Ngô Đình Thục Explained

Type:archbishop
Honorific Prefix:The Most Reverend
Ngô Đình Thục
Native Name:Phêrô Máctinô Ngô Đình Thục
Native Name Lang:vi
Archbishop of Huế
Province:Huế
See:Huế
Appointed:24 November 1960
Enthroned:12 April 1961
Term End:17 February 1968
Predecessor:Jean-Baptiste Urrutia (as Vicar Apostolic)
Other Post:Titular Archbishop of Bulla Regia (1968–1984)
Ordination:20 December 1925
Ordained By:Eugène-Marie-Joseph Allys
Consecration:4 May 1938
Birth Date:6 October 1897
Birth Place:Huế, French Indochina
Death Date:13 December 1984 (aged 87)
Death Place:Carthage, Missouri, U.S.
Buried:Park Cemetery, Carthage, Missouri (present)
Resurrection Cemetery, Springfield, Missouri (formerly)
Nationality:Vietnamese
Religion:Roman Catholic
Parents:Ngô Đình Khả
Education:Philosophy, Theology, Catholic canon law
Alma Mater:Pontifical Gregorian University
Motto:Latin: [[Miles Christianus|Miles Christi]]
(Soldier of Christ)
(Chiến sĩ Chúa Kitô)
Signature:Signature_of_Ngo_Dinh_Thuc.svg
Coat Of Arms:Arms of St. Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục.png
Ngô Đình Thục
Dipstyle:
Relstyle:Your Excellency

Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (in Vietnamese pronounced as /ŋo ɗîŋ̟ tʰùk/) (6 October 1897 – 13 December 1984) was the Archbishop of Huế, Republic of Vietnam, and later a sedevacantist bishop who was excommunicated twice by the Holy See but is believed to have reconciled with the Holy See before his death in 1984.[1]

He was a member of the Ngô family who ruled South Vietnam in the years leading up to the Vietnam War and was the founder of Dalat University. While Thục was in Rome attending the second session of the Second Vatican Council, the 1963 South Vietnamese coup overthrew and assassinated his younger brother, Ngô Đình Diệm, who was president of South Vietnam. Thục was unable to return to Vietnam and lived the rest of his life exiled in Italy, France, and the United States. During his exile, he was involved with Traditionalist Catholic movements and consecrated a number of bishops without the Vatican's approval for the Palmarian and Sedevacantist movements. Today, various Independent Catholic and sedevacantist groups claim to have derived their apostolic succession from Thục.

Biography

Early life and family

Ngô Đình Thục was born on 6 October 1897, in Huế, French Indochina, to an affluent Roman Catholic family as the second of the six surviving sons born to Ngô Đình Khả, a mandarin of the Nguyễn dynasty who served Emperor Thành Thái during the French occupation of Vietnam.

Thục's elder brother, Khôi, served as a governor and mandarin of the French-controlled Emperor Bảo Đại's administration. At the end of World War Two, both Khôi and Thục's younger brother Diệm were arrested for having collaborated with the Japanese.[2] Diệm was released, but Khôi was subsequently shot by the Việt Minh as part of the August Revolution of 1945 (and not buried alive as is sometimes stated).[3] Thục's brothers Diệm, Nhu and Cẩn, were politically active. Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận (1928–2002) was Thục's nephew.

Priesthood and early episcopacy

At age twelve, Thục entered the minor seminary in An Ninh. He spent eight years there before going on to study philosophy at the major seminary in Huế. Following his ordination as a priest on 20 December 1925, he was selected to study theology in Rome, and is often said to have earned three doctorates from the Pontifical Gregorian University in philosophy, theology, and Canon law; this is not substantiated by the university's archives however.[4] He briefly lectured at the Sorbonne and gained teaching qualifications before returning to Vietnam in 1927.[4]

