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Vietnam Catholicism
Despite the Roman Catholic Church's rejection of ancestor
worship, a cornerstone of the Confucian cultural tradition, Roman
Catholicism established a solid position in Vietnamese society
under French rule. The French encouraged its propagation to
balance Buddhism and to serve as a vehicle for the further
dissemination of Western culture. After the mid-1950s,
Catholicism declined in the North, where the communists regarded
it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and
social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism expanded
under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, who promoted it as an
important bulwark against North Vietnam. Under Diem, himself a
devout Catholic, Roman Catholics enjoyed an advantage over nonCatholics in commerce, the professions, education, and the
government. This caused growing Buddhist discontent that
contributed to the eventual collapse of the Diem regime and the
ultimate rise to power of the military. Roman Catholics in
reunified Vietnam numbered about 3.0 million in 1984, of whom
nearly 1 million resided in the North and the remainder in the
South.
In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North
after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South. That year the
Liaison Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics was set
up in the North by the communist regime in an attempt to win over
those Catholics who had chosen to remain (but were slower than
non-Catholics to embrace the regime) and to "reintegrate" them
into northern society. The church was allowed to retain its link
with the Vatican, although all foreign priests had either fled
south or been expelled, and normal church activities were
permitted to continue, albeit in the shadow of a campaign of
harassment. The appearance of normalcy was misleading, however.
The church was stripped of its traditional autonomy in running
schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Its traditional right to own
property was abolished, and priests and nuns were required to
devote part of their time to productive labor in agriculture.
Nevertheless, officials claimed that Catholics had complete
freedom of worship as long as they did not question the principle
of collective socialism, spurn manual labor, or jeopardize the
internal and external security of the state.
In November 1977, the Vietnam Courier reported that
the church in the North had changed from "opposition to
acceptance and participation," but that the transformation had
been difficult for Catholics. In the same month, the government
unveiled a decree on religion that reaffirmed the constitution's
position on religious freedom, but made it unequivocally clear
that such freedom was conditional and depended on the
compatibility of church activities with such higher imperatives
as patriotism and socialism. The new decree not only prescribed
the duties and obligations required of the clergy by the state
but also imposed state control over the conduct of religious
services, education, training, investitures, appointments,
travels, and transfers.
Applicable to all religious communities in the North and
South, the new law clearly introduced a period of more active
state intervention in church affairs. The regime apparently acted
out of concern that the church in the North, despite having
coexisted with socialism for twenty-three years, was not
progressive enough to lead in the socialist transformation of the
Catholic community in the South. The Vietnam Courier
suggested this link between the northern and southern situations
in November 1977, after noting that the northern Catholic church
would have to shoulder the additional task of helping to
reintegrate Vietnam's entire Catholic population into the
national community.
Catholics in the South in 1975 officially numbered about 1.9
million, including 15 bishops, 3,000 regular and diocesan
priests, 1,200 brothers, and 6,000 nuns. Four-hundred priests and
lay brothers and 56,000 lay Catholics were estimated already to
have fled the country in anticipation of the communist victory.
At the time of the imposition of communist rule, the South had
870 parishes in 15 dioceses; Ho Chi Minh City alone had a half
million Catholics, who were served by 600 priests and 4,000 lay
brothers and nuns. The North's less than 1 million Catholics were
served by about 3,500 churches attended by nearly 400 priests, 10
bishops, and 2 archbishops.
The government claimed that after April 1975 the religious
activities of Roman Catholics were quickly stabilized, major
services were held, and many cathedrals and churches that had
been damaged or destroyed in the war were rebuilt. The regime
claimed further that there was no religious persecution, or if
there was persecution, that it was directed at the activities of
"reactionary forces" bent on taking advantage of "the
backwardness of a number of the faithful . . . ." Nevertheless,
the authorities acted to isolate and to neutralize hard-core
opposition to party policy and to persuade less strongly opposed
factions to join a party-controlled "renovation and
reconciliation" movement. A considerable number of Northern and
Southern Roman Catholics, however, remained opposed to communist
authority.
In 1980 the Unified Bishops' Council of Vietnam was
established to enlist the aid of "patriotic" bishops in
persuading recalcitrant elements of the Catholic community to
cooperate with the regime. Three years later, in November 1983, a
Committee for Solidarity of Patriotic Catholics was created to
unite all Catholics and channel their energy into the building of
socialism. This committee, which replaced the Liaison Committee
of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics, was formed at a time
when the regime's surveillance of the Catholic community had been
stepped up, reportedly due to the suspicion that some Catholics
were involved in antistate activities. The regime's growing
concern was further reflected in the establishment in March 1985
of a Religious Affairs Committee to coordinate and supervise
religious organizations more effectively. Hanoi's increasing
involvement in church affairs reportedly produced new strains in
its relations with the Vatican. In 1987 it nevertheless appeared
critical to Vietnam's leaders to convey to the public the
impression that the Roman Catholic Church was active in the
affairs of the nation and that church members were significant
contributors to the socialist cause.
Data as of December 1987
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