In the letter, the Redemptorists refused to receive the visit announced by the Committee for Religions and Ethnic Minorities. The reason is that this year, this Committee has neither replied nor worked on several petitions that Vietnam Province of Redemptorists has sent to them about the illegal ban on the exit of Reverend Vincent Pham Trung Thanh, Provincial Superior of Redemptorists and Reverend Joseph Dinh Huu Thoai, and about the illegal construction on the land of the Redemptorists.
Reverend Joseph Thoai said that this visit would be a farce, not truthful. And it could not show the true functions of this Committee to the religions.
It should be known that the ban has been put on the exit of Reverend Vincent Pham Trung Thanh, Provincial Superior of Redemptorists two successive times on 28th December 2010 and 10th July 2011. On 12th July 2011, the same thing happened to Reverend Joseph Dinh Huu Thoai, Chief of the Secretariat. The Committee for Religions and Ethnic Minorities has not intervened even though the violence against the human rights was obvious.
According to the Vietnamese Law, the lands and the establishments of the religions are protected by the government, but in reality, the Vietnamese government has appropriated most establishments of the Redemptorists, particularly the buildings in Linh Trung, Thu Duc, Saigon, and at 86 Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street. Recently the goverment has begun illegal construction on those sites. The Redemptorists have sent three petitions, but no replies have been received.
