Priest barred from Pope’s Japan Mass
HANOI: Vietnam blocked a Catholic priest from travelling to Japan to attend a Mass by the Pope, he said yesterday, accusing the government of targeting him because of his environmental activism.
Communist Vietnam has long been uneasy about organised religion, and has a touchy relationship with the country’s Catholic churches which yield significant influence in some areas.
That includes central Vietnam, where priests led lawsuits and protests after a toxic chemical spill in 2016 killed tonnes of fish and decimated livelihoods in central Vietnam.
Priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc was among those helping fishermen after the environmental disaster, and on Wednesday was barred from travelling to Tokyo to attend a Mass led by the Pope.
“As a priest, I helped them to fight for a better life,” said Father Thuc, who is from central Nghe An province.
He planned to travel to Tokyo to see the Pope, who heads to Japan tomorrow.
Father Thuc said 12 other priests and two parishioners he was travelling with were permitted to board the flight in Hanoi late on Wednesday.
A letter signed by immigration authorities seen by AFP said the priest was blocked for “the protection of national security and social order”.
Father Thuc — who has not been allowed to travel outside Vietnam since 2017 — denied the allegation, blasting authorities for “violating the right to movement, the basic rights of citizens and the rights of freedom of religion”.
All religions in Vietnam are controlled by the state, and anyone found practising outside the bounds of the law could face jail time.
Several activists have been jailed for their outspoken comments after the toxic spill in 2016, blamed on the Taiwanese steel firm Formosa.
The incident sparked rare nationwide protests and accusations the government did not do enough to help disaffected fishermen.
Catholic priests in central Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces tried to help some fishermen lodge law suits to demand greater reparations, though the legal action never took off.