New Vietnamese Law Could Protect Church

ICC Note:
Vietnamese bishops expressed hopefulness that a new Vietnamese law will protect Christian groups. The law takes effect in January 2018 and allows religious organizations to have legal status. Currently, religious organizations have to be registered under someone’s name which means religious organizations had no legal protection. Unfortunately, no one knows what is in the entire law so there could be negative aspects that will not be revealed until the law’s implementation.
02/10/2017 Vietnam (UCA) – A new Vietnamese law on belief and religion, ratified in November 2016, will come into force in January 2018.
Local bishops hope it will allow all Christian groups to obtain legal status.
“This law has both positive and negative aspects,” according to Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Kham, Secretary General for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam said referring to the law on belief and religion, adopted by Vietnam’s National Assembly on Nov. 18, 2016.
“The law will mean that religious organizations now have legal status. This means they will no longer have to be registered by the government under the name of a physical person,” La Croix International quoted Bishop Kham as saying.
 
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