A row between Vietnam’s communist regime and the country’s Catholic community deepened on Friday when authorities began building a public park on land claimed by the Church.
The site in the heart of the capital Hanoi was the Vatican’s embassy before it was taken over by the city’s communist rulers following the departure of the French in the 1950s.
Police blocked the street next to the site on Friday and dozens of priests, nuns and monks looked on as work began. Bulldozers occupied the land and a fence had been knocked down.
The Archbishop of Hanoi said there had been speculation for some time that a park and a library would be built on the site — a plan confirmed on Thursday in the communist party daily, Nhan Dan.
Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet said that Catholics would “continue to protest” against the project.
Catholic clergy and parishioners began holding mass rallies at the end of last year demanding the return of the property near Hanoi’s St Joseph’s Cathedral.
The protests ended earlier this year when the government agreed to resolve the problem, but Catholics say nothing has changed.
Vietnam has Southeast Asia’s largest Catholic community after the Philippines — at least 6 million out of a population of 86 million.
All religion remains under state control, but Hanoi’s relations with the Catholic Church have improved in recent years, leading to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung making a landmark visit to the Vatican last year.
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