VZCZCXRO1210
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH
DE RUEHHM #0038/01 0290942
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 290942Z JAN 10
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6279
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 4163
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 6522

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/IRF AND DRL/AWH 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/29/2020 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PREL PGOV SOCI SCUL VM
SUBJECT: CHRISTIANS HOLD WIDESPREAD CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS IN 
VIETNAM 
 
REF: A) HANOI 007   B) 09 HCMC 650   C) 09 HCMC 034 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000038  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Kenneth J. Fairfax, Consul General, U.S. 
Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City, Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
¶1. (C) Summary: Christians in HCMC, Hanoi and other locations 
held several large-scale Christmas celebrations with record- 
breaking turnout and without incident.  In HCMC, Protestant 
house churches staged their largest Christmas gatherings to date 
-- two separate events involving 40,000 and 12,000 followers. 
Two other large-scale Christmas events were held in Northern and 
Central Vietnam with 2,500 and 4,000 participants, respectively. 
 For the first time, Catholics in Northern Son La province were 
permitted to hold Christmas mass in three separate cities, 
marking a thaw in relations between the church and local 
officials.  Officially sanctioned churches also held routine 
Christmas services.  Some unrecognized groups in "sensitive 
areas" reported problems obtaining authorization to hold 
gatherings.  Government officials attended several sanctioned 
religious celebrations and called on church leaders to perform 
their "patriotic duty to develop the country."  HCMC's Committee 
for Religious Affairs (CRA) reported to ConGenOffs that 
"Christmas has become a festival for all people" in Ho Chi Minh 
City.  End summary. 
 
 
 
Catholics: Trendlines Are in Our Favor 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Southern Catholic leaders report that despite recent 
tensions over property issues between the GVN and the Catholic 
Church, Catholics throughout the South celebrated Christmas 
openly and without incident.   Meanwhile, for the first time, 
Catholics in the Northwest Highland province of Son La were also 
allowed to hold Christmas mass at unofficial meeting points in 
three different cities.  In the south, Catholics reported 
positive trends in their relationship with the GVN, including 
receiving permission to host the Episcopal Association of Asian 
Bishops' Conference in Vietnam in 2009 -- a first.  The 
conference focused on strategies to expand and promote the 
Church's role in education, even though the GVN does not allow 
the Catholics to play a formal role in education in Vietnam. 
Our Catholic Church contacts in HCMC also said that GVN 
officials supported the launch of the jubilee year celebrating 
the 350th anniversary of the Church in Vietnam. 
 
 
 
¶3. (U) Befitting the warming relationship between the Vatican 
and the GVN, the official press reported many official calls by 
high-ranking officials to the Catholic leadership in Ho Chi Minh 
City and surrounding areas.  Deputy PM Truong Vinh Trong, HCMC 
Party Secretary Le Thanh Hai, and HCMC People's Committee 
Chairman Le Quang Quan highlighted the list of officials who 
called on Cardinal Pham Minh Man before Christmas.  Minister of 
Public Security Le Hong Anh paid a Christmas call at the Long 
Xuyen Bishop's Office in An Giang province, and representatives 
of the HCMC Communist Party, People's Committee, and Fatherland 
Front paid courtesy calls on Father Nguyen Cong Dan, Chairman of 
the Catholic Solidarity Committee. 
 
 
 
