Hanoi barring bishops from Asian Synod: Vatican

Agence France Presse
January 12, 1998 Vatican-Vietnam 18:28 GMT

The Vietnam government is barring Vietnamese bishops from participating in the Asian Synod at the Vatican in April and May, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Fides) said here Monday.

Fides said the Vietnamese bishops had already chosen two prelates to represent them at the synod -- Nicolas Huynh Van Nghi, the apostolic administrator of Ho Chi Minh City, and Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, coadjutor to the bishop of My Tho.

But it said the Vietnamese authorities had turned them down and refused to issue exit visas. The Hanoi government demanded that prelates participating in the Asian Synod be "appreciated by the church and society," which Fides interpreted as meaning "by the Communist Party."

Fides, quoting Vietnamese bishops, said 1998 would be "a difficult period" for the citizens and Christians of Vietnam.

For "some months" there have been "signs of a hardening attitude" toward the church, said Fides, adding that the government was now demanding "authorization from local district or village authorities" for any Catholic Church Jubilee celebrations.

The Catholic Church in Vietnam has some seven million members, 1,800 priests and 10,000 nuns.