Lesson 3: Priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish need to stop inciting parishioners to violate the law.
Since ancient times, Tuong Son commune (formerly known as Quan Lang, Dong Vinh) has been known as a land of learning. In recent years, under the leadership of the Party, Tuong Son commune has developed in all aspects, especially in economic development with the shift in crop structure, reducing the proportion of agriculture, increasing trade services, small-scale industry, and industrial production; economic growth rate reached 14%, average food income was 710 kg, average value was 11 million VND/person/year; people's lives were gradually improved, poor households were reduced to below 11%. In terms of social culture, Tuong Son is always in the leading commune group of the district, most hamlets and villages achieved cultural village status; security and order are maintained, it is a clean area of social evils, people are always united, living together with the love of village and neighbor. In the new rural construction movement, Tuong Son has promoted the people's strength to build infrastructure, the traffic routes of villages and hamlets have been gradually upgraded, and traffic is convenient.
Tuong Son is the center of Quan Lang Parish. Over the years, the commune's Party Committee, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations have always paid attention to religious work, effectively implementing the campaign to build residential areas with 10 contents of living a good life and following religion; regularly organizing visits and giving gifts to parishioners on New Year's and holidays, supporting the elimination of temporary and dilapidated houses for parishioners; creating the best conditions for Catholicism to develop... Currently, Tuong Son has 562 households with more than 3,000 parishioners (accounting for more than 30% of the total population of the commune). The parishioners live scattered in many hamlets in the commune, of which the most concentrated are hamlets 9, 10 and 7 (in hamlets 9 and 10 alone, the proportion of parishioners accounts for over 80%). Tuong Son has 3 parishes (Hoi Phuoc, Chinh Yen and Duc Thinh) with 3 large and spacious churches, completed and put into use in the last few years, currently managed by Father Ngo Van Hau. The main church was built decades ago, after many renovations and upgrades, it is now very spacious and majestic.
Similar to Tuong Son commune, Hung Son commune (originally separated from Dong Vinh commune) has made remarkable progress over the years. With a new business mindset, the alluvial plains along the Lam River are now green sugarcane fields, the hills in the 20 km belt surrounding the commune have changed from being wild and barren to becoming tea gardens and acacia forests bringing high economic value. Land consolidation, plot exchange, development of industrial tea, raising pigs, cattle and raw materials (acacia, rattan...) in parallel with actively implementing mechanization in the fields, applying science and technology in food crop production is truly a right direction, a revolution that creates a strong momentum for the people of Hung Son. The commune also always creates the best conditions for Catholicism to develop, the commune has 215 households with nearly 1,300 parishioners (accounting for 33% of the total population of the commune) also belonging to Quan Lang Parish.
Church in Hung Son (Anh Son)
In Hung Son, there are 2 parishes (Dong Tram and Mac Dong Tan) with 2 spacious churches led by Priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc. The church of Mac Dong Tan parish was built in 1994, while the church of Dong Tram parish was just completed and put into use in 2011. All 5 churches in the area of Tuong Son and Hung Son communes have been granted land use right certificates by the State and recognized as places to organize legal religious activities. In Dong Tram parish, there are many parishioners who do well in business, with a total annual income of several hundred million VND, such as the families of Dau Dinh Tam, Le Xuan Long, Dau Van Sang...
Religious works always reflect the true nature of the life of believers. In fact, in recent times, the lives of parishioners in the two communes of Tuong Son and Hung Son have improved a lot, hunger and poverty have been pushed back. People have actively participated in agricultural production and developed many additional jobs such as: civil carpentry, making vermicelli, rice paper, wet rice cake... many households have large-scale businesses and have bought cars. Coming to Quan Lang Parish, looking at the 5 spacious and majestic churches as they are today, surely many people cannot help but admire the beauty and prosperity of this religious region. And not everywhere has a large number of churches like Quan Lang Parish to fully meet the needs of preaching and organizing ceremonies of priests as well as the needs of religious activities and beliefs of all parishioners... Coming to Quan Lang, seeing these 5 places of worship made us wonder when we looked back at the illegal proselytizing behavior of priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish in Con Cuong district for a long time, that is why the priests (specifically currently Priest Ngo Van Hau and Nguyen Dinh Thuc) and religious dignitaries mobilized hundreds of followers of Quan Lang Parish to Yen Khe commune to organize illegal ceremonies? - While the distance from Quan Lang Parish to Yen Khe commune (where the illegal ceremony was held) is over 25 km long. It is easy to see that bringing believers to other places to perform ceremonies like that has caused waste of resources.
facilities (church system), wasting time, effort and money (gasoline costs) of parishioners. Not to mention the travel with a large number of vehicles (mainly motorbikes) on dangerous mountain roads will affect traffic safety and order, threatening the lives of believers.
Obviously, the priests and religious dignitaries mobilizing parishioners to Yen Khe commune to perform illegal ceremonies were not for religious purposes but for political motives, specifically using the majority to put pressure on the authorities of Con Cuong district; intentionally causing illegal incidents such as on July 1-2; leading to the consequence of 58 Catholic and non-Catholic people of Con Cuong and Anh Son being injured and hospitalized.
