PETITION TO UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
The Holy William S. Skylstad
Most Reverend Bishop President
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Spokane Catholic Diocese,
Washington
Cc: USCCB’s Cardinals, Archbishops
and Bishops
Re: Bishops and priests from
Vietnam frequently visit the U.S. to solicit cash donations.
Dear Bishop Skylstad,
After the fall of South Vietnam on
April 30th, 1975, we, the Vietnamese Catholics have been admitted to resettle
in the United States of America. We have been helped by American People to
resettle quickly and have made significant contributions to American society as
other immigrants and refugees who had come to the U.S. earlier. We have been
grateful to American government and People. Also, we have been cared and
religiously nourished by American Catholic Church. Therefore, today, among the
Shepherds we have one Bishop (Mai Thanh Luong), hundreds of priests and
thousands of male and female Church seminarian students. We profoundly
appreciate Jesus Christ, our Lord, and also American Catholic Church.
Even though having been forced to
leave our Motherland and Vietnam Catholic Church we always have thought of and
prayed for our native Church and deeply reflected ourselves on painful
situations in which our native Church has to suffer severely under the
Communist regime. Therefore, when the
Vietnam authority has started its “new, open-door policy” and established trade
relations with the US, we have rushed cash and gifts to our Motherland to help
our relatives and Vietnam Catholic Church in Vietnam.
When
Vietnamese Bishops and priests were allowed to visit other countries in the
free world, especially the US, we happily welcomed them and made big cash
donations so they could use it to complete their Church’s projects and help
other Catholic fellows in Vietnam. However, our initial goodwill has created
much more complicated situations with more disadvantages than advantages. Since then, Vietnamese Cardinals, Bishops,
priests and church seminarian students have frequently traveled to the US and
other free countries under their “formal missions” such as “Church missions
serving overseas Vietnamese”. In reality, they have mainly focused on
soliciting cash donations. In fact, we, the Vietnamese Catholics in the
Vietnamese Cardinals, Bishops,
priests and church students have spent several months to visit the U.S. Some
have stayed here for half a year or longer, just for visiting. Each visiting
Church official is able to raise hundreds of thousands dollars. Some collect
million dollars because they travel across 50 states and many other countries
with their made-up requests that they build and/ or rebuild churches and other
institutions such as institutions for retired priests, orphanages, educational
or cultural funds, etc. Our cash assistance that had been originally aimed to
meet our native Church’s critical demands has created damaging complications to
the Church in Vietnam and also has corrupted Church officials:
• The
rich-and-poor gaps between “traveling priests” to “solicit cash contributions”
and “no traveling priests” without cash are becoming increasingly wider. It
creates unbridgeable barriers between priests and divides parishioners. Some
parishioners admire and respect rich priests; others look down on poor priests.
Sometimes, easy cash distracts priests from Church duties. They use such “free
and easy cash” to finance their own selfish interests or worse than that they
have been seduced to materialistic enjoyment and eventually deviate from their
required priesthood duties.
• Going
abroad to solicit cash contributions are considered very “important”,
therefore, some priests are willing to accept the communist authorities’
conditions or compromise with the government to obtain exit visas. Traveling abroad is not citizen’s right but
is a privilege that can be negotiated with the government. For example: (1)
priests’ cash collections must be shared in percentage with authorities each
time priests are allowed to travel abroad, (2) priests are required to keep
their mouths shut, not to disclose horrified corruptions and repression of all
types in Vietnam, (3) priests should issue statements which are mostly favorable
to Vietnam authorities when they meet with Vietnamese Catholics or
non-Catholics in other countries. One
specific Bishop, Joseph Hoang Van Tiem, had accepted our cash donations but
showed disrespect to our traditional heritage flag of yellow background with
three horizontal stripes, our spiritual symbol of free Vietnamese. It has
resulted in serious conflicts between local Vietnamese American Catholics.
These conflicts became lawsuits in courts. Other Bishop, Joseph Nguyen Chi
Linh, visited Orange County and San Jose in California. While on pulpit
preaching parishioners he maliciously labeled our military chaplains as sinful
priests and losers. These formerly military chaplains used to be jailed in
“re-education camps” for many years after Saigon fell under the Communists.
Therefore, Mass attendants protested him. Many Bishops and priests have spread
untruthfully political propaganda such as they very much enjoy freedom
including religious freedom in Vietnam under the Communist regime. Therefore,
many Catholics and non-Catholics had been badly insulted and they have
boycotted them fiercely.
• On
August 19, 07 at Seafood World restaurant in Westminster, California in a
dinner of over 500 guests to solicit cash contributions for Bishop Chau Ngoc
Tri from diocese of Da Nang in Vietnam, a 77-year-old Catholic male guest, Mr.
