Let us hope and pray that the persecution now in force in Vietnam will continue to ignite the Catholic people and win converts from among the Buddhists. Would it not be a glorious triumph of Our Lady if this country, which has suffered so much under Communism, would throw off the yoke of totalitarian Marxism and become the first Oriental Catholic nation.
CWN reports: An estimated 500,000 Vietnamese Catholics participated in a mass protest against police violence– the largest such demonstration of the country’s Communist era– on Sunday, July 26. The protest was a response to last week’s brutal police assault on Catholics protesting the confiscation of parish property. The Vinh diocese announced unflinchingly: “We have enough evidence to state that the police of Quang Binh had beaten our faithful before arresting them illegally.” The mass demonstrations sparked new police violence, as two priests in the central coastal city of Dong Hoi were badly beaten and left in critical condition. Link to Asia News article here.
