Mass Outlawed In Vietnamese Town

[Aragon]

A town in North Vietnam forbad Catholics to gather for Mass for several Sundays this last June, sending police to close off the church.

http://www.dici.org/en/news/vietnam-civil-authorities-outlaw-the-mass-in-the-north-of-the-country/

[homeschoolmom]

[dymphnamaria]

That's very sad news. Let us offer a prayer for our brothers and sisters in Vietnam.

[Aragon]

I went to my first Vietnamese Mass last week. It was really beautiful, the priest and congregation chanted the whole thing and the people were very reverent.

[Nola Seminarian]

The Vietnamese people have a great love for God. It's amazing what they go through to worship. My brother seminarian from Vietnam Thuc tells me stories from time to time about it. I will keep them in prayer

[Amory]

Thanks be to God for French imperialism, which caused the faith to be brought to the Vietnamese.

[Ice_nine]

[quote name='Amory' timestamp='1344898481' post='2467167']
Thanks be to God for French imperialism, which caused the faith to be brought to the Vietnamese.
[/quote]

um, 4 srs? Or trollin?

[the171]

He isn't trolling..

[Nola Seminarian]

I too doubt he's trolling ice 9

[Ice_nine]

O, I am not familiar with this amory fellow, but if he is forreal . . . thas too bad

[southern california guy]

I went to my first Vietnamese Mass last week. It was really beautiful, the priest and congregation chanted the whole thing and the people were very reverent.

Wow, you speak Vietnamese?!  

 

I think that Vietnam has the largest Catholic population in Asia.  Vietnam used to be split with Buddhists in the north and Catholics in the south, right? And the South Vietnamese ultimately defeated the North Vietnamese Buddhist communists in the Vietnam war, right? (I confess I'm a little weak on my history of the Vietnam war -- or the "American War" as the Vietnamese call it).

 

I do know that the capital of Vietnam is Hanoi, and that is way up in the north.  It is amazing to me that they would try to stop Catholics from holding Mass.  I think that the majority of the country is Catholic now, isn't it?

[PhuturePriest]

The Vietnamese people are astoundingly Catholic. I was at a nail salon once (Sue me), and this Vietnamese guy saw my Rosary hanging from my belt loop. We got to discussing Catholicism in Vietnam. He said he was Buddhist, but when he was in Vietnam he remembered all of the Catholics would go to Mass come hell or high water, and that on Solemnities like Easter and Christmas they would go on Saturday night in huge numbers and Mass would last all night. It's really sad that things are getting this way in such a devout country.

Edited June 20, 2013 by FuturePriest387

[Luigi]

 

I think that Vietnam has the largest Catholic population in Asia.  Vietnam used to be split with Buddhists in the north and Catholics in the south, right? And the South Vietnamese ultimately defeated the North Vietnamese Buddhist communists in the Vietnam war, right? (I confess I'm a little weak on my history of the Vietnam war -- or the "American War" as the Vietnamese call it).

 

I do know that the capital of Vietnam is Hanoi, and that is way up in the north.  It is amazing to me that they would try to stop Catholics from holding Mass.  I think that the majority of the country is Catholic now, isn't it?

 

It's not as simple as that. The divide was never North/South Buddhist/Catholic.

 

A great many Vietnamese did become Catholic under French rule, back before it was divided into North & South. There were/are two Carmelite monasteries in Vietnam, one in Hanoi (in the north) and one in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, in the south), so the north-south split is not an accurate depiction. The Communist view of Catholic Vietnamese was that they were collaborating with the imperialist French rulers. It was also viewed by the Communists as a socioeconomic split - those who collaborated with the imperialist rulers tended to do better for themselves (under the imperialist rulers) than those who remained traditional Buddhists. So the Communists considered the Catholics to be bourgeois social climbers, boot lickers of the French, non-traditional, and lots of other bad stuff.

 

When the Communists took control of the north and the country was divided, a lot of northern Catholics moved south if they could, but they couldn't all.

