"foreign agents" or members of "clandestine and illegal organizations." They were either sentenced to forced labor or sent to concentration camps.32 On May 7-8, 1955, after a spectacular trial in Hanoi, five students were found guilty of spreading propaganda favoring evacuation to the South, it was reported. 33 Another device in the attempt to prevent refugees from fleeing to the South was the creation of the movement called "training to foil the intrigues of the propagandists for the exodus toward the South." The group of people were entrusted with preventing the sale of real estate, livestock, rice fields, belonging to emigrants; inciting inhabitants to refuse hospitality, ferry-crossings, and truck or barge transportation to departing people; encouraging inhabitants to spy on each other and to denounce all attempts to escape; dispersing those who want to contact the ICC; arresting suspects, leaders, petitioners, and taking action against them for imaginary crimes; increasing the obstacles in the process of issuing permits.34 As indicated in another source, the Viet Minh authorities prevented refugees from departing by means of intimidation, force, barring refugees from using indispensable means of transportation, and economic penalties that amount to forfeiture of a family's chief possessions.35 A radio dispatch from Hanoi mentioned the delayed, incomplete communication with and restrictions on priests in the Viet Minh area: One hundred and eighteen priests are held prisoners by the Communist Vietminh, according to mission authorities in Vietnam. Their information is delayed, perhaps incomplete. It is possible that some of the priests are dead. The Geneva Agreement calls for the release of all civilian as well as military prisoners by August 20. One hundred and two priest-prisoners are Vietnamese; one is a Laotian; 15 are foreigners. Thirteen of the foreign priests are French; two are Belgian * * *. In the Vietminh areas, priests not imprisoned are restricted in their movements. They are usually confined to one village, sometimes to just the church premises. Of the four Bishops in the Vietminh area at the time of the cease-fire, none is free. One is imprisoned and the other three have been removed from their residences and virtually interned ***.36 According to another report, on August 15, 1954, 3,000 Catholics in Thuong Phuc, desiring religious freedom, tried to escape, the account of which follows: Three thousand Vietnamese Catholics who had lived under the Red Vietminh for 28 months tried to break through the Iron Curtain August 15. They were mostly parishioners of Thuong Phuc in the Thai Binh province. Despite the Geneva Agreement the Vietminh made eight attempts to stop them. Some of the Thuong Phuc people, including a 68-year-old parish priest, Father Vincent Thiep, did not get through. About 600, however, reached the refugee camp in a country church near here. It took them four days to make the journey of about 40 miles. They and their Catholic neighbors had decided to leave their villages and seek evacuation to south Vietnam, they said. They arranged to set out after 7 o'clock Mass, August 15. *** * Ibid. "Ibid. 34 Ibid., p. 72. 35 National Catholic Welfare Conference, "Terror in Vietnam," Washington, D.C., National Catholic Welfare Conference, pp. 6--10. 36 Ibid., p. 11. Why did they want to leave their houses and fields and the villages of their forefathers? Because under the Vietminh-"The Democratic Republic of Vietnam"-they did not have freedom, especially religious freedom. The The Vietminh occupied the territory since April 1952. They arrested the assistant priest, Father Dominic Khang, twice. He had to leave in May 1953. parish priest was not allowed to attend sick calls outside the village. The dying could receive the Sacraments only if they were carried across country to the church. You had to show a pass issued by the Vietminh to come into the village for Mass. At their meeting the Vietminh attacked Bishops and priests. Every house was obliged to have three pictures, Ho Chi-Minh, Mao Tse-tung and Malenkov, and three flags, the Vietminh, the Chinese and the Soviet Russian. When the Catholics gathered outside of their church after Mass on the 15th, a group of Vietminh ordered them to wait for a meeting. For more than an hour, the Vietminh harangued them arguing against departure. The people were unimpressed. They went home, got their little bundles and set out-men, women and children-for freedom. Father Thiep headed the column. A short distance from the main village, armed Vietminh soldiers, estimated at about 500, barred the road. They seized the priest and dragged him into a ricefield. Dominic Tap, aged 58, was beaten with guns. Eleven other men were thrown on the ground and their arms bound tightly behind their backs with wire. One weatherworn peasant rolled up his sleeve and showed the mark of the wire, visible 6 days later. Soldiers marched the priest back to the village. About 1,000 of his parishioners turned back. The others stood ground. After a while the Vietminh unbound the eleven men and harangued the people again. Smaller now but still determined, the column of refugees started moving forward once more. Through the next 4 days they struggled on against threats and obstacles. Twice armed Vietminh soldiers tried to stop them. At a former French outpost Vietminh guards put a barbed wire barrier across the road to prevent them from passing. The refugees walked into flooded rice fields to go around the barrier. All, including women carrying infants, went through the breast-high water. At Vannam, the Vietminh ordered the boatman not to ferry them across the river. Some turned back here. Some went to join Catholics preparing to leave another parish * * *. They succeeded in hiring boats to cross the river at Ninh Giang. The next day about 200 paid to ride motor vehicles going to Haiduong in the free zone. Vietminh intervened forbidding vehicles to carry the rest. These