Archbishop Kiệt shows his true colors
VGP - For more than a year, Archbishop Ngô Quang Kiệt has secretly incited Catholics to carry out illegal activities against the administration in an attempt to claim back the land lot at 42 Nhà Chung Street in Hà Nội. However, his true nature was unmasked when he filed a petition to the State President and the Prime Minister.
In his petition dated on September 19, he demanded an immediate end to the ongoing construction of a park and a public library on the land lot, and the return of the land to Hà Nội diocese for religious practice. He claimed that the land is the private property of Hà Nội diocese.
At a working session with the Hà Nội Municipal People’s Committee the same day, Kiệt refused municipal leaders’ offer of other land lots to Hà Nội diocese, saying that the diocese only wants that piece of land. This raises the question as to whether the land lot at 42 Nhà Chung Street is the only place that could be used for religious practice, while many other religious sects have received land from local administrations to build places of worship.
In fact, Kiệt is not too ignorant to understand that the land lot is not his own private property nor belongs to any organization. No one denies that land is the property of the State, something that Vietnamese people, including Catholics, have sacrificed themselves for generations to defend.
The facts speak for themselves: the land lot at 42 Nhà Chung Street has never belonged to Hà Nội diocese. Official documents show that when invading Việt Nam, French colonialists took over this area to build places of worship for Catholics. Later in 1961, priest Nguyễn Tùng Cương, who was in charge of Hà Nội diocese, handed over the land to the State. Despite this fact, Kiệt has tried to distort the legality of official State documents, including the National Assembly’s Resolution 23, which stipulates that the State will not consider any claims to pieces of land subject to State management mentioned in land reform policies before 1991.
In his petition, Kiệt openly declared that the diocese would defend the right to use the land lot at 42 Nhà Chung Street at any cost. By distorting the truth and slandering the administration, he has challenged the State and the Government.
Why so? It is because he wants to incite Catholics to carry out law-breaking activities against the administration in the above-mentioned areas.
One thing is for sure: most of citizens, Catholic or not, have seen Kiệt’s true colours. For faithful Catholics, Jesus Christ is sacred and priests must love people. But Kiệt goes against God’s teachings, and the nation’s moral ethics by saying, “we feel ashamed of holding the Vietnamese passports when going abroad”. How can Vietnamese people, including Catholics, tolerate such a religious dignitary who has no love for his homeland and cares nothing about his roots?
Kiệt is a Vietnamese citizen living in Hà Nội, widely known as a capital of human conscience and dignity during the past wars of resistance against foreign colonialists and imperialists, as well as a capital of peace for the present. By taking reactionary views and hurling insults at the nation, Kiệt is not worth being a Vietnamese citizen.
