Vietnam ‘anti-war’ priest buried

Published Date: July 15, 2009

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Fr Phero Truong Ba Can, long time editor in chief of Vietnam’s Catholicism and The Nation magazine, who was imprisoned by the former South Vietnamese Thieu regime for his anti-war activities, has died aged 79.A solemn funeral was held for Fr Can, in Ho Chi Minh City on July 13, drawing thousands of mourners, Voice of Vietnam News reports.

Le Thanh Hai, Politburo member of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, led a municipal delegation to pay tribute to the late Catholic priest and journalist.

“I deeply mourn the passing of Priest Truong Ba Can - a person who made great contributions to the cause of national liberation and reunification,” Hai wrote in the condolence book at Can’s funeral, Vietnam News Service notes.

Fr Phan Khac Tu, Deputy President of the Committee for Solidarity of HCMC Catholics, said in a funeral oration: “With deep patriotism, Fr Can stated that Catholics are also Vietnamese citizens and always join hands with the nation to contribute to people’s happiness”.

Fr Can, whose real name was Tran Ba Cuong, died on July 10 at the age of 79.

Can was born on July 13, 1930 in the central province of Ha Tinh’s Huong Khe District. He was ordained as a priest in Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral at the age of 28, from where he obtained a doctoral decree four years later.

Later, Fr Can was a member of the Presidium of the Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics and former Deputy Chairman of the HCMC Fatherland Front.

As well as his anti-war activities, Fr Can also fought for democracy, workers’ rights and against torture on students for years through demonstrations and hunger-strikes before 1975.

As a journalist, he was well-known for an article named “25 Years of Socialism Established in the North,” which earned the editor-in-chief of the Doi Dien (Face to Face) newspaper a nine-month jail term in 1971 at the hands of the Thieu regime.

Fr Can’s passion for journalism won him the Gold Medal award by the International Catholic Union of the Press in 2001, NCR Online says.

Last year, Fr published an autobiography titled 50 Nam Nhin Lai (Looking back after 50 years) telling the story of his work against the former Sai Gon regime.

He was awarded the Independence Order, third class, the Order for Great National Unity and the “For the Vietnamese Press Cause” Medal.

SOURCE

Solemn funeral held for priest-journalist (Voice of Vietnam News)

Officials mourn passing of Catholic priest Truong Ba Can (Vietnam News)

Vietnamese Catholic journalist mourned (NCR Online)

Priest – journalist’s funeral held in HCMC (SGGN)

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