967.
A young man who escaped by sea
from the north reported that marriage
was not allowed to men under 22 or
women under 20. Married couples were
told: “One child is not enough, two will
do, three are too many.” If a wife
became pregnant a fourth time, he said,
she had to undergo an abortion and the
husband sterilization.
Not only Catholics but also
Protestants - more numerous in South
Vietnam than in the north - as well as
Buddhists, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao are
liable to experience anti-religious
pressure now in the south.
Catholics in South Vietnam number
about 2 million. Their religion has been
part of Vietnamese life for more than
350 years. The Church has been
carrying a large share of educational and
welfare burden in the country. In its
schools most of the pupils have always
been non-Christians, enrolled by their
parents’ choice. Most of the sick and
needy benefiting by Catholic welfare
work are probably non-Christians, too.
Nobody can say exactly how many,
because no religious test has been
applied.
Catholics are a minority in Vietnam,
which, like many other countries, is a
community of minorities. But they
form the largest unified religious body.
At the same time, there has been no
single Catholic party or political bloc.
Catholics have opposed Catholics in
elections. They are united in their faith,
and in little else. They belong to all
classes, but most of them are peasants,
fisherfolk and laborers.
They have long been active in
nationalist ranks. The Church existed in
Vietnam more than 200 years before
French colonial rule began there. Under
the French administration, Catholic
churches and schools received no
government subsidies.
When World War II ended and Ho Chi
Minh had just established his regime in
Hanoi, the four Vietnamese bishops of
the time issued an appeal
for international recognition of
Vietnamese independence. Many
Catholics in the north supported Ho Chi
Minh in 1945 and joined his forces.
They were bitterly disillusioned when
they found that the movement was
under communist control and that the
promise of religious freedom was not
fulfilled.
Again a promise has been given . ..
w
CHRISTIANS MUST BE SOCIALISTS’
Vatican Newspaper Rejects Thesis
VATICAN CITY (NC) - The Vatican
daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano
has given extensive play to a book
which claims that the Christians for
Socialism movement is an “inadequate
and mistaken response” to problems of
justice in our day.
The book, “Christians for Socialism,”
by Jesuit Father Bartolomeo Sorge, was
synopsized in a lengthy article by
Father Virgilio Levi, vice-editor of the
Vatican newspaper. Father Sorge is
editor of the Rome Jesuit review La
Civilta Cattolica.
According to the Jesuit scholar, the
Christians for Socialism movement is
based on three theses:
-- That a Marxist-socialist revolution
is necessary and inevitable;
-- That the socialist revolution should
be adopted by Christians as a moral
duty imposed by their faith; and
- That theology, faith and the
concept of the Church itself must be
reinterpreted in the light of socialist
analysis.
The movement was founded in
Santiago, Chile, in 1971 and has since
spread to various Latin American and
European countries, including Italy.
According to L’Osservatore Romano,
Father Sorge refutes the thesis that the
Marxist revolution is necessary and
inevitable by'saying: “It is at least
dubious that capitalism is incapable of
correction, and hence the deduction
about the inevitability of choosing
Marxist socialism is not supported.”
To the second thesis, that socialist
revolution should be adopted by
Christians as a moral duty imposed by
their faith, L’Osservatore Romano
paraphrases Father Sorge as saying that
faith is not supposed to identify itself
with human culture and social conflict.
Rather, faith is to be man’s response to
and adhesion to God’s word. The
Christian’s task, the article says, “is to
carry into the struggle for man’s
liberation a unique element.”
The article said that Father Sorge
criticized the thesis that faith, theology
and the Church must be reinterpreted in
the light of socialist analysis by asserting
that the denial of the existence of
specific Gospel values reduces the love
of God to human materialistic love.
In a final comment, Father Levi said
that anyone who wants to transform
society today cannot put aside the
Church’s social teachings “without
falling into the inadmissable
inconsistencies of Christians for
Socialism.”
Catholic Press -True Apostolate’
BY JERRY FILTEAU
NEW YORK (NC) - The Catholic
press is “a true apostolate in the fullest
sense of that ancient, much-abused
word,” outgoing president John F. Fink
told the members of the Catholic Press
Association (CPA) here May 13.
Addressing the CPA at the opening
session of its four-day convention at the
Roosevelt Hotel, Fink said, “The
Catholic Press in the United States is
tremendously important and is
performing magnificently in its service
for the Church.”
He cited especially extensive
education efforts by Catholic
newspapers and magazines in the three
areas:
--I Publicizing the National
Catechetical Directory, a guide for
religious education in this country
which is currently undergoing a
nationwide consultation;
- Informing Catholics of the issues
and principles involved in abortion;
- Dealing with the worldwide food
crisis, in which “our Catholic
publications were telling their readers
about the plight of the people in the
Third World countries long before
secular media discovered the problem.”
On the work of the CPA during his
two years as the association’s president,
Fink recalled that when he took the
office in 1973 he told CPA members
that he expected them all to take a
more active role in CPA activities and
that he would appoint more committees
to make the CPA more productive.
He noted that he had promised
during his term in office to stress the
business aspects of Catholic periodicals
more than the editorial side, because he
believed “the most serious problems”
were on the business end of member
publications.
“In the past,” he said, “I often heard
a criticism that the CPA was only for
editors, that there wasn’t enough for
advertising people, circulation people
and business managers. By now, that
image should be changed.
“We now have active committees that
concern themselves with every aspect of
business and production. We have had
two seminars - one on business
management, and one on circulation --
and another on advertising is planned.
This convention is packed with
workshops on business matters while
not neglecting the editorial side. It can
no longer be said that the businessman
is being neglected by the CPA.”
