Stop the New Vietnam War: They are imprisoning Catholics in Vietnam

In what was clearly a "kangaroo court", six faithful Catholics, not even allowed to have lawyers, were convicted of causing social disturbance and sentenced by the "People's Court" of Cam Le district, South Central Vietnam on Oct 27. The six were among 59 Vietnamese Catholics who were arrested on May 4th. They held a funeral procession for an 82 year old member of their parish and tried to bury her in the parish cemetery.

P>HANOI, Vietnam (Catholic Online) -  In what was clearly a "kangaroo court", six faithful Catholics, not even allowed to have lawyers, were convicted of causing social disturbance and sentenced by the "People's Court" of Cam Le district, South Central Vietnam on Oct 27. The six were among 59 Vietnamese Catholics who were arrested on May 4th. They held a funeral procession for an 82 year old member of their parish and tried to bury her in the parish cemetery. Police attacked the crowd. The faithful simply tried to defend themselves.

An attorney named Cu Huy Ha Vu tried to represent the wrongly accused Catholics. He was denied permission by the Regime. He told reporters that a source from the "People's Court", told him it would be unnecessary since their guilt had already been determined by the Communist Party and local leaders.

There were seven Catholics scheduled to stand trial on Wednesday Oct. 27, 2010. However, Nam Nguyen died after repeated beatings by police. U.S. Representatives Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-La.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) wrote impassioned letters to the President and the Prime Minister of Vietnam seeking their release.

Representative Cao told the Catholic News Agency, "the government of Vietnam needs to abide by internationally recognized standards for the protection of human rights. Having a sham court to convict people on trumped-up charges without (a) lawyer is not the conduct of a nation following the rule of law."

There is a new "Vietnam War" underway. The leftover remnant of the discredited and inhuman ideology of Maoism is now turning its ire against what has always been its greatest enemy, the only true humanism, the Christian faith. The fullness of that Christian faith, with the only systematic social development of the implications of that new and true humanism which can inform a new social movement, is found in the Catholic Church. That is why the denizens of death and the carriers of such a discredited ideology as Marxism have decided to strike against the Catholic Church. 

Old Marxists and Maoists never die, they just recreate themselves. Claiming, as their founders did, that the new man (or new woman) can somehow be created through a Statist manipulation of the political and economic order, they keep morphing into new expressions and pushing their old lies. In an age which has become what Pope Benedict rightly labeled a "dictatorship of relativism", rejecting all truth claims, they are finding traction once again.

Marxism, and its evil clone, the anti-life, anti-freedom and anti-human ideology of the cultural revolution of the former tyrant, the Chairman Mao Zedong, continue to enforce their agenda through State sponsored violence. Their greatest enemy is the Catholic Church and the message which she proclaims of true human liberation in and through Jesus Christ. There is a new Vietnam War breaking out and the world is paying little or no attention.

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These six Catholics of the Church at Tam Toa were prosecuted in a kangaroo court proceeding. They were held without bail, tortured and denied representation in a flagrant violation of the Natural law and international law. Where is the outrage in the international community? Where is the outrage in the United States of America?

We ask our readers throughout the world to pray for our persecuted brethren in Vietnam. Then, following the clear teaching of our Church, stand in solidarity with them and demand that they be afforded the full human rights that must be theirs in accordance with the Natural Law and the dictates of international law.

Over the last few years we have witnessed the growing hostility toward Christians as it reaches a global danger zone. "Christianophobia" is a word coined by the Holy See to explain this growing anti-Christian sentiment in our age. It is spreading in the European community, in America and throughout the entire world.

We have witnessed evil inflicted against Christians in Iraq, anti-Christian hostility spreading throughout the entire Middle East, attacks against Christians in Asia and violence against Christians in India. We have seen "Christianophobia" spread into countless other places through the insidious anti-Christian ideology fueling so much of the anti-life, anti-family and anti- freedom ideologies of the declining West.

Ironically, this latest example of Christianophobia comes in the Nation which so many of us, particularly Americans, still remember with regret, no matter which "side" of the failed Vietnam War we stood on, the Nation of Vietnam. That was then and this is now. There is a new Vietnam War being waged. They are attacking Catholics and seeking to silence the voice of authentic liberation, the Catholic Church. We must not fail this time.

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