40,000 Gather in the 'Burbs 
 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) The largest Christmas gathering took place in a vacant 
lot in Go Vap, an outlying district of Ho Chi Minh City, on 
December 11.  It was organized by the five member churches of 
the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF): the nationally 
recognized Southern Baptist Church, the nationally registered 
Assemblies of God, and three unregistered churches (United 
Presbyterian Church, United Gospel, and the Full Gospel Church). 
 Some 40,000 followers gathered to celebrate Christmas under an 
enormous neon sign proclaiming "JESUS!"  According to church 
members in attendance, the crowd included 8,000 new converts. 
Church leaders had hoped to hold the gathering in a large 
stadium downtown (as they had done in past years), but 
reportedly were turned down a few weeks before the event by HCMC 
authorities, who cited concerns over crowd control and traffic 
gridlock.  While city authorities initially tried to steer the 
event to a very small (3,000 seat) stadium in distant Cu Chi 
district, when organizers came back with the counter-proposal 
for temporarily converting a vacant lot into a gathering site 
the city agreed.  Despite the fact that 40,000 people showed up 
-- more than a dozen times the 3,000 the city listed on the 
permit -- the event proceeded smoothly.  It waseven reported 
fairly positively in the state-controlled press and religious 
websites overseas, most notably the Christian Broadcast Network 
and Compass Direct, which trumpeted the news of the event as 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000038  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
"historic" and "unprecedented." 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) Six days after the event in HCMC, Protestant house 
churches in Hanoi held the largest ever Protestant celebration 
in the capital with 12,000 individuals participating.  Central 
CRA officials authorized the event and allowed yet unrecognized 
house churches to sponsor the event in downtown Hanoi at My Dinh 
stadium.  Jackson Family Ministries from the U.S. provided 
inspiring musical numbers as did a choir from Korea.  According 
to church members in attendance, the crowd included 2,000 new 
converts.  The service concluded with prayers for the nation and 
Vietnam's leaders.  In a separate event, Northern Nam Dinh 
province hosted the Evangelical Church of Vietnam North's annual 
Christmas celebration, where some 2,500 Protestants gathered to 
celebrate and in Central Vietnam, Tuy Hoa, an additional 
gathering of 4,000 occurred the day after Christmas. 
 
 
 
Recognized Protestants: All OK Except in "Sensitive" Areas 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶6. (C) The Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), the 
largest sanctioned Protestant group, reported few problems 
related to their Christmas celebrations.  Congregations in the 
Central Highlands also held celebrations without incident.  One 
exception to the generally positive trend was in the Delta 
province of Tra Vinh, where both recognized and unrecognized 
Protestant congregations in predominantly Khmer areas reported 
to us that they continue to face discrimination from local 
authorities and Buddhist residents.  Local authorities did not 
respond to an application for one Tra Vinh congregation to hold 
Christmas services, but did not stop or interrupt the unapproved 
celebrations, according to one SECV church leader.  Authorities 
also ordered one congregation to remove a cross and a Catholic 
flag from their church, but followers refused and did not suffer 
any repercussions. 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) The only other sanctioned Protestant congregation 
reporting any difficulties was the Ninh Kieu District branch of 
the recently registered Assembly of God (AOG) church in Can Tho 
City.  Local authorities told AOG leaders they could not gather 
more than 10 members and turned down their registration, 
insisting that they submit an accompanying list of followers. 
AOG received national registration in October 2009 and expects 
to be officially recognized this year after they elect their 
Executive Board at their first General Assembly later this fall. 
 Recognition could make it easier for their congregations to 
negotiate with authorities in the future.  Pastor Stephen Doan 
Trung Tin, head of the Good News Mission Church, reported that 
four ethnic Hmong congregations in the Ea Sup, Krong Pak, and Ea 
Hleo Districts of Dak Lak province were not allowed to gather 
for Christmas services (Note: these districts have been the 
historical center of many ethnic minority land-rights protests 
and property disputes. End note).  Pastor Pham Toan Ai of the 
United Baptist Church also reported that two congregations in 
the Long Hung and Tan Phu Districts of neighboring Dong Nai 
province had been asked not to celebrate Christmas publicly and 
to gather only in family groups.  They were allowed to gather, 
however, after Pastor Ai raised the issue with the provincial 
CRA. 
 
 
 
¶8. (C) Comment: Christmas 2009 -- characterized by increasingly 
routine Christmas services celebrated by a wide variety of 
Christian groups and attended by a growing cadre of Vietnamese 
officials -- reflects the trend of increasing tolerance of the 
practice of religion across the South and in others areas of 
Vietnam.  In pre-holiday meetings with ConGenOffs, CRA officials 
went to some length to stress that Christmas was a holiday for 
"all." These officials promised to ensure all denizens of HCMC 
could celebrate a secular or religious Christmas -- so long as 
they obeyed the law and complied with safety and traffic codes. 
Skeptical Protestant house church leaders have argued that their 
emphasis on "law and order" translates into support for certain 
(sanctioned) religious groups over others, resulting in stricter 
regulations on unsanctioned Protestants in an effort to curb 
their growth and influence, especially in ethnic minority areas. 
 While Vietnam has a long way to go in terms of religious 
freedom, our discussions with Christians across the board reveal 
a consensus that the overall conditions for religious freedom 
are improving.  End comment. 
FAIRFAX