Another kind of foreclosure

Our sisters in Vietnam have lost the roof over their heads, but it has nothing to do with the economy:

[T]he sisters of Vinh Long say that they will not protest the appropriation of their house, if the public authorities declare that government policy is aimed at uprooting religion, while the faithful of the parish of Thai Ha sentenced in court are threatening legal action against the state media, which falsely reported that the accused gave confessions.

At first, I thought they were a little sketchy, giving out priestly sacraments, but then I realised that "confessions" implied that age-old ploy that dictators use to justify their barbarity -- claiming that the victims admitted their guilt. The dear consecrated souls are standing firm.

Sister Huynh Thi Bich-Ngoc, provincial of the sisters, addresses the heart of the problem: "Please confirm," she writes, "if there was a governmental policy on eradication of religions and religious orders which could justify for the treatment against 18 St Paul nuns as if they were dangerous criminals; and for breaking-in, blocking up the facility, arresting the nuns and throwing them out of their dwellings with bare hands, and seizing all their properties including the religious items without any judicial order or warrant. If such a policy did exist, we would cease our complaints, realizing the government officials were only pursuing state policy. Otherwise, return the property to us."

If the land is returned, it will be sans maison, for the dwelling was destroyed. It's not a question of the nuns being attached to material goods, it has to do with integrity, honesty and an enormous injustice. God bless them for their courage and may they prevail:

He has put forth his strength: he has scattered the proud and conceited, torn princes from their thrones; but lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.