Communists in Vietnam Persecute Catholics, Will Demolish Convent

We are witnessing a growing hostility toward Christians as it reaches a global danger zone. Catholic Online is deeply concerned over the growing intolerance directed toward faithful Catholics who have not and will not compromise the Christian faith or back away from their defense of the dignity of every human person against every kind of attack - be it Marxist or Maoist ideology or the secular humanism and the culture of death found in the decline of the West.

P>HANOI, Vietnam (Catholic Online) - Ann Luu of Asia News, in a story entitled "Hanoi, bishop and nuns left powerless before government. AsiaNews censored" reported Wednesday that "the Sisters of Saint Paul in Hanoi are frustrated and without any hope as they wait for the Hanoi government to demolish their home and property any moment now. The same frustration is shared by the diocese that has continuously called for justice for the sisters. Meanwhile today, the AsiaNews website has been blocked.

"The home of the Sisters of Saint Paul in downtown Hanoi, was confiscated almost in its entirety by the Communist government in 1954. A small portion was restored to the nuns in time allowing them to open a dispensary for the poor, a residence for orphaned children and provide a shelter for young girls in difficulty.

"Now the government wants to demolish the entire complex to erect a four story hospital: at least this is the official version explaining their actions. However, to date many Church properties which - according to Vietnamese law - should return to their rightful owners, have been seized and made out as private property to members of the party, becoming a source of lucrative gains due to the housing construction boom.

"Each year the sisters have petitioned the government to get the property back, but have never received a response. "No one - says one nun - can promise us justice because everyone is afraid of retaliation and revenge." The auxiliary bishop of Hanoi, Mgr. Lawrence Chu Van Minh, has often defended the right of the sisters to get the property back. But nothing happened. ...today, the AsiaNews site is blocked in the country and the Vietnamese can no longer read the news reports. Until now, the only country that has sought to block AsiaNews is China. This censorship is often futile, thanks to proxy server it is always possible to overcome the government's filter and download the news."

This report is one of an increasing number of similar reports out of Vietnam which demonstrate a reality few acknowledge these days. The leftover remnant of the discredited and inhuman ideology of Maoism is now turning its' ire against what has always been its greatest enemy, the only true humanism, Christianity. That is why we have followed the deteriorating situation in Vietnam so closely and will continue to do so.Our brethren are suffering and we must act.

The Catholic Church offers the only systematic social development of the implications of the only true humanism, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which can inform a new social movement to expose and oppose Communism. That is why the carriers of such a discredited ideology as Marxism have decided to strike against the Catholic Church. 

Old Marxists never die, they just recreate themselves. Claiming, as their founders did, that the new man (or new woman) can somehow be created through a Statist manipulation of the political and economic order, they keep morphing into new expressions and pushing their old lies. In an age which has become what Pope Benedict rightly labeled a "dictatorship of relativism", rejecting all truth claims, they are finding traction once again.

In Vietnam they have not changed all that much in their message or their means. Marxism, and its evil clone, the anti-life, anti-freedom and anti-human ideology of the cultural revolution of the former tyrant, the Chairman Mao Zedong, continue to enforce their agenda through State sponsored oppression, hostility and violence. The Sisters of St. Paul are only one of the recent recipients of their evil actions.  

A Church which proclaims that the only way to a new humanity is through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the New Man is the still the greatest threat to the lies of the counterfeit ideology of atheistic Marxism and, its evil clone, Maoism. Jesus, in his Sacred humanity reveals the new humanity. Through his atoning death he made it possible for all men and women to receive and live this new humanity in Him, by overcoming the separation caused by sin,
 
Over the last few years we have witnessed the growing hostility toward Christians as it reaches a global danger zone. Catholic Online is deeply concerned over the growing intolerance directed toward faithful Christians and, in particular, Catholics who have not and will not compromise the Christian faith or back away from their defense of the dignity of every human person against every kind of attack - be it Marxist or Maoist ideology or the secular humanism and the culture of death found in the decline of the West.

"Christianophobia" is a word coined by the Holy See to explain this growing anti-Christian sentiment in our age. It is spreading in the European community, in America and throughout the entire world. It is now showing its violent propensities in Vietnam. We will continue to report on it and implore our global readers to stand in solidarity with our brethren in Vietnam through concentrated Prayer and protracted Catholic Action. We are living in a new missionary age, and we are all missionaries. 

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