Duong Ngoc Tan, head of the Catholics Department under the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, told the Vietnam News Agency the government would consider property decisions according to a religious organization’s need for land.

According to Vietnam’s law, land is owned by the entire nation with the government acting as a representative for public ownership.

Organizations and individuals are only given land use rights.

The Hanoi church recently requested the government grant a 1-hectare (2.5-acre) lot, which the church turned over to the government in 1960.

Tan cited the Land Law which stipulates that the State does not accept any claim for land given to other users during the implementation of land policies of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945-1975), the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (1969-1976) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The National Assembly, Vietnam’s unicameral parliament also “approved a resolution on November 26, 2003, regulating that the State does not reconsider policies and the implementation of policies promulgated before July 1, 1991 regarding land management.”

Tan said Vietnam’s land and housing policy advocated the rights and benefits of all organizations and individuals while making sure the interest of the entire people and country was best served.

Based on the need of organizations and individuals, however, “the state considers granting them the right to use a land lot they used to own or a new one” for “stable and long-term” use, Vietnam News Agency quoted Tan as saying.

Hundreds of Catholic followers recently came to the land lot, located at 42 Nha Chung, which is under state management, to place a statue of the Virgin Mary and a cross and pray.

Meanwhile, parishioners of the Thai Ha Parish in Hanoi appropriated another land lot to build chapels and create nativity scenes.

“The Government Committee for Religious Affairs regretted the two incidents happened,” Tan said, adding that according to religious policies, all complaints should be addressed in line with law.

“It is a state policy that Catholics in particular and religious followers in general are Vietnamese citizens so that all religious organizations and followers are facilitated to carry out religious activities,” he said.

Source: VNA