Fink noted that even with improved
business practices many Catholic
publications are in increasingly serious
financial condition because of rapidly
rising costs.
Boys Town Plans Released
BOYS TOWN, Neb. (NC) - Plans
have been completed for the
construction of a $13.3 million research
center here which will develop programs
to deal with the problems of homeless
and troubled youths, Boys Town
officials announced.
The proposed Center for the Study of
Youth Development will consist of
three buildings: a research building, a
conference building, and separate
residential facilities for conference
participants and visiting research staff.
“This represents the beginning of a
new era for Boys Town which will
enable us to both serve youth at the
home and to establish a position of
national leadership in programs for
youth,” said Father Robert P. Hupp,
Boys Town director.
Recruitment of a nationally known
research staff for the center has already
begun, according to Dr. Ronald A.
Feldman, director of the center. Their
efforts, he said, will focus on identifying
the problems of homeless and troubled
youth and developing programs to deal
with them more effectively. The
programs will be for use by the Boys
Town staff as well as youth
development agencies on the local,
regional, national and international
levels.
Construction will begin in
mid-summer and is scheduled to be
completed in the summer of 1977.
Many Mourn Death of Cardinal Mindszenty
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NC) - Church
and civic leaders, and
Hungarian-American citizens
throughout the country have joined in
sorrow over the death of Cardinal Jozsef
Mindszenty who died May 6 in Vienna
at age 83.
In New York, more than 1,000
worshipers, the majority
Hungarian-American, and many wearing
black arm bands attached to their
clothing, heard Jesuit Father Robert
Gannon, former president of Fordham
University, eulogize the late Hungarian
prelate as a man of uncompromising
fearlessness and loyalty.
“It was devotion to Hungary, his
devotion to his Church, his devotion to
fundamental principle that made his,
attitude toward Communism, facism,
and nazism so unyielding that the
President of the United States found it
embarrasing to have him live in our
embassy, while Washington and Moscow
were burying the hatchet,” Father
Gannon said.
\
“He was convinced that
totalitarianism was an evil that damaged
men’s spiritual lives,” Father Gannon
continued. “The world is too small for a
man who is perfectly fearless.”
Moved by Father Gannon’s eulogy,
George Toke, a Hungarian construction
worker from Passaic, N.J., said that
Cardinal Mindszenty’s death made him
“very, very sad.”
Cardinal John Cody of Chicago
praised Cardinal Mindszenty as “one of
the great prelates of our age, a true
confessor of the faith.” A memorial
Mass for the Cardinal is being held May
17 at St. Stephen King of Hungary
Church in Chicago.
Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York
said that freedom loving people
everywhere “have lost a great
champion” with the death of Cardinal
Mindszenty. “We mourn the loss of this
great man,” he said, “yet we know that
his courageous spirit lives on.”
The death of the man does not mean
the death of his mission, said Elanor
Schlafly, executive director of the
Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation, an
organization named in honor of the
Hungarian Catholic leader. She vowed
that the foundation “will continue the
work (he) wanted us to do.”
Observing that Cardinal Mindszenty
was one of the great men of the century
whose resiliency is a model for those
who would fight “communist tyranny,”
she said:
“His devotion to the principles of
freedom of religion inspired the world;
his courage in facing persecution and
imprisonment made him stronger when
it should have weakened him. He was
indomitable in facing tyranny. He left
an indelible mark on history.”
In New Jersey, Gov. Brendan T.
Byrne, who hosted the Cardinal during
his 1974 visit there, called upon citizens
to pay their respects to this “great
leader.”
Citing the cardinal’s celebrated
opposition to nazism and communism,
Gov. Byrne reminded the people of New
Jersey that after his release from
Hungarian prison, “Cardinal Mindszenty
continued his tireless fight against
oppression.” He said the cardinal
showed “unshakeable, ecumenical
loyalty to his countrymen by remaining
in Hungary until 1971 and devoted the
remainder of his life to opposing the
communists.”
Bishop James Hickey of Cleveland
celebrated a memorial Mass for Cardinal
Mindszenty in St. John’s Cathedral here
on May 11. He said that he was
“profoundly grieved” to learn of the
death of the man who “was a devoted
son of the Church, always concerned for
her welfare and always ready to sacrifice
himself for his brothers and sisters.”
Cardinal Mindszenty is scheduled to
be buried at the historical Austrian
shrine at Mariazell May 15. Msgr. John
Sabo, president of the Hungarian
Catholic League of America, and other
priests concelebrated a Mass there for
the repose of the soul of the late
cardinal.
In a separate report on postage
increases, the outgoing president cited
the extensive lobbying effort that the
CPA has engaged in to reduce or slow
down the multi-million dollar postage
increases that are putting severe
financial pressures on non-profit
publications.
He pointed out that the CPA was
instrumental in slowing down to 16
years the original 10-year phase-in
period for postal increases to non-profit
publications. Although the slow-down
gives only temporary relief, he said, it is
significant because that one change has
meant a saving for the Catholic Press
“estimated at about $1.5 million this
year alone.”
Fink also noted that this year’s
convention is focusing strongly on
theological issues facing Catholic
editors. He pointed out that a paper on
theology in the Catholic press, which
has been developed by a committee of
the CPA and was to be discussed during
the convention, “will be an important
statement of Catholic editors when it is
completed.”
COMMUNICATIONS DAY - Pope Paul reads a
speech in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark World
Communications Day. The Pope urged support for
media offerings which do not offend Christian
sensibilities and said that offensive publications should
be boycotted and protested if necessary. (NC Photo)
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