AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

      Although the recent  opening of the first pontifical university in Vietnam is certainly a reason for hope, the Indochinese people's republic remains a country where Catholics are not free to practice their religion, and are subject to many restrictions imposed by the state. A new  religious practices act, that hopefully won't be even more oppressive, is due in 2016; but since the reunification of the country under Communist rule in 1975, the law has required  religious groups to obtain a government permission to gather, and forced Catholic priests to undergo state reeducation programs. Of course, that hasn't always been the case. From the end of the 19th century to 1940, when the Japanese occupied the region, French Indochina, even though it was ruled by the enfants of the Revolution,  had actually been  a Catholic bastion  in the continent; and after the war the short lived Republic of South Vietnam was home to a great number ...

     Besides the references to the controversial figure of Italian "monk" Enzo Bianchi and his opinions on the matter, that could escape non-Italian, non-Catholic readers (and probably will), the following article is interesting because it directs the attention of the readers to the political aspect of an act which, besides being repulsive in itself, is only apparently an individual selfless action, inspired by a religious belief (not to say that selflessness is necessarily good), but it is just another weapon in the panoply of warriors. Your comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Leonardo Pavese      A Political Calculation      By Roberto Dal Bosco      (Translated and edited by L. Pavese).      The self-immolations in Tibet, to protest the Chinese presence in the region, are continuing. Yesterday (4/25/2013), three new cases of monks and civilians who set fire to themselves wer...