Ly Ngoc Hop, representative of 150 Catholics from Arizona, was invited to the
stage to offer some thoughts. He briefly asked Bishop Chau Ngoc Tri: “Dear
Bishop, is there religious freedom in Vietnam now?” The old man was immediately apprehended by
the Bishop’s body guards who angrily took away the old man’s microphone and
forced him out off the restaurant, to the parking lot in the witnessing of Bishop
Mai Thanh Luong, a dozen of other priests including Rev. Mai Khai Hoan,
Director of Vietnam Catholic Center in diocese of Orange without anybody’s
intervention. This elderly Catholic faithful, who had driven 7 hours from
Arizona, paid for his admission and dinner, was not allowed finishing his meal
or saying a single word. This shameful incident has sparked up angriness and
complaints all over the world for the act of “Smothering freedom of expression”
on the U.S. territory, a land of freedom and opportunities. It is exactly
identical to the police act of smothering Rev. Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly’s freedom
of speech in a hasty and dirty “Kangaroo trial” which lasted only a few hours
on March 30, 07 ending with a brutal sentence of 8 years in jail and 5 years of
home confinement to Father Ly, a tireless activist for Religious Freedom and
Human Rights in Vietnam for over 32 years.
• VietCatholic
News (Vietcatholic.net) under Priest John Tran Cong Nghi’s personal ownership
with NO officially legal approval of the Vietnam Conference of Catholic Bishops,
for years has been a notorious website that has been posted news pieces,
commentary and articles that has gravely jeopardized the non-violent struggle
of inland and overseas Vietnamese for Democracy, Religious Freedom and Human
Rights in Vietnam. It also has created
deep division between Church’s officials, parishioners and non-Catholics. The
net result is Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. have been degraded and
disrespected by other Americans. In many
instances, our yearly April 30th commemoration, our national memorial event,
has been selected to organize “Raising Fund Dinners” for Bishops and priests.
These events have been interpreted as “Feasts Celebrating Communist Victory” to
compliment and support the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).
• American
Bishops have forbidden cash collections inside the churches. Many Vietnamese
priests serving in dioceses on the US soil who work as illegitimate and
unofficial liaisons between Vietnam and the U.S. Church have bent the rules by
authorizing cash collections just outside the church buildings. There have been
awful incidents of Bishops and priests who wore vestments standing in front of
the churches’ main entrances to “beg” parishioners for cash donations
immediately after Masses. It has created
distasteful images that resemble with “de-luxe beggars” and has poked thorny
pains in out hearts and generated disrespect among non-Catholics towards our
Church and Church leaders.
In addition, many state-controlled
Church officials have been granted exit visas easily while other non
state-controlled Church officials have been strictly prohibited to travel
outside Vietnam. These discriminated treatments have created injustice,
negative impacts and deep divisions between different Churches and also inside
our Catholic Church itself.
Dear Bishop Skylstad,
We are now enjoyably exercising our
rights and responsibilities to American Catholic Church equally to other
immigrants. We feel responsible to make significant contributions to American
Catholic Church. However, we cannot forget and ignore our native Vietnam
Catholic Church, which has been physically and mentally suffered every minute
in Vietnam. In order to resolve this
situation, we sincerely suggest to the United Stated Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) a workable solution as follows that should be suitable to us,
to Vietnam Catholic Church and also to American Catholic Church:
• Designate
1 or 2 specific days every year to help Vietnam Catholic Church in Vietnam.
During those 2 days anybody who wishes to help is welcomed to make
contributions. Other than that, NO Vietnamese Bishop/ priests on the US soil
are authorized to permit Vietnamese visiting Bishops/ priests standing in front
of churches’ main entrances to “BEG” parishioners for cash donations. These
collections eventually are required to send to the USCCB and the USCCB will
turn around sending them to the Vietnam Conference of Catholic Bishops to
distribute it fairly to all parishes, especially to poor parishes or use this
fund for educational or social assistance, etc. in Vietnam.
• Advise
Vietnamese Bishop/ priests NOT to abuse their authority to offer assistance to
visiting priests from Vietnam by hosting and/ or organizing “Raising Fund
Feasts” for them. There have been more than enough protests, assaults and
lawsuits pertaining to cash solicitations on churches’ premises.
We humbly and earnestly
pray our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and Saint Mary always be with you,
our respected Bishop President and all members of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
Respectfully yours,
Priests:
1- The Rev. Peter Phan Van Loi,
City of Hue, Vietnam (currently under home confinement and jail time for years
by police’s verbal order)
2- The Rev. Peter Nguyen Huu Giai,
Archdiocese of Hue, Vietnam
3- The Rev. Stephen Chan Tin,
Redemptorist Pastoral Center, Saigon, Vietnam
4- The Rev. John Baptist Dinh Xuan
Minh, Germany
5- The Rev. Nguyen Thanh, City of
Westminster, California (Formerly military chaplain and confined in
“re-education camps” for years in Vietnam after the fall of South Vietnam)
6- The Rev. Dinh Xuan Long, North
Carolina, USA
7- The Rev. Andrew Nguyen Huu Le, Diocese of Auckland, New
Zealand (Formerly parish associate pastor in Vinh Long province. He was
confined in “re-education camps” for over 13 years in Vietnam after the fall of
South Vietnam)
Parishioners/ Lay Catholics
1- Michael Le Van An, Author,
Journalist, Activist for Religious Freedom and Human Rights in Vietnam
(ARFHRVN), 303 Checkers Dr. # 202, San Jose, CA 95133. Email address: kiemai36@sbcglobal.net, Diocese of
San Jose, California.
