The Province Expresses Solidarity with His Excellency Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, O.P., Bishop of Vinh Diocese

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The Province Expresses Solidarity with His Excellency Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, O.P., Bishop of Vinh Diocese
Sai Gon, 09-23-13 (English Gateway)—In his letter to “the superiors and all brothers and sisters in the Dominican Family in Viet Nam” signed and sealed on September 21, 2013, Fr. Joseph Ngo Si Dinh, O.P., Prior Provincial, asked them to dedicate the upcoming Saturday October 5, 2013 as “a day for charity works, sacrifices, and prayers in solidarity with His Excellency Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, O.P., Bishop of Vinh Diocese.”
This gesture of family communion with Vinh Diocese is—the letter emphasizes— “a response to Bishop Paul Nguyen’s call to the People of God in Viet Nam for prayer for his flock in the present situation.”        
The reason for such a call, as stated in the first part of the letter signed and sealed on September 18, 2013, by Bishop Paul Nguyen, a Dominican friar, is, “because of the heart-breaking event that happened in the afternoon of September 4, 2013 at My Yen Parish in Vinh Diocese.  Regarding the said happening the independent mass media both within and without Viet Nam have raised their voices in protest against the government, demanding justice, and defending the people, while the government-run communication systems in Viet Nam, particularly in Nghe An Province, have been spreading the opposite.”     
The concluding part of the letter reads, “we beg Your Eminence Cardinal, Your Excellencies Archbishops and Bishops, Diocesan Vicars, Reverend Fathers, Religious Brothers and Sisters, and the whole People of God Community to pray in a particular way for the persecuted faithful in My Yen Parish, and for the Diocese of Vinh in the present situation.”
The Diocese of Vinh is the second largest ecclesiastical administration in Viet Nam in terms of the Catholic population which numbers up to some 500,000, just after Xuan Loc Diocese with around 900,000 Catholics.