set out on foot toward Dienan. That would mean another wide river to cross. When they reached it the Vietminh ordered boatmen not to take them. They spent two nights on that river bank. Five Vietminh tried to make them move back. One young refugee overheard Vietminh proposing to take babies from mothers' arms to force families back * * Father Dominic Khang, the former assistant at Thuong Phuc now in the refugee camp near here, heard that the refugees were stranded at the river. This river is the boundary for the free zone. He went and stood on the opposite bank. The people recognized the cassocked figure. Five men plunged in and swam across. Dripping and breathless they were helped ashore by their former curate. He tried desperately to get means of bringing others across. He could hire only one rowboat which he brought by truck to the river. On the morning of August 19, Father Khang and his helpers started ferrying refugees over. Only about a dozen could fit into the boat. Providential help came after the third crossing. Nine Catholic fishing boats came sailing up the river ***. With these large boats joining the rescue operations all the refugees were safely landed on the upper bank in three hours. *** They've given up all their possessions except what they could carry. But that includes their greatest treasure, the faith which they carry in their hearts.37 37 Ibid., pp. 12-14. Another radio dispatch reported that in Thai Binh province 6,500 refugees, seeking escape, most of whom were Catholics, were stranded on a sandbank. When their lives were threatened by the rising tide, a French ship, by virtue of international law, moved in to their rescue.38 There were a countless number of such reports of the plight of the refugees in the years immediately following the Geneva Agreement. Religious persecution as the reason for the mass exodus of Catholics to the South is exemplified as follows: areas The Communist Vietminh oblige Catholics to attend classes in atheism. They forbid the teaching of catechism to Catholic children. They have imprisoned more than 40 priests in one region *** that is the picture given here by a Catholic refugee from central Vietnam. It is confirmed by accounts in other Communists from other places conduct classes that all must attend ** The instructors call the Mass "a joke" and deny the existence of God, heaven, and hell. Everyone who can write is obliged to take notes and join in discussions afterwards. If you refuse to take notes or to agree with the instructors during discussions, you are "reactionary." The Catholic primary school was the only one in the district. The Vietminh took it over and teach the children straight Marxism ***.39 The freedom of conscience is worth the price of abandoning possessions: There are 1,400,000 Christians in north Vietnam who wish to escape the domination of the Vietminh, declared Father George de Rochcau, who has recently visited Indochina as the representative of His Eminence Maurice Cardinal Feltin, Archbishop of Paris. This number, he said, represented those "who wish to save the freedom of their conscience at the price of abandoning all their possessions." 40 An example of the cruelty suffered by the clergy is reported as follows: The following missionaries died in captivity in north Vietnam: seven members of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (Monsignor Eloy and Fathers Morineau, Belieres, Corbel, Bourlet and Le Gourrierec); the Franciscan Superior of Vinh; the Sulpician Director of the Seminary of Hanoi; the Sister Superior of the Carmel of Thanh Hoa; a Sister of the community of Our Lady of the Missions; two Belgian priests of the Society of Mission Auxiliaries. The two Belgian priests of the Society of Mission Auxiliaries were treated with extraordinary cruelty during their captivity. They were taken prisoner in Bui-Chu. Why these priests who belong to a Society whose members work under native religious superiors were singled out for exceptionally harsh treatment is especially difficult to understand. Their society * * is very "anticolonialist.” The two priests were chained hand and foot; they suffered atrocious and endless agony as they were bound to one another for long periods of time; they were devoured by sores and swollen with beriberi and left without any care. In their last hours they had the consolation of the priestly ministry of a number of Vietnamese priests who were imprisoned with them. It is not possible to guess how many Vietnamese priests died in prison. Eight Vietnamese priests were liberated in the beginning of October but it is estimated that there are about 100, concerning whom there is no precise information, still in captivity."1 Two cases of restrictions of religious freedom with regard to prisoners of war were cited: The Communist Vietminh allow no chaplains to minister to French or Vietnamese prisoners of war, even though they hold chaplains as prisoners. Neither do they allow civilian priests to say Mass for the prisoners or give them the Sacraments ***. Hundreds of prisoners have died, they say, on exhausting marches and in the camps. They died without priest or minister. At their 38 Ibid., pp. 23-24. 39 Ibid., p. 37. 40 Ibid., p. 38. 