On 8 January 1938, Pope Pius XI created the Apostolic Vicariate of Vĩnh Long in Vietnam, and personally chose Thục (then aged 41) to be it its first Vicar Apostolic. On 4 May of the same year, with his family in attendance, Thục was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop Antonin Drapier, Apostolic Delegate to Indochina, and co-consecrators Bishop Isidore-Marie-Joseph Dumortier, M.E.P., Vicar Apostolic of Saigon, and Bishop Dominique Maria Hồ Ngọc Cẩn, Vicar Apostolic of Bùi Chu.[1]

In 1950 Diệm and Thục applied for permission to travel to Rome for the Holy Year celebrations at the Vatican but went instead to Japan to lobby Prince Cường Để to enlist support to seize power. They met Wesley Fishel, an American academic consultant for the U.S. government. Fishel was a proponent of the anti-colonial, anti-communist third force doctrine in Asia and was impressed by Diệm. He helped the brothers organise contacts and meetings in the United States to enlist support.[5]

With the outbreak of the Korean War and the onset of McCarthyism in the early 1950s, Vietnamese anti-communists were a sought-after commodity in the United States. Diệm and Thục were given a reception at the State Department with the Acting Secretary of State James Webb, where Thục did much of the talking. Diệm and Thục also forged links with Cardinal Francis Spellman, the most politically influential cleric of his time, and Spellman became one of Diệm's most powerful advocates. Diệm then managed an audience with Pope Pius XII in Rome with his brother's help, and then settled in the US as a guest of the Maryknoll Fathers.[6] Spellman helped Diệm to garner support among right-wing and Catholic circles. Thục was widely seen as more genial, loquacious, and diplomatic than his brother, and it was acknowledged that Thục would be highly influential in the future regime.[7] As French power in Vietnam declined, Diệm's support in America, which Thục helped to nurture, made his stock rise. Emperor Bảo Đại made Diệm the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam because he thought Diệm's connections would secure foreign financial aid.[8]

Diệm's rule

In October 1955, Diệm deposed Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by Nhu and declared himself President of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam, which then concentrated power in the Ngô family, who were dedicated Roman Catholics in a Buddhist majority country.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Power was enforced through secret police and the imprisonment and torture of political and religious opponents. The Ngôs' policies and conduct inflamed religious tensions. The government was biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, as well as the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions.[16] Thục, the most powerful religious leader in the country, was allowed to solicit "voluntary contributions to the Church" from Saigon businessmen, which was likened to "tax notices".[17] Thục also used his position to acquire farms, businesses, urban real estate, rental property and rubber plantations for the Catholic Church. He also used Army of the Republic of Vietnam personnel to work on his timber and construction projects.[18]

On 24 November 1960, Thục was appointed Archbishop of Huế by Pope John XXIII.

Buddhist unrest and downfall of Diệm

See main article: Huế Phật Đản shootings, Xá Lợi Pagoda raids and 1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état.

In May 1963, in the central city of Huế, Buddhists were prohibited from displaying the Buddhist flag during Vesak celebrations commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha, when the government cited a regulation prohibiting the display of non-government flags at Thục's request.[19] A few days earlier, Catholics were encouraged to fly flags to celebrate Thục's 25th anniversary as bishop, but were ordered by Diem's government to fly Vietnamese flags as more important. Government funds were used to pay for Thục's anniversary celebrations, and the residents of Huế—a Buddhist stronghold—were also forced to contribute. These perceived double standards led to a Buddhist protest against the government. Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang proclaimed a five-point "manifesto of the monks" that demanded freedom to fly the Buddhist flag, religious equality between Buddhists and Catholics, compensation for the victims' families, an end to arbitrary arrests, and punishment of the officials responsible.[20] The protest was ended when nine civilians were killed because of a bomb, said to have been placed by the Viet Cong. American journalists, who supported American intervention in Vietnam and opposed Diem for opposing it, blamed the military and even Archbishop Thuc for the deaths,[21] [22] [23] Later, the Ngôs' forces entered the Buddhist pagodas across the country. The synchronized military operations, the speed at which banners were erected declaring the ARVN resolve to defeat communism, and doctored propaganda photos purporting to show Viet Cong infiltration of the Buddhists suggested that the actions were long premeditated.[24] In an attempt to maintain secrecy, special printing presses had produced propaganda materials only hours before the raids.[25]