2- Vincent Viet Si, (ARFHRVN),
Diocese of Oakland, California
3- Anne Nguyen Thanh Ha, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese
of Sydney, Australia
4- Dominic Hoang Van Tho,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia
5- Kieu Thanh Hoang, (ARFHRVN),
same diocese as above
6- Kevin Thien Anh Hoang,
(ARFHRVN), same diocese as above
7- Daniel Nam Hoang, (ARFHRVN),
same diocese as above
8- Simon Nguyen An Quy, Author,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of Seattle, Seattle, Washington State, USA
9- Lawrence Dang Dinh Hien,
President of Vietnam Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San
Jose, USA
10- Michael Le van Y, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
11- Mary Nguyen Thi Quang Binh,
Vietnam Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
12- Peter Nguyen Que, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
13- Alex Huynh Viet Dieu, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, Author, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
14- Paul Nguyen Long, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, Author, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
15- Anne Cao Thi Vinh, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose San Jose, USA
16- Joseph Pham Hinh, Vietnam
Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
17- Peter Nguyen Chinh, Journalist,
Vietnam Catholic Conscience, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
18- Sebastian Vu Linh Huy, M.D.,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
19- Joseph Nguyen Van Thong,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
20- Tran Phong Vu, Author,
Journalist, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of Orange, Westminster, USA
21- Tran Van Cao, M.D., (ARFHRVN),
Diocese of Orange, Westminster, USA
22- Dominic Ha Tien Nhat, Author,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
23-Thomaso Tran Viet Yen,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, USA
24- Professor Dr. Lawrence Nguyen
Hoc Tap, Author, (ARFHRVN), Italy
25- Nguyen Xuan Tung, Author,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of Orange, Westminster, USA
26- Professor Dr. John Nguyen Phuc
Lien, Author, (ARFHRVN), Diocese of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
27- John Nguyen Huu Can, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese of Seattle, Seattle, Washington State, USA
28-
Francis Xavier Nguyen Tien Canh, M.D., Author, (ARFHRVN), Florida, USA
29- Joseph Dinh Kim Tan, (ARFHRVN),
Diocese of MÜŽSTER, Germany
30- Mac Giao, Author, Journalist,
Author, (ARFHRVN), St Vincent Liem Parish, Calgary, Canada.
31- Joseph Nguyen An Quoc,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, San Jose, California, USA
32- Paul Cao Huu Thien, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese of Seattle, Tacoma, Washington State, USA
33- Magdalene Vo Thi Mai,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese as above.
34- James Cao Huu Tho, (ARFHRVN),
same archdiocese.
35- Joseph Cao Huu Thuy, (ARFHRVN),
same archdiocese.
36- Mary Le Thanh Thuy, (ARFHRVN),
same archdiocese.
37- Theresa Cao Vu Thuy Trang,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese.
38- Catherine Cao Vu Ly Tao,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese.
39- Lucia Cao Vu Thuy Tiên,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese.
40- Joseph Vo Thanh Vinh,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese.
41- Anthony Tran Huu Tuan Anh,
(ARFHRVN), same archdiocese.
42- Bui Hoang Thu, (ARFHRVN), same
archdiocese.
43- Augustine Doan Van Tuan,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Bernadino, Riverside, California, USA
44- Peter Duong Van Hoang,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
45- Lucia Dang Thi Lien, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, 46- Toa Do, Commentator,
(ARFHRVN), Westminster, CA, USA
47- John Baptist Vuong Ky-Son,
Writer, Journalist, Radio Director, Magazine Publisher/Editor, Author,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of New Orleans, Louisiana
48- Mary Doan Thi Huong, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese of Saigon, Saigon, Vietnam
49- Augustine Doan Van Thuc,
(ARFHRVN), Archdiocese of Saigon, Saigon, Vietnam
50- Mary Doan Thi Nga, (ARFHRVN),
Archdiocese of Saigon, Saigon, Vietnam
51- Dr.
Long Kim Pham, PE, Nuclear Engineer, (ARFHRVN),
Diocese of Orange,
California
52- Matthew Tran, Author, Publisher
of “Vietnam Homebound Newsletters Network”, (ARFHRVN), TX, USA
53- Catarina Tran Nam Binh,
(ARFHRVN), Diocese of San Jose, CA
54- Ly
Ngoc Hop, (ARFHRVN), Arizona, He was the 77-year-old Catholic reprensentative
of 150 Catholics in Arizona. He had drove 7 hours from Arizona to join the
(cash soliciting) meeting dinner with Bishop Chau Ngoc Tri and 500+ Catholic
faithful. Mr. Ly was invited to the stage to offer some thoughts. After his
first brief question “Dear Bishop, is there religious freedom in Vietnam now?”,
his microphone was immediately confiscated. Then he was forcibly pushed out of
Seafood World restaurant and threatened by Bishop Chau Ngoc Tri’s bodyguards in
the parking lot without anybody’s intervention or comments.
55- Paul Ly
Thanh Truc, (ARFHRVN), Goettingen,
Germany
56- Joseph Dang Xuan Khanh, (ARFHRVN),