41 Ibid., pp. 38-39. Outside that, *. The burial their comrades stood for a few moments of prayer in silence. there was no gathering for religious purposes in the prison camps Communists keep the chaplains in the same camp with the officers. They keep the officers away from the men. They are known to have eight priests, five commissioned chaplains and three auxiliary chaplains, among their prisoners ✶ ✶ ✶.42 Three French chaplains-two Catholics and one Protestant, and all captured at Dien Bien Phu-made a joint protest to Vietminh prison camp authorities against measures blocking them from ministering to other prisoners. The chaplains-Father Yvan Heinrich of Rheims, Father Michel Trinquand of Meaux, and Protestant Pastor Pierre Tissot-presented a signed protest to the Vietminh official on the eve of their liberation. They had made fruitless requests and protests earlier in their captivity ***. In their protest, *** the chaplains said they "felt bound to express their regrets and their protests because they were put into cells and cut off from the other prison camps and thus it was impossible for them to exercise their ministry." The protest quoted the Geneva Convention of 1949 which provides that military chaplains in detention should have every liberty to discharge their spiritual functions for the prisoners of their side. When Father Heinrich quoted this provision of the Geneva Convention on an earlier occasion, a camp official answered with cynical frankness that the Vietminh would observe such international conventions only if it suited their political objectives. A thousand men died without the Sacraments in prison camps though the Vietminh held priests, both army chaplains and missionaries, whom they would not allow to give spiritual care to the prisoners.43 In November 1960, following the admission by the government of mistakes made during the land reform, revolts broke out in Nghe-An province. Radio Hanoi reported that 4,000 villagers took part in these uprisings. Refugees, however, claimed that their number totaled between 13,000 and 15,000. The villagers, believed to be mainly Catholics, possessing only the most primitive weapons, including bamboo sticks and knives, were crushed by the armored units of the regime.45 44 Further actions taken by the Government can be seen from the following incidents. One source reported that after parochial schools refused to teach Marxism, they were closed by the Government.46 The same source also asserted that an archbishop was charged as an "American spy" while another priest was accused of 80 murders.47 On November 6, 1958, Msgr. André Jacq, apostolic coadjutor of Langson, was expelled. Two Canadian Redemptrists, Father Thomas Coate and Father Denis Paquette, charged with "antigovernmental activities," also suffered the same fate.48 In 1959 Father O'Driscoll, the last Vatican Representative to Hanoi was expelled at the point of machine guns." 49 According to J. P. Honey: The Roman Catholics *** have proved to be the Communists' most persistent and uncompromising opponents ***. Despite all the regime's effortsthe Vietnamese Catholics have been threatened, obstructed, maltreated, and even cajoled-it has failed to win over the Catholics*** 50 42 Ibid., p. 45. 43 Ibid., pp. 45-46. 44 Asian People's Anti-Communist League, Vietnam, "The Quynh Luu Uprisings," n.p., 1957, pp. 13-17. Richard L. G. Deverell, "Revolt in North Vietnam," America, XCII, No. 26 (Mar. 30, 1957), pp. Recent policies of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam toward the Catholics include: ** arrest of the priests and the faithful, confiscation of church property, interdiction of correspondence with church authorities located outside the territory of the Republic, excessive taxation of church land and buildings, etc. *** 51 These policies are familiar to other Communist states and are consistent with Communist ideology since according to Truong Chinh, former Secretary General of the Vietnamese Communist Party and Vice Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam: The aim of the present revolution is that the entire people, and particularly the working people should thoroughly absorb the Socialist ideology, that they should abandon their previous outlook on life and on the world and replace it with a Marxist viewpoint. Thus Marxism-Leninism will assume a leading role in guiding the moral life of our country and will become the framework within which the whole nation is formed. It will serve as the foundation upon which the ethics of our people will be built.52 IV. PROMOTION OF ANTIRELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA OF THE GOVERNMENT See sections III and VI. V. STATISTICS ON CLERGYMEN, THEIR EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT According to sources currently available in the Library of Congress there were between 1,430 53 and 1,500 54 Catholic priests in the country of Vietnam before the Communist takeover. One report indicated that according to the census of 1952 in the Northern apostolic vicariates of Bui-Chu, Thanh-Hoa, Hung-Hoa, Bac-Ninh, Thai-Binh, Lang-Son, Vinh, Phat-Diem, and Hanoi there were 1,000 secular priests. By the end of December 1954, however, it was believed that only about 450 of them remained in the North, the rest having fled to the South. 55 There seem to be no reliable statistics available on the present number of clergymen in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. One source indicates that in 1962 three seminaries were still functioning, with less than 100 seminarians.56 In 1954, there were 32 foreign Catholic missionaries: and by 1962 all except 6 were expelled.5 57 Information concerning the efforts and provisions by the Government to promote the education and recruitment of new clergymen is very scanty. One Communist publication claims that * * * in 1959, the seminaries of Bui Chu, Thai Binh, Phat Diem, Bac Ninh, and Hung Hoa, were reopened and attended by thousands of students. In 1957, the Xa Doai seminary began ordaining priests. At present, all the dioceses in North Vietnam have their bishops, among whom are Reverend Khuat Van Tai appointed by the Vatican in 1957 (the first bishop consecrated under the new regime) governing the diocese of Haiphong, and Reverend Tao, consecrated in 1959, in charge of the diocese of Phat Diem.58 s Fall, “Le Viet-Minh,” p. 166. 52 Chi. p. 117. 3 Trận-Minh-Tiet, p. 267. & Fall, “Le Viet-Minh, p. 166. s Trân-Minh-Tiet, pp. 244-245. 58 U.S. Army area handbook for Vietnam. Prepared by the Foreign Areas Studies Division, Special Operations Research Office, Washington, D.C., September 1962, p. 137. 37 Ibid. 58 The Catholics in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam," p. 12. |