Diệm was overthrown and assassinated together with Nhu on 2 November 1963. Ngô Đình Cẩn was sentenced to death and executed in 1964. Of the six brothers, only Thục and Luyện survived the political upheavals in Vietnam. Luyện, the youngest, was serving as ambassador in London, and Thục had been summoned to Rome for the Second Vatican Council. Because of the coup, Thục remained in Rome during the Council years (1962–65). He was among the bishops who were against the statements of the council.[26]

Beginning of exile

After the closing of the Second Vatican Council, none of the relevant governments  - American, Vietnamese or the Vatican  - consented to Thục returning to Vietnam.[27]

According to Thục, the Americans forced the South Vietnamese government to refuse him permission to return,[28] and that Paul VI used this inability to return to force him to resign and appoint Bishop Philippe Nguyễn Kim Điền, one of Paul VI's favorites, as his replacement.[29]

He began his exile in Rome.[30]

Consecrations of bishops and declaration of sedevacantism

A Swiss priest Thục formerly knew in Écône, Switzerland,[31] Father Maurice Revaz, former Chancellor of the Swiss Diocese of Sion and professor of canon law in Ecône at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X of the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), came to Thục and invited him to go to Spain, saying that the Blessed Virgin Mary wanted him to render her a service.[31] On 1 January 1976, in El Palmar de Troya, Spain, Thục ordained Clemente Domínguez y Gómez — who claimed to have repeatedly witnessed apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary — and others as priests for the Carmelites of the Holy Face (later the Palmarian Catholic Church), and on 11 January 1976, consecrated Dominguez and four others as bishops.[32] [33] When news of the illcit consecrations became public, Thục, Domínguez and all other consecrated Bishops were excommunicated by Pope Paul VI. Thục stated that he had gone to Palmar de Troya on the spur of the moment, though contemporary sources show him to have been a regular visitor since 1968.[34]

After Domínguez proclaimed himself Pope with the name of "Gregory XVII", Thục distanced himself from the Palmarian sect, apologized for his actions and reconciled with the Catholic Church.

On 7 May 1981, Thục consecrated the sedeprivationist priest Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers as a bishop. Des Lauriers was a Dominican theologian, an expert on the dogma of the Assumption, and an advisor to Pope Pius XII.[35] On 17 October, Thục consecrated the two Mexican sedevacantist priests and former seminary professors Moisés Carmona and Adolfo Zamora as bishops. Carmona and Zamora were among the priests who formed the Unión Católica Trento (Tridentine Catholic Union).

On 21 March, Laetare Sunday, he publicly proclaimed this declaration during a Pontifical High Mass in Sankt Michael Church in Munich.[36]

In response to his episcopal consecrations for the sedevacantists in Toulon in 1981 and to his declaration of sedevacantism, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith again declared him ipso facto excommunicated.[37]

His newly consecrated bishops did not form a united structure and organization, but became a fragmented group, many limiting themselves essentially to sacramental ministry and only consecrated a few other bishops[38] for various sedevacantist priests or groups.

In 1982, Thuc declared:

In 1983, Thục departed for the United States at the invitation of Bishop Louis Vezelis, an American Franciscan former missionary priest who later became a sedevacantist bishop. Vezelis was consecrated a bishop by the American sedevacantist Bishop George J. Musey (consecrated in 1982 by Carmona) and by co-consecrators Carmona and Zamora (the two Mexican sedevacantist bishops Thục consecrated on 17 October 1981). Thục collaborated with Vezelis in the operation of a seminary in Rochester, New York,[39] United States.

