c. 1996 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Archbishop Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan has no delusions about freedom of religion in his native Vietnam.

Thirteen years in prison is instructive, said the former archbishop of Nha Trang, the coastal village north of Ho Chi Minh City. Above all, it teaches patience.

Like a character in a Solzhenitsyn novel, Van was banished by his government for the ideas he espoused. Days after the former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, fell to the communists in 1975, the new rulers tossed him in jail, pronouncing Van and the Roman Catholic Church guilty of conspiring with the United States to undermine the regime.

Van was not charged with any crime, nor given a criminal trial or any legal representation. He never set foot in a courtroom. In fact, no sentence was issued.”I had no idea how long I’d be in jail, or if I would get out,”he said of the long banishment in which he was relocated periodically to different prisons like a mafia kingpin.

Van, who was freed in 1988 and arrived in Rome in 1991, believes the government feared that his religious ideas would catch on and that his followers would grow intolerant of repression.

Sadly, Van said in an interview, little has changed in Vietnam for Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the 60 million inhabitants, or Buddhists, the biggest religious group in the southeast Asian nation.

Before the Vietnam War, there were Catholic schools throughout the country, Christian associations operated openly and Catholic groups fostered social activities and health care.

Now there are only six seminaries in Vietnam, Catholic teachers are forbidden to teach and the Catholic universities are closed.”There is the freedom to worship but freedom of religion is a different matter,”said Van, vice president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, which promotes human rights.

Six years after the end of the Cold War, a religious revival has taken shape in many formerly closed societies, notably the former Soviet Union. But in Vietnam, as in other communist bastions like China and Cuba, religious freedom remains a challenge.

With the recent visit between Cuban President Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II, and more importantly, Castro’s invitation to the pope to visit his country next year, Cuba would appear the most likely of the three to loosen its hold on religious activities.

But few people, including Van and other clergy from the region, are suggesting that a papal visit to China or Vietnam will not come any time soon.”The government has no interest in allowing the church to operate freely,”said one Vietnamese bishop who was visiting the pope last week with other top clergy from his country.”It still thinks in the old ways and sees it as a potential threat,”he said, asking that he not be identified for fear of retribution.

Archbishop Jacques Nguyen Van Mau of Vinh Long, south of Ho Chi Minh City, was more diplomatic.”There are some difficulties”operating in Vietnam, he said.”I cannot send all my candidates to the seminary. They (the government) want to limit it. We can print (religious) material but it is very limited.” The pope touched on these obstacles in remarks at the Vatican to the Vietnamese bishops last Saturday (Dec. 14). He said he understood the”difficulties and the limitations imposed on you in your duties to Christ and the apostolic responsibilities.” He also expressed regret that all Vietnamese bishops did not attend the Vatican gathering, an apparent jab at the government for denying several bishops exit visas.

The message, however, was far less incendiary than the comments the pope made several weeks ago to the faithful in China. In what observers say was a shrewd diplomatic ploy, the pope used his message as a barometer to gauge the level of hostility in Beijing toward the church.

The pontiff harshly criticized the Chinese government for refusing to recognize the independence of the Roman Catholic Church. With Catholics in China only allowed to worship openly if they belong to the state-sponsored Catholic Patriotic Association, the pope urged Catholics to abandon the state religion and express their fidelity to Rome.

The Chinese were predictably angry and scolded the pope for”interfering in China’s internal affairs.”But the Chinese criticism was far less harsh than the Vatican had expected, with the government expressing its hope for improved Vatican relations.

But Vietnam is another story.”The control of the government is very tight. It means that we cannot do anything without permission of the government,”said Italian Bishop Claudio Celli, who has led several diplomatic missions to the country.

Last October, Celli was rebuffed by officials when he sought to celebrate a Mass in Hanoi marking the 18th anniversary of John Paul’s investiture.”It is undeniable that there are still more than a few limitations on the real pastoral activities of the church,”Celli said upon returning to Rome.”They said, `no, we have no diplomatic relations with the Vatican,'”Van said,”and that was the end of it.” The Catholic Church is not the only religion under pressure. In February, three Americans traveling with the evangelical group Youth With a Mission were placed under house arrest in Vietnam after police discovered them singing hymns with 20 Vietnamese Christians in a private home in Ho Chi Minh City. They were released and deported after several days.

A fourth member of the group, Man Thi Jones, a 54-year-old nurse from Sacramento, Calif., was detained and put under house arrest for two months. The Vietnamese-born Jones, who became a U.S. citizen in 1975, was released on Dec. 3. after paying a $1,000 fine to the government.

Nina Shea, who monitors religious freedom issues for the New York-based human rights group Freedom House, said restrictions were eased slightly in the early 1990s as the country sought improved trade relations with Western nations. But once trade with the United States was established in 1994, Vietnam again asserted pressure on religious groups.”Vietnam was courting trade normalization at that time,”Shea said. The temporary relaxation of restrictions on religious activities”was directly linked to what it wanted from the United States.” Vatican officials have been quietly lobbying the international community to put pressure on the Vietnamese government as the United States and other countries periodically do with the Chinese.”There is no pressure from other governments because everyone is trying to get their market share,”the Vatican diplomat said.

Many countries in Europe and Asia had begun taking advantage of Vietnam’s relatively well trained work force and inexpensive labor costs long ago.

Van said he remains skeptical about the pace of change in Vietnam.

Nonetheless, he said,”Our country now is in a period of transition. Though it will take time, this new aspect may not only improve the lives of people but hopefully make the country more open to democratic life and religion.”

MJP END RNS