For the past two days, people in Tuong Son commune have been very concerned and following the health of Ms. Ngo Thi Thanh - who was seriously injured after being hit in the head by a stone during a fight on July 1 and had to be hospitalized. Immediately after being injured, her family transferred her to Viet Duc Hospital (Hanoi) for surgery. Up to now, the surgery was successful and her life is no longer in danger... Ms. Ngo Thi Thanh is 34 years old this year, married with 4 young children, currently residing in Hamlet 12, Tuong Son commune. Ms. Ngo Thi Thanh's family life is not yet prosperous, the main source of income depends on farming and rice fields, her husband is in Laos working. Like many other parishioners in Quan Lang parish, on the afternoon of July 1, listening to the advice of parish priest Ngo Van Hau and religious dignitaries, Ms. Thanh went to Yen Khe commune to attend an illegal proselytizing session.
The question is, why did a woman with many children and a difficult family life like Ms. Thanh travel 25 km to Yen Khe and end up being injured and losing her life? The priests and religious dignitaries of Quan Lang must be held responsible for these consequences for the parishioners of Quan Lang.
Up to now, many parishioners in Quan Lang still show bitterness and use inaccurate words whenever mentioning the law violations of priests, dignitaries and extremist parishioners in Yen Khe commune. Because they were infected, incited and distorted in the priests' preaching sessions, they said things that were contrary to the truth, even fabricated or distorted to cause disunity and deepen conflicts with the authorities in Con Cuong. It was the priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish who deliberately "confused and beat the wrong person" so that the parishioners of Quan Lang Parish (those who did not attend the illegal ceremony in Yen Khe Commune) did not know that: In the disturbance, assault, and illegal detention of people by priests, dignitaries, and extremist parishioners, not only Ms. Ngo Thi Thanh was seriously injured, but also 58 people of Yen Khe Commune had to be hospitalized for emergency treatment, including Ms. Vi Thi Hoa (50 years old, residing in Pha Village, Yen Khe Commune, Con Cuong District) who was beaten to the point of having a traumatic brain injury, and is currently in a deep coma at the Provincial General Hospital. They did not know that 43 people of Yen Khe Commune were detained, tortured, and brutally beaten many times for 12 hours by priests, dignitaries, and extremist believers, including 15 women (1 pregnant woman) who could not escape the blows and batons; some Yen Khe residents were even humiliated and forced to lick feet by the parishioners...
The misconceptions of many parishioners in Quan Lang Parish originated from the fact that recently, taking advantage of spiritual beliefs, priests and religious dignitaries in Quan Lang Parish have instilled in the minds of parishioners incorrect ideas about proselytizing and organizing illegal ceremonies in Yen Khe commune. During church ceremonies, priests often preach that the Party and the State allow freedom of religious belief, but the authorities at all levels in Con Cuong have prevented parishioners in Yen Khe commune from performing ceremonies. Therefore, parishioners in Quan Lang Parish must support Yen Khe parishioners by going there to pray, essentially to put pressure on the local authorities. Thus, priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish have deliberately ignored the State's regulations that organizing ceremonies and building religious worship facilities must be approved and approved by the local authorities...
On the afternoon of July 1, the priests and the parish council of Quan Lang ordered the church bells to be rung and mobilized a large number of parishioners (with weapons) to go to Yen Khe to cause disorder. This incident shows that in Quan Lang parish, priests have taken advantage of their religious prestige to incite their parishioners to do illegal things and things contrary to Catholic doctrine... On July 2, the priests and the parish council of Quan Lang rang the church bells again, with 4 contents: Thanking parishioners for being for the church; praying for Ms. Ngo Thi Thanh; Calling for strengthening faith; Expanding relationships between parishes and parishes... We also have information that the priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang parish are still luring parishioners to continue going to Yen Khe commune, Con Cuong district to participate in illegal ceremonies. Thus, up to this moment, the priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang parish are still deliberately leading parishioners into breaking the law.
Currently, many people in Yen Khe commune who were assaulted and beaten by extremist parishioners following the priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish are still hospitalized and have not recovered. Public opinion in Con Cuong district is highly indignant, not excluding the worst possibility that people spontaneously gather to react against the extremist parishioners... The priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish know this clearly but still poison and incite parishioners to perform illegal ceremonies in Con Cuong. It is not difficult to realize that the priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish are deliberately leading believers into the path of violating the law, causing disorder to serve political motives, with the aim of sabotaging and violating the discipline of the law.
Our Party and State always respect the freedom of religious belief and recognize legal religious works, but will severely punish organizations and individuals who take advantage of religious freedom to serve political motives, disrupt social order and destroy community solidarity. Priests and religious dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish and neighboring areas need to immediately stop their illegal acts and their intentions to incite parishioners to violate the law; to be worthy of the faith and love of their flocks and the prestige of Catholicism. At the same time, parishioners need to quickly recognize the nature of the matter to avoid being lured and incited to carry out impure schemes and unintentionally become "puppets" in the hands of priests and dignitaries of Quan Lang Parish with political ambitions.
The desire of the government and all the people of Nghe An, regardless of religion or belief, is to live in a peaceful, healthy society filled with humanity because all Vietnamese people - the people of Nghe An were born from "a sac of eggs of Mother Au Co".
Leaders of Con Cuong and Anh Son districts visit victims of the brawl in Yen Khe On the morning of July 2, Con Cuong district organized a working delegation led by District Party Secretary Vi Xuan Giap, along with Chairman of the District People's Committee Hoang Dinh Tuan and leaders of social organizations and unions of the district to visit and encourage the injured who are being treated at the district hospital. Many agencies, units and unions also organized visits and encouraged the injured such as: District Police, District Forest Rangers, District Television Station..., helping them to quickly stabilize their spirits and feel secure during treatment. |
Group of reporters and collaborators
