Peace in Phu Xuan Parish

Push back social evils

Quynh Tam Commune is located more than 10 km from the center of Quynh Luu District, the land at the southwestern end of the district. The commune has 2,082 households with 9,634 people; area 22.32 km²stretching along the semi-mountainous terrain and is the place adjacent to 3 districts: Nghia Dan, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau. Therefore, Quynh Tam commune has many advantages for economic development and trade, but this also makes the security and order situation in the area always potentially complicated. From 2019 onwards, Quynh Tam commune was known as a hot spot for security and order in Quynh Luu district, the crime situation in the area had many complicated developments, property theft, lottery, gambling, especially drug use occurred frequently.

In addition, many local children work as long-distance drivers, and after each trip, they often gather with friends to drink alcohol, leading to fights. Not only that, Phu Xuan Parish is often visited by many people from neighboring areas. During their stay in the locality, some bad people have lured and enticed local children to commit petty theft and participate in social evils.

Realizing that situation, the commune government determined that in order to push back social evils and prevent and combat crimes in the area, it was necessary to gradually overcome the causes. Therefore, in 2019, the model "Peaceful Parish" was born, attracting the participation of many Catholics of Phu Xuan Parish.

To deploy the model"Peaceful Parish", the commune government and the Public Security Department have established criteria to ensure the standards of "Safety in security and order". In addition, 25 inter-family groups have been established in 2 hamlets and organized the signing of the "Safe Inter-family Group" commitment; coordinated with priests, parish pastoral councils, and congregations to propagate and mobilize people to strictly comply with the policies and laws of the State.

The inter-commune flag road was contributed and built by the people of Phu Xuan Parish. Photo: An Quynh

Thanks to that, from 2019 to now, the security and order situation in the area has had many positive changes. Head of Quynh Tam Commune Police - Mr. Ho Quang Thach said: "The Commune Police Department regularly coordinates with priests, parish pastoral councils, and congregations to discuss security and order. When children show signs of violating the law, we will coordinate to deter and prevent them." In 5 years, the functional forces have coordinated to arrest 3 cases related to drug trafficking and possession against 4 subjects; handled 2 theft cases in the area; established records and prosecuted 5 subjects related to gambling...

From the initial positive changes, the people of Phu Xuan Parish have deeply realized what are the right words and actions, building the movement "All people protect national security" associated with the peaceful life of local people.

Building a safe parish

After 5 years of implementation, the model of “Peaceful Parish” has created consensus among the majority of people, especially the Parish Priest of Phu Xuan. Since then, the parish and the local government have helped people feel secure in living, producing and maintaining great solidarity, joining hands to build new rural areas, build peaceful parishes, live good lives and follow their religion. Parishioners have also actively participated in movements launched by the locality, especially the emulation movement to build new rural areas, build safe residential areas in terms of security, order and economic development.

Cameras are installed on many roads to ensure security and order. Photo: An Quynh

Based on the spirit of the “Peaceful Parish” model, the parish has established a self-management team for security and order with 40 members who are parishioners in the area. Through the model, parishioners have been gathered and mobilized to ensure security and order, build a parish free of social evils, and practice a civilized lifestyle. Each citizen becomes the “eyes and ears” to denounce crimes, prevent new social evils that are at risk of occurring, and clean up the area. In the past 2 years, parishioners have provided the authorities with 10 valuable sources of information, helping the police to promptly investigate and handle the case.

At many complicated points, the Commune Police force has coordinated with the Pastoral Council to mobilize people to install public cameras along the inter-commune roads. Realizing the benefits, people have responded very positively. Currently, the commune has 8 camera eyes connected directly to the Commune Police headquarters. The cameras are installed at important gateway locations, contributing to limiting incidents that cause insecurity and disorder. The situation of young people causing trouble and destruction has decreased significantly.

“At the time the model was launched, the local government was also worried because they were afraid that the results would not be as expected by the people. However, what we wanted was to create the best and safest living conditions so that people could feel secure in their production. At the same time, we wanted to build solidarity between the community and the government. Then, no matter how difficult the problem was, it would be easy to solve,” said Mr. Le Dinh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Quynh Tam Commune.

Thanks to the effectiveness of the “Peaceful Parish” model, Quynh Tam commune has ensured security and order in the area, as well as created a close connection between the Parish Pastoral Council and the local government. Quynh Tam commune reached the new rural area in 2018 and is expected to reach the advanced new rural area in 2024. Achieving that result is partly due to the efforts of the parishioners of Phu Xuan Parish.

In addition, in response to the movements "Clear roads, airy sidewalks, civilized villages" and "Flag roads, great solidarity electric lines" of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Quynh Tam commune, the people of Phu Xuan parish contributed more than 400 million VND with 438 poles for the lighting system, contributing to reducing traffic accidents and property theft.

The camera system transmits images to the Commune Police for monitoring and processing. Photo: An Quynh

In particular, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Parish Priest and the Pastoral Council, the parish, the parishioners and the parishioners actively participated in supporting the prevention and control of the pandemic, such as: The parish supported clean water for quarantine areas, kitchens and duty posts. Supported the Vaccine Fund in the district with more than 10 million VND; supported cash and many other necessities. Not only that, Phu Xuan Parish also called on children working and living far from home to support 141 households in the village facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic with an amount of 36 million VND, ... Typically, many parishioners and families of parishioners actively participated in the movement "Good people, good deeds", building "Cultural families" with 100% of Catholic households registering. The parishioners were recognized as "Peaceful parishes", "Cultural parishes", contributing to maintaining security, order, social safety as well as building the great national unity bloc.

From the achieved results, in 2022, Phu Xuan Parish was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Provincial Police Director for its outstanding achievements in building the movement "Parishes and parishes are safe in terms of security and order"./.