When the trail of destruction of the Typhoon Wutif was still visible: roads were flooded, power lines torn up along the national Route 1A, thousands of houses collapsed and dozens of church damaged, some 50,000 Catholics in Thuan Nghia Deanery, the region that had been hit hard by the typhoon, gathered in a Mass for Peace and Justice on Sunday October 6.

The Mass was seen as a strong response to relentless attacks from State media outlets which have threatened Catholics with more arrests and prosecutions. It was concelebrated by all 20 priests in the region.

Marching in silence as a gesture of protest, faithful from 13 parishioners carried Vatican flags and large banners demanding the immediate release of the two parishioner abducted since May and a halt to the persecution of Catholics.

Not far from the place where Catholics were gathering, thousands of police, militia, and communist youth from Universities and colleges in the Vinh city performed an anti-riot training exercise. The program which included tactical response exercises, recapturing streets and buildings, freeing hostages, controlling massive crowd, cordoning off areas, has been held in two consecutive Sundays. It has been seen by many Catholics as a gesture of deterrence in an attempt to create more tensions in the area.