Thousands attend Fr Etienne Chan Tin’s funeral, Christian symbol of the struggle for rights
ICC Note:
Father Etienne Chan Tin’s funeral was attended by thousands of Vietnamese Christians who saw the Catholic priest as a symbol of their struggle for religious freedom and human rights. Vietnam’s Communist government continues to tightly control and monitor Christian activities. While many churches are able to operate undisturbed, others, especially in sensitive political areas, are shut down or destroyed arbitrarily.
12/06/2012 Vietnam (AsiaNews.it)- Vietnamese Catholics will remember Fr Etienne Chan Tin as a staunch defender of religious freedom, a symbol of “Christian resistance” against the interference by political authorities, and a spokesman of civil society against the acts of injustice and oppression of the regime. The clergyman died last Saturday at the age of 92 in his cell in the Redemptorist convent in central Saigon after he came back from weeks in hospital.
For his entire life, he fought against oppression and various regimes-that of South Vietnam first, the Communist regime following reunification in 1975-in his writings, speeches and communication media. He dealt with religion, politics and civil society, strongly and vigorously supporting dissidents and political prisoners jailed for crimes of opinion and “anti-state propaganda”.
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In his homily, Fr Vincent Pham Trung Thanh, Redemptorist provincial superior, stressed that the value of “forgiveness” often expressed by the late clergyman is not only a “Christian commandment” but also “an element in the country’s traditional culture,” which calls for “reconciliation around the dead.”
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He lived through the major events that shook Vietnam in the 20th century: the Second World War, the country’s division in 1954 (he lived in the south, which was politically and militarily linked to the United States), and its reunification under Hanoi’s Communist regime.
Unconcerned about political leaders and governments, the Vietnamese priest never ceased to criticise the system’s wrongdoings and wrong ideas, defending at the same time the inalienable principle of religious freedom as the basis of all human rights.
Of the many battles he fought during his lifetime-with several arrests and convictions-, it is worth remembering that when he met the Interior minister on 8 November 1989, he told him that the puppet and imperialist regime that ruled southern Vietnam until 1975 made “the same accusations and reproaches” that the Communist government would make against him years later.
Advocate and witness to the changes that came out of the Second Vatican Council, he founded with a group of friends a journal called Doi Dien to help Christians face the difficulties and challenges of modern times.
Even though his stance and campaigns in favour of political prisoners infuriated the authorities, Fr Etienne never gave up his ideas and battles, which he fought in open letters to the Central Committee of the Fatherland Front, an organisation linked to the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
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