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permitted to function but still came under strict surveillance, with all appointments controlled by the government, and members of the Church hierarchy frequently received heavy jail sentences for opposition to the regime. Since 1986 the party has been working to reduce the tension by re-opening seminaries, allowing the Church to resume religious educational work and releasing some clergy from prison. Catholics throughout Vietnam now regularly attend Mass, and, when the previous Cardinal of Hanoi died in 1990, thousands attended the funeral in the largest postwar demonstration of Catholic faith. Since the government still insists on vetting all appointments, it took more than seven years to find a new cardinal acceptable to both Vietnam and the Vatican. However, relations between the two continue to improve. All the bishoprics are now filled and there’s even talk of re-establishing diplomatic relations in the not too distant future. A senior Vatican emissary visited Hanoi in 2005, though it will undoubtedly be several years before the much hoped-for papal visit occurs.

The situation is not quite so rosy as regards Vietnam’s Protestant communities. While the government now officially recognizes the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN), based in the north, it remains deeply suspicious of another evangelical branch known as “Dega Protestantism” practised mainly by the ethnic minorities of the central highlands. It’s not so much the belief system itself that the authorities are concerned about, but the movement’s potential as a political force and, specifically, its alleged association with demands from certain minority groups for greater autonomy. There have been (sometimes violent) clashes between ethnic minorities in the central highlands and the authorities in recent years (See "The central highlands"). While the protests were generally sparked by disputes over land and continued poverty, some demonstrators also cited religious persecution amongst their grievances. As a result, the government imposed significant restrictions on all Protestant churches in the region. There are signs that the situation is easing, particularly as regards SECV-affiliated churches, though the government continues to keep a close eye on all Christian activity in the central highlands.

Religion and beliefs |

Cao Dai

Social upheaval coupled with an injection of Western thinking in the early twentieth century gave birth to Vietnam’s two indigenous religious sects, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao. Of the two, Cao Dai claims more adherents, with an estimated following of around two million in south Vietnam, plus a few thousand among overseas Vietnamese in America, Canada and Britain. The sect’s headquarters, the Holy See, resides in a flamboyant cathedral at Tay Ninh (See "The Cao Dai Holy See at Tay Ninh"), where they also maintain a school, agricultural co-operative and hospital. Vietnam’s most northerly Cao Dai congregation worships in Hué.

The religion of Cao Dai (meaning “high place”) was revealed by the “Supreme Being” to a middle-aged civil servant working in Phu Quoc, called Ngo Van Chieu, during several trances over a period of years from 1919 to 1925. What Chieu preached to his followers was essentially a distillation of Vietnam’s religious heritage: elements of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist thought, intermixed with ancestor worship, Christianity and Islam. According to Cao Dai beliefs, all religions are different manifestations of one meta-religion, Cao Dai; in the past, this took on whatever form most suited the prevailing human need, but during the twentieth century could finally be presented in its unity. Thus the Supreme Being, who revealed himself in 1925, has had two earlier manifestations, always in human guise: the first in the sixth century BC, appearing as various figures from Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity among many other saints and sages; the second as Sakyamuni, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Mohammed and Lao-tzu. In the third manifestation the Supreme Being has revealed