Angered by the Vietnamese government's refusal to restore Church possession of the office once occupied by the apostolic nuncio in Hanoi, more than 2,000 Catholics demonstrated at the site on January 25.
The first prayer protest was held at 9 am before the Mass celebrated for the 89th birthday of Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Dinh Tung, the retired Archbishop of Hanoi.
The second prayer protest was held at 11:30 am after the Mass. During the demonstration, a Hmong Catholic woman climbed over a gate to place flowers at a statue of the Virgin Mary inside the building.
When she was discovered by security personnel, the woman was chased around the garden of the building. Disregarding the woman's explanations for her venturing into the building, the guards kicked and slapped her severely. In the witness of more than 2,000 Catholics, a security commander even loudly ordered his subordinates to beat to death the woman (see the video).
Lawyer Lê Quốc Quân intervened and told the security officials that their acts were unlawful. They should stop beating the woman. However, they turned to attack him and dragged him to an office where he was beaten cruelly.
Seeing all this brutality, in order to rescue Mr. Quân and the woman, the protesters had no other choice than breaking through the gate to confront the security officers.
Local authorities of Hanoi have accused Hanoi Catholics of attacking the security force first. It is simply a blatant lie.
The first prayer protest was held at 9 am before the Mass celebrated for the 89th birthday of Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Dinh Tung, the retired Archbishop of Hanoi.
The second prayer protest was held at 11:30 am after the Mass. During the demonstration, a Hmong Catholic woman climbed over a gate to place flowers at a statue of the Virgin Mary inside the building.
When she was discovered by security personnel, the woman was chased around the garden of the building. Disregarding the woman's explanations for her venturing into the building, the guards kicked and slapped her severely. In the witness of more than 2,000 Catholics, a security commander even loudly ordered his subordinates to beat to death the woman (see the video).
Lawyer Lê Quốc Quân intervened and told the security officials that their acts were unlawful. They should stop beating the woman. However, they turned to attack him and dragged him to an office where he was beaten cruelly.
Seeing all this brutality, in order to rescue Mr. Quân and the woman, the protesters had no other choice than breaking through the gate to confront the security officers.
Local authorities of Hanoi have accused Hanoi Catholics of attacking the security force first. It is simply a blatant lie.