Before the law, all citizens are equal!

(Baonghean) -Anyone who violates the law, regardless of who they are, will be dealt with according to the law. That is the truth. That truth needs to be implemented. This truth was also affirmed at the Vatican during the working meetings of the Vietnamese Government's Religious Affairs Committee delegation at the Vatican from September 15-20, 2013.

According to the VNA correspondent in Rome on September 19, 2013, at these meetings, the Vatican continued to emphasize its desire to further develop relations with Vietnam, and stated that: "...Vietnamese Catholics need to respect the government and strictly comply with Vietnam's laws and policies...". This shows that the Vatican attaches great importance to the enforcement and compliance with the law, unlike some religious dignitaries in their own country. Through the incident in Nghi Phuong commune, it is clear that some people have blatantly acted against the provisions of the law. Here I want to talk about Father Dang Huu Nam - parish priest of Binh Thuan, Nghi Thuan commune and Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop - head of the Xa Doai Bishopric.

With Father Dang Huu Nam, although he did not have permission from the local government, on the other hand, he was not a dignitary of My Yen parish, but on May 22, 2013, he came to hold a ceremony at Trai Gao Church, My Yen parish. This ceremony was attended by many parishioners from other parishes and the content was to pray together for the defendants who committed crimes of activities aimed at overthrowing the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, who were brought to the Supreme People's Court for appeal in Vinh City on May 23, 2013 (exactly 1 day after the ceremony). Here, Mr. Nam openly declared that the defendants who were about to be brought to trial were "seeds for humanity to see that the truth is the truth..." and "patriots unjustly convicted by the authorities...". Afterwards, many parishioners violently attacked the police working group on duty, destroyed citizens' property and caused many disturbances and chaos in Nghi Phuong commune.

As for Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop - the head of Vinh Diocese, but when faced with incidents, he was indifferent to the requests for cooperation from authorities at all levels. If he appeared at places where chaos occurred, he was the one who "added fuel to the fire" with irresponsible, untrue statements and incited violence. Even when appearing on the Vinh Diocese website and some reactionary websites and radio stations specializing in propaganda against the Vietnamese regime, he blatantly made up and slandered words. I was very surprised when I read the "Common Letter" on the Vinh Diocese website on September 6, 2013 by Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop. Just through the sentence "...I earnestly invite you to pray, offer sacrifices as well as take concrete actions to express communion with My Yen parish...", it was clear that none other than Bishop Nguyen Thai Hop was the one who incited the parishioners.

I know that in 2009, at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican, during a meeting with the Bishops of the Vietnamese Bishops' Council, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Vietnamese Catholics to practice in their daily lives with charity, honesty and strong love for society: "A good Catholic is also a good citizen". And this saying has become famous, becoming the direction for the Vietnamese Catholic community. According to the will of Pope Benedict XVI, dignitaries like Dang Huu Nam and Nguyen Thai Hop are clearly not worthy of being "shepherds".

And I think that if Nghe An Provincial Police had prosecuted and temporarily detained Nguyen Van Hai and Ngo Van Khoi to investigate the crime of “Disturbing public order” on May 22, 2013; prosecuted the case of “Disturbing public order”, “resisting law enforcement officers”, “illegally detaining people” that occurred on August 30, September 3 and September 4, 2013 in Nghi Phuong commune, then it is necessary to consider the “mastermind” behavior of Mr. Nam and Mr. Hop to prosecute them. Only then can we demonstrate the dignity of the law, and truly say: Before the law, all citizens are equal!

Binh An (Hung Phuc Ward, Vinh City)