ICC Note:
Ratified in November 2016, Catholic bishops dictate a new law designed to allow Christian groups to obtain legal status in Vietnam. Ranked among the top twenty worst persecutors in the world, the new Vietnamese law promote “good will” towards Christians within the Southeast Asian country. However, it come into complete focus until January 2018. Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Kham, Secretary General for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, confesses, “This law has both positive and negative aspects.”
02/09/2017 Vietnam (UCA News) – The new Vietnamese law on belief and religion, ratified in November 2016, will come into force in January 2018.
Local bishops hope it will allow all Christian groups to obtain legal status.
“This law has both positive and negative aspects,” according to Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Kham, Secretary General for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam said referring to the law on belief and religion, adopted by Vietnam’s National Assembly on Nov. 18, 2016.
“The law will mean that religious organizations now have legal status. This means they will no longer have to be registered by the government under the name of a physical person,” La Croix International quoted Bishop Kham as saying.
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