Reconciliation and death

Thục began to be increasingly sought out by the expatriate and refugee Vietnamese community, including old friends and contacts from Huế and Saigon.[40] They facilitated his extraction from sedevacantism and Thục returned to the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church definitively in 1984.[1] [41] He later came to stay with the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix in Carthage, Missouri and later celebrated a Mass during the Marian Days celebration there, which continually brings together thousands of the Vietnamese American community for worship and community.[42]

Thục died reconciled with the Church on 11 July 1984 and died on 13 December of the same year, at the age of 87. He was buried in the Resurrection Cemetery in Springfield, Missouri[43] and later reburied in Park Cemetery in Carthage, Missouri along with other priests and members of the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer as well as several refugee priests.[44]

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Ðình Thục [Catholic-Hierarchy]]. www.catholic-hierarchy.org.
  2. Jarvis, pp. 39-40
  3. Jarvis, p. 40
  4. Jarvis, p. 27
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/1966/04/14/archives/university-project-cloaked-cia-role-in-saigon-195559-college.html "University Project Cloaked C.I.A. Role In Saigon, 1955–59"
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20071113223344/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,866120-5,00.html "The Beleaguered Man"
  7. Jarvis, pp. 41-42
  8. Jacobs, pp. 25–34
  9. http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/vietnam_war/3033916.html The 1966 Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam
  10. Gettleman, pp. 275–76, 366
  11. Moyar, pp. 215–16
  12. South Viet Nam: The Religious Crisis. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041419/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874816-2,00.html. dead. September 30, 2007. Time. 14 June 1963. 22 May 2010.
  13. Tucker, pp. 49, 291, 293.
  14. Maclear, p. 63.
  15. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon2/doc125.htm SNIE 53-2-63, "The Situation in South Vietnam"
  16. Tucker, p. 291
  17. Jacobs, p. 89.
  18. Olson, p. 98.
  19. Topmiller, p. 2
  20. Jones, p. 143.
  21. Karnow, p. 295
  22. Moyar, pp. 212–13
  23. Hammer, pp. 114–16.
  24. Jones, p. 300.
  25. Jones, p. 305.
  26. Gary L. Ward, Bertil Persson, and Alain Bain, eds., Independent Bishops: An International Directory [Detroit, MI: Apogee Books, 1990].
  27. Jarvis, pp. 72-73
  28. Most Rev. Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục. Autobiography (Part 4). "[T]he Americans forced the South Vietnamese into refusing my return visa."
  29. Most Rev. Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục. Autobiography (Part 4). "[B]ut he [Paul VI] used the situation that I could not return to my diocese in Hué, to force me into abdication and appoint his favourite, Mgr. Dién, in my place."
  30. Jarvis, p. 73
  31. Most Rev. Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục. Autobiography (Part 4). "Then a priest came to me, one I had met before in Ecône, Switzerland. He told me outright: 'Excellency, the Holy Virgin sends me in order for me to send you to central Spain immediately to render her a service. My car is ready for you at the parsonage's door and we will depart immediately depart in order to be there for Christmas.'"
  32. Cuneo, Michael W. The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism, JHU Press, 1999,p. 99.
  33. Rev. Terence R. Fulham I.H.M., Corona Spinarum - A Biography and defense of Archbishop Pierre-Martin Ngo-Dinh-Thuc.
  34. Jarvis, p. 83
  35. M.L. Guérard des Lauriers, Dimensions de la Foi, Paris: Cerf, 1952.
  36. Einsicht, Sondernummer (April 1998). Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  37. Vatican. "Notification". In L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 18 April 1983, Page 12.
  38. http://www.einsicht-aktuell.de/index.php?svar=2&ausgabe_id=180 "Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo": Autobiography by Mgr. Ngô Đình Thục, written ca. 1978–1980.
  39. Franciscan Fathers. "Bishop Ngo Dinh-Thuc" (photographs of Thục with Vezelis and seminarians).
  40. Jarvis, p. 120-121
  41. Jarvis, p. 121-123
  42. Web site: Hoang . Tuan . The last years of Ngô Đình Thục . tuannyriver . 22 August 2017 . 6 June 2024.
  43. Web site: Donovan . Ned . 2018-08-30 . Archbishop of chaos . . en-GB.
  44. Web site: THÂN HỮU ĐỒNG CÔNG . HT80.1 Thăm anh em đã về Nhà Cha tại Đất Mẹ CRM, Carthage, MO 9/2021 . YouTube . 16 October 2021 . 26 January 2024.