 

When the South fell to the Communist North, a great many South Vietnamese Catholics got the hell out of Vietnam, if they could. They knew it would not go well for Catholics under Communist rule.

 

Most of those who got out came to the US because the US had helped defend South Vietnam and because the US supports religious freedom - at least it did back then. But not all Catholics could get out or even wanted to get out. 

 

So inside Vietnam right now, there are many vocations to the Cistercian monks; they're growing so rapidly that they can't keep up with it all. And they're founding monasteries in this country - one in California last year I think, and they're going to start moving into the Trappist monastery in Ava Missouri (no vocations in 60 years). And I've read of Vietnamese monks living in other monasteries for a couple of years at a time to learn about monastic formation, administration, and so forth. And other groups are doing very well, too - I think the Redemptorists are doing very well in Vietnam. 

 

And of the Vietnamese Catholics who made it to the US after the fall of Saigon, they're doing very well, too. There's a congregation of men in Carthage, MO (Vietnamese-speaking and serving the Vietnamese Catholic community; Congregation of Mary Co-Redemptrix) and a large congregation of Dominicans (active women - also Vietnamese-speaking and serving the Vietnamese Catholic community) in Texas. And I think it was Vietnamese Carmelite nuns who just took over the monastery in Mobile, AL - no American vocations and the remaining four sisters needed to move into a nursing home.  And then there are Vietnamese individually joining English-speaking congregations or monasteries around the country. 

 

It's a fascinating story. I hope somebody writes the history of it all. 

[southern california guy]

It's not as simple as that. The divide was never North/South Buddhist/Catholic.

 

A great many Vietnamese did become Catholic under French rule, back before it was divided into North & South. There were/are two Carmelite monasteries in Vietnam, one in Hanoi (in the north) and one in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, in the south), so the north-south split is not an accurate depiction. The Communist view of Catholic Vietnamese was that they were collaborating with the imperialist French rulers. It was also viewed by the Communists as a socioeconomic split - those who collaborated with the imperialist rulers tended to do better for themselves (under the imperialist rulers) than those who remained traditional Buddhists. So the Communists considered the Catholics to be bourgeois social climbers, boot lickers of the French, non-traditional, and lots of other bad stuff.

 

When the Communists took control of the north and the country was divided, a lot of northern Catholics moved south if they could, but they couldn't all.

 

When the South fell to the Communist North, a great many South Vietnamese Catholics got the hell out of Vietnam, if they could. They knew it would not go well for Catholics under Communist rule.

 

Most of those who got out came to the US because the US had helped defend South Vietnam and because the US supports religious freedom - at least it did back then. But not all Catholics could get out or even wanted to get out. 

 

So inside Vietnam right now, there are many vocations to the Cistercian monks; they're growing so rapidly that they can't keep up with it all. And they're founding monasteries in this country - one in California last year I think, and they're going to start moving into the Trappist monastery in Ava Missouri (no vocations in 60 years). And I've read of Vietnamese monks living in other monasteries for a couple of years at a time to learn about monastic formation, administration, and so forth. And other groups are doing very well, too - I think the Redemptorists are doing very well in Vietnam. 

 

And of the Vietnamese Catholics who made it to the US after the fall of Saigon, they're doing very well, too. There's a congregation of men in Carthage, MO (Vietnamese-speaking and serving the Vietnamese Catholic community; Congregation of Mary Co-Redemptrix) and a large congregation of Dominicans (active women - also Vietnamese-speaking and serving the Vietnamese Catholic community) in Texas. And I think it was Vietnamese Carmelite nuns who just took over the monastery in Mobile, AL - no American vocations and the remaining four sisters needed to move into a nursing home.  And then there are Vietnamese individually joining English-speaking congregations or monasteries around the country. 

 

It's a fascinating story. I hope somebody writes the history of it all. 

Thank you for your great post!  It is a fascinating story.  

[Lil Red]

necro thread, holy smokes. :rolleyes: