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The majority of Vietnamese do not follow anyorganized religion, instead participating in one or more practices offolk religions, such asvenerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially duringTết and other festivals. Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural beliefs that were historically affected byConfucianism andTaoism fromancient China, as well as by various strands ofBuddhism (Phật giáo).[2] Thesethree teachings ortam giáo were later joined byChristianity (Catholicism,Công giáo) which has become a significant presence.[3]Vietnam is also home of two indigenous religions: syncreticCaodaism (Đạo Cao Đài) and quasi-BuddhistHoahaoism (Phật giáo Hòa Hảo).
Officially, theSocialist Republic of Vietnam is anatheist state, as declared by itscommunist government.[4]
According to statistics from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, as of 2023,Buddhists account for 13.3% of the total population,Christians 7.6% (Catholics 6.6% &Protestants 1%),Hoahao Buddhists 1.4%, andCaodaism followers 1%.[1] Other religions includeHinduism,Islam, andBaháʼí Faith, representing less than 0.2% of the population. Folk religions (worship of ancestors, gods and goddesses), not included in government statistics, have experienced revival since the 1980s.[5]
Although according to a 1999 census most Vietnamese list themselves as having no religious affiliation,[6] religion, as defined by shared beliefs and practices, remains an integral part of Vietnamese life,[7] dictating the social behaviours and spiritual practices of Vietnamese individuals in Vietnam and abroad. Thetriple religion (Vietnamese:tam giáo), referring to thesyncretic combination ofMahayana Buddhism,Confucianism, andTaoism, andVietnamese folk religion (often assimilated), remain a strong influence on the beliefs and practices of the Vietnamese, even if the levels of formal membership in these religious communities may not reflect that influence. One of the most notable and universal spiritual practices common to Vietnamese isancestor veneration. It is considered an expression ofhiếu thảo (filial piety), a key virtue to maintain a harmonious society.[8] Regardless of formal religious affiliation, it is very common to have an altar in the home and business where prayers are offered to their ancestors. These offerings and practices are done frequently during important traditional or religious celebrations (e.g.,death anniversaries), the starting of a new business, or even when a family member needs guidance or counsel. Belief inghosts and spirits is very common; many believe that the traditions are important links to culture and history and are enjoyable, while others believe that failing to perform the proper rituals for one's ancestors will literally cause them to becomehungry ghosts (Vietnamese:ma đói).[nb 1]
A 2002Pew Research Center report claimed that 24% of the population of Vietnam view religion as "very important".[9]
The earliest forms of Vietnamese religious practice wereanimistic andtotemic in nature.[10] The decorations onĐông Sơn bronze drums, generally agreed to have ceremonial and possibly religious value,[nb 2] depict the figures of birds, leading historians to believe birds were objects of worship for the early Vietnamese. Dragons were another frequently recurring figure in Vietnamese art, arising from the veneration ofLạc Long Quân, a mythical dragon-king who is said to be the father of the Vietnamese people. The Golden Turtle GodKim Quy was said to appear to emperors in times of crisis, notably toLê Lợi, from whom he took the legendary swordThuận Thiên after it had been dropped intoHoàn Kiếm Lake. Contact with Chinese civilization, and the introduction of thetriple religion of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, added a further ethical and moral dimension to the indigenous Vietnamese religion.[10] A recent research using folkloristic computations has provided evidence on the existence of "cultural additivity" by examining the interaction of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism throughout the history of Vietnam.[11]
Varied sources indicate very different statistics of religious groups in Vietnam.
| Religious group | % Population 2009[12] | % Population 2010[13] | % Population 2014[14] | % Population 2018[1] | % Population 2019[15] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnamese folk religion | 81.6% | 45.3% | 73.1% | 73.52% | 86.32% | |
| Non-religion/atheism | 29.6% | |||||
| Buddhism | 7.9% | 16.4% | 12.2% | 14.91% | 4.79% | |
| Christianity | 7.5% | 8.2% | 8.4% | 8.44% | 7.10% | |
| └ | Catholicism | 6.6% | n/a | 6.9% | 7.35% | 6.10% |
| └ | Protestantism | 0.9% | n/a | 1.5% | 1.09% | 1.00% |
| Hoahaoism | 1.6% | n/a | 1.4% | 1.47% | 1.02% | |
| Caodaism | 1.0% | n/a | 4.8% | 1.16% | 0.58% | |
| Other religions | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.50% | 0.19% | |
Government statistics of the religion in Vietnam are counts of members of religious organization recognized by the government.[15] Hence, this does not include people practicing folk religion, which is not recognized by government. Also, many people practice religion such as Buddhism without taking any membership of specific government organization.Official statistics from the 2019 census, also not categorizing folk religion, indicates that Catholicism is the largest (organized) religion in Vietnam, surpassing Buddhism. While some other surveys reported 45–50 millions Buddhist living in Vietnam, the government statistics counts for 6.8 millions.[16] It is theBuddhist Sangha of Vietnam, however, does not reports official statistics on its adherents. The great gaps in statistics on the number of Buddhist adherents is due to disagreement on the very criteria of what constitute a Buddhist.[17]
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Scholars such as Toan Ánh (Tín ngưỡng Việt Nam 1991) have listed a resurgence in traditional belief in many local, village-level, spirits.[18]
Đạo Mẫu is a branch of shamanism ofVietnamese folk religion, it is the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. There are distinct beliefs and practices in this religion including the worship of goddesses such asThiên Y A Na,Bà Chúa Xứ,Bà Chúa Kho andLiễu Hạnh, legendary figures likeÂu Cơ, theTrưng Sisters (Hai Bà Trưng),Lady Triệu (Bà Triệu), and the cult of theFour Palaces. Đạo Mẫu is commonly associated with spirit mediumship rituals—known in Vietnam aslên đồng. It is a ritual in which followers become spirit mediums for various deities. The Communist government used to suspend the practice of lên đồng due to its superstition, but in 1987, the government legalized this practice.
Ông Đạo Dừa (1909–1990) created theCoconut Religion (Vietnamese:Đạo Dừa orHòa đồng Tôn giáo), a syncretic Buddhist, Christian and local Vietnamese religion which at its peak had 4,000 followers, before it was banned. Its adherents atecoconut and drankcoconut milk. In 1975 theReunited Vietnam authorities forced this religion to go underground.
Buddhism came toVietnam as early as the second century AD through the North from China and via Southern routes from India.[19]Mahayana Buddhism first spread from India via sea to Vietnam around 100 AD.[20] During the 15th and 16th centuries,Theravāda became established as the state religion in Cambodia and also spread to Cambodians living in theMekong Delta, replaced Mahayana.[21] Buddhism as practiced by theethnic Vietnamese is mainly of the Mahayana school, although some ethnic minorities (such as theKhmer Krom in the southern Delta region of Vietnam) adhere to the Theravada school.[22]
Today, more than half of the Vietnamese population, consider themselves as adherents of Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada and Hòa Hảo Buddhism are also present in significant numbers.[23] Buddhist practice in Vietnam differs from that of other Asian countries, and does not contain the same institutional structures, hierarchy, orsanghas that exist in other traditional Buddhist settings. It has instead grown from a symbiotic relationship withTaoism,Chinese spirituality, and the indigenous Vietnamese religion, with the majority of Buddhist practitioners focusing on devotional rituals rather thanmeditation.[24]
Chan Buddhism arrived in Vietnam as early as the 6th century CE, with the works ofVinītaruci.[25] It flourished under the Lý and Trần dynasties.Trúc Lâm Zen is the only native school of Buddhism in Vietnam.
Pure Land Buddhism is a broad branch ofMahayanaBuddhism and is said to be one of the most popular schools of Buddhism in Vietnam, in which practitioners commonly recitesutras, chants anddharani looking to gain protection frombodhisattvas or Dharma-Protectors.[26] While Pure Land traditions, practices and concepts are found within Mahayana cosmology, and form an important component of Buddhist traditions in Vietnam, Pure Land Buddhism was not independently recognized as a sect of Buddhism (as Pure Land schools have been recognized, for example, in Japan) until 2007, with the official recognition of the Vietnamese Pure Land Buddhism Association as an independent and legal religious organization.[27]
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Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based onBuddhism, founded in 1939 byHuỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of theMekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be aprophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known asBửu Sơn Kỳ Hương ("Strange Perfume from Precious Mountains", referring to theThất Sơn range on the Vietnam-Cambodia border). The founders of these traditions are regarded by Hòa Hảo followers as livingBuddhas—destined to save mankind from suffering and to protect the Vietnamese nation. An important characteristic of Hòa Hảo is its emphasis onpeasant farmers, exemplified by the old slogan"Practicing Buddhism While Farming Your Land." Hòa Hảo also stresses the practice of Buddhism by lay people in the home, rather than focusing primarily on temple worship and ordination. Aid to the poor is favored overpagoda building or expensive rituals.
Today, as an officially recognized religion, it claims approximately two million followers throughout Vietnam; in certain parts of the Mekong Delta, as many as 90 percent of the population of this region practice this tradition. Since many of the teachings of Huỳnh Phú Sổ related in some way to Vietnamese nationalism, adherence to Hòa Hảo outside of Vietnam has been minimal, with a largely quiescent group of followers presumed to exist among theVietnamese diaspora in the United States.
Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa("Four Debts of Gratitude"), a Buddhist sect based inAn Giang Province, is one of the most recently registered religions in Vietnam. It is based on the teachings of Ngô Lợi (1831–1890). Official government statistics report that Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa claimed over 70,000 registered followers and 476 religious leaders as of 2005, centred in 76 places of worship spread across 14 provinces, mainly in Southern Vietnam.[28][29]Minh Sư Đạo [vi] is a sect that is related to Cao Đài.[30]
By far the most widespread Christian denomination in Vietnam,Catholicism first entered the country through Portuguese and Spanishmissionaries in the 16th century, although these earliest missions did not bring very impressive results. Only after the arrival ofJesuits, who were mainly Italians, Portuguese, and Japanese, in the first decades of the 17th century didChristianity begin to establish its positions within the local populations in both domains ofĐàng Ngoài (Tonkin) andĐàng Trong (Cochinchina).[31] Two priestsFrancesco Buzomi and Diogo Carvalho established the first Catholic community inHội An in 1615. Between 1627 and 1630, AvignoneseAlexandre de Rhodes and Portuguese Pero Marques converted more than 6,000 people in Tonkin.[32]
Seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries includingFrancisco de Pina, Gaspar do Amaral, Antonio Barbosa, and de Rhodes developed an alphabet for the Vietnamese language, using theLatin script with addeddiacritic marks.[33] This writing system continues to be used today, and is calledchữ Quốc ngữ (literally "national language script"). Meanwhile, the traditionalchữ Nôm, in whichGirolamo Maiorica was an expert, was the main script conveying Catholic faith to Vietnamese until the late 19th century.[34]
Since the late 17th century, French missionaries of theForeign Missions Society and Spanish missionaries of theDominican Order were gradually taking the role of evangelisation in Vietnam. Other missionaries active in pre-modern Vietnam wereFranciscans (in Cochinchina), Italian Dominicans andDiscalced Augustinians (in Eastern Tonkin), and those sent by thePropaganda Fide. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Catholicism successfully integrated into Vietnamese society and culture.[35]
The French missionary priestPigneau de Behaine played a role in Vietnamese history towards the end of the 18th century by befriendingNguyễn Ánh, the most senior of the rulingNguyễn lords to have escaped the rebellion of theTây Sơn brothers in 1777.[36] Becoming Nguyễn Ánh's loyal confidant, benefactor and military advisor during his time of need,[37] he was able to gain a great deal of favor for the Church. During Nguyễn Ánh's subsequent rule as EmperorGia Long, the Catholic faith was permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of his respect to his benefactors.[38] By the time of the Emperor's accession in 1802, Vietnam had three Catholicdioceses with 320,000 members and over 120 Vietnamese priests.[39]
The Catholic Church in Vietnam today consists of 27 dioceses organized in three ecclesiastical provinces of Hanoi, Hue and Saigon. A government census of 2019 reported that Catholicism surpassed Buddhism to become the largest religious denomination in Vietnam, although these findings are based upon the membership of an organized religious institution rather than individual belief or practice of a religion and may reflect the lack of need or practice of membership to a religious institution, as often found in folk religion and Buddhism (see Overview, above).[16] Ecclesiastical sources report there are about 7 million Catholics, representing 7.0% of the total population.[40]
Protestantism was introduced toDa Nang in 1911 by a Canadianmissionary namedRobert A. Jaffray; over the years, he was followed by more than 100 missionaries, members of theChristian and Missionary Alliance, anEvangelical Protestant denomination. The two officially recognizedProtestant organizations recognized by the government are the SouthernEvangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), recognized in 2001, and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN), recognized since 1963.[41]
Present estimates of the number of Protestants range from the official government figure of 500,000 to claims by churches of 1 million. Growth has been most pronounced among members of minority peoples (Montagnards) such as theHmong,Ede,Jarai, andBahnar, with internal estimates claiming two-thirds of all Protestants in Vietnam are members of ethnic minorities.[42] By some estimates, the growth of Protestant believers in Vietnam has been as much as 600 percent over the past ten years. Some of the new converts belong to unregistered evangelicalhouse churches, whose followers are said to total about 200,000.[42]
Baptist andMennonite movements were officially recognized by Hanoi in October, 2007, which was seen as a notable improvement in the level of religious freedom enjoyed by Vietnamese Protestants.[43] Similarly, in October 2009, theAssemblies of God movement received official government permission to operate, which is the first step to becoming a legal organization.[44]
The Assemblies of God were said to consist of around 40,000 followers in 2009,[44] the Baptist Church around 18,400 followers with 500 ministers in 2007,[43] and The Mennonite Church around 10,000 followers.
For Orthodox Christianity, theRussian Orthodox Church is represented inVũng Tàu, Vietnam, mainly among the Russian-speaking employees of the Russian-Vietnamese joint venture "Vietsovpetro". The parish is named afterOur Lady of Kazan icon was opened in 2002 with the blessing of theHoly Synod of theRussian Orthodox Church, which had been given inTroitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. The representatives of the foreign relations department of theRussian Orthodox Church come to Vũng Tàu from time to time to conduct the Orthodox divine service.[45] There are also two recently organized parishes in Hanoi and Hochiminh City.
Vietnam is also mentioned as territory under the jurisdiction of theMetropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), though there is no information on its organized activities there.
Jehovah's Witnesses established their permanent presence in Saigon in 1957.[46] As of 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses are a target of government oppression in Vietnam.[47]
On May 31, 2016, leaders ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) met with Vietnamese officials. The Government Committee for Religious Affairs officially recognized the church's representative committee.[48] Congregations currently meet inHanoi andHo Chi Minh City.
Caodaism is a relatively new,syncretist,monotheisticreligion, officially established in the city ofTây Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. The termCao Đài literally means "highest tower", or figuratively, the highest place where God reigns. Cao Đài's first disciples,Ngô Văn Chiêu, Cao Quỳnh Cư,Phạm Công Tắc and Cao Hoài Sang, claimed to have received direct communications from God, who gave them explicit instructions for establishing a new religion that would commence the Third Era of Religious Amnesty. Adherents engage in ethical practices such asprayer,veneration of ancestors,nonviolence, andvegetarianism with the minimum goal of rejoining God the Father in Heaven and the ultimate goal offreedom fromthe cycle of birth and death.The monotheistic syncretic religion but still retains many Vietnamese folk beliefs such asancestral worship.Official government records counted 2.2 million registered members of Tây Ninh Cao Đài in 2005, but also estimated in 2007 that there were 3.2 million Caodaists including roughly a dozen other denominations.[49] According to the official statistics, in 2014, the estimated number of Caodaists is 4.4 million, it was a dramatic increase of 1.2 million followers or an increase of 37.5%. Country Information and Guidance — Vietnam: Religious minority groups. December 2014. Quoting United Nations' "Press Statement on the visit to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief". It is more likely that "unofficial" Caodaists have decided that it is now acceptable to identify themselves as followers of the religion in the last seven years. Many outside sources give 4 to 6 million. Some estimates are as high as 8 million adherents in Vietnam. An additional 30,000 (numbers may vary) (primarilyethnic Vietnamese) live in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
Adherence toHinduism in Vietnam is associated with theCham ethnic minority; the first religion of theChampa kingdom was a form ofShaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. The Cham people erected Hindu temples (Bimong) throughout Central Vietnam, many of which are still in use today; the now-abandonedMỹ Sơn, aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site, is perhaps the most well-known of Cham temple complexes.[citation needed]
Approximately 50,000 ethnic Cham in the south-central coastal area practice a devotional form of Hinduism. Most of the Cham Hindus belong to theNagavamshi Kshatriyacaste,[50] but a considerable minority areBrahmins who are recognised by the government.[51] Another 4,000 Hindus (mostlyTamil, and otherwise of Cham or mixed Indian-Vietnamese descent) live inHo Chi Minh City, where theMariamman Temple acts as a focal point for the community. In Ninh Thuận Province, where most of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) numbers 32,000; out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuận, 15 are Hindu.
As per the census of 2009, there are a total of 56,427 Cham Hindus in Vietnam. In 2022, there were an estimated 70,000 ethnic Cham living along the south-central coast.[51]
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Much like Hinduism, adherence to Islam in Vietnam is primarily associated with theCham ethnic minority, although there is also a Muslim population of mixed ethnic origins, also known as Cham, or Cham Muslims, in the southwest (Mekong Delta) of the country. Islam is assumed to have come to Vietnam much after its arrival in China during theTang dynasty (618–907), through contact with Arab traders. The number of followers began to increase as contacts withSultanate of Malacca broadened in the wake of the 1471 collapse of the Champa Kingdom, but Islam would not become widespread among the Cham until the mid-17th century. In the mid-19th century, many Muslim Chams emigrated fromCambodia, settling in the Mekong Delta and further bolstering the presence of Islam in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Muslims remained relatively isolated from the mainstream of the Islamic world. Their isolation, combined with the lack of religious schools, caused the practice of Islam in Vietnam to becomesyncretic. Although the Chams follow a localised adaptation of Islamic theology, they consider themselves Muslims. However, they pray only on Fridays and celebrateRamadan for only three days.Circumcision is performed not physically but symbolically, with a religious leader making the gestures of circumcision with a wooden toy knife.[52]
Vietnam's largest mosque was opened in January 2006 inXuân Lộc,Đồng Nai Province. Its construction was partially funded by donations fromSaudi Arabia.[53]
A 2005 census counted over 66,000 Muslims in Vietnam, up from 63,000 in 1999.[28][54] Over 77% lived in theSoutheast, with 34% inNinh Thuận Province, 24% inBình Thuận Province, and 9% inHo Chi Minh City. Another 22% lived in the Mekong Delta region, primarily inAn Giang Province. In Ninh Thuận Province, where most of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 22,000. Out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuận, 7 are Muslim.[55]
The Cham in Vietnam are only recognized as a minority, and not as an indigenous people by the Vietnamese government despite being indigenous to the region. Both Hindu and Muslim Chams have experienced religious and ethnic persecution and restrictions on their faith under the current Vietnamese government, with the Vietnamese state confiscating Cham property and forbidding Cham from observing their religious beliefs. Hindu temples were turned into tourist sites against the wishes of the Cham Hindus. In 2010 and 2013, several incidents occurred in Thành Tín and Phươc Nhơn villages where Cham were murdered by Vietnamese. In 2012, Vietnamese police in Châu Giang village stormed into a Cham mosque, stole the electric generator and raped Cham girls.[56] Cham Muslims in the Mekong Delta have also been economically marginalized and pushed into poverty by Vietnamese policies, with ethnic VietnameseKinh settling on majority Cham land with state support, and religious practices of minorities have been targeted for elimination by the Vietnamese government.[57]
The evidence ofChampa's influence over thedisputed area in the South China Sea had brought attention to human rights violations and killings of ethnic minorities in Vietnam such as in the 2001 and 2004 uprisings, and lead to the issue of Cham autonomy being brought into the dispute, since the Vietnamese conquered the Hindu and Muslim Chams in an 1832 war and continuing to destroy evidence of Cham culture and artifacts left behind, plundering or building on top of Cham temples, building farms over them, banning Cham religious practices, and omitting references to the destroyed Cham capital of Song Luy in the 1832 invasion in history books and tourist guides. The situation of Chams compared to ethnic Vietnamese is substandard, lacking water and electricity and living in houses made out of mud.[58]
The firstJews to visit Vietnam likely arrived following the French colonization of the country, in the latter half of the 19th century. There are a handful of references to Jewish settlement inSaigon sprinkled through the pages of theJewish Chronicle in the 1860s and 1870s.
As late as 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities ofHaiphong,Hanoi,Saigon andTourane in FrenchIndo-China numbered approximately 1,000 individuals.[59] In 1940 theanti-Semitic Vichy-FranceLaw on the status of Jews was implemented in French Indo-China (Vietnam), leading to increased restrictions and widespread discrimination against Jews. The anti-Jewish laws were repealed in January 1945.[60]
Prior to the French evacuation of Indochina in 1954, the Jewish population in Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam,Laos andCambodia) was reportedly 1,500; most of these Jews were said to have left with the French, leaving behind no organized Jewish communal structure.[61] In 1971, about 12 French Jews still remained inSouth Vietnam, all in Saigon.[62] In 2005, the U.S. State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report" noted "There were no reportedanti-Semitic incidents during the period covered by this report. The country's small Jewish population is composed almost entirely of expatriates and is based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.[51]
Established in the 1950s, the VietnameseBaháʼí community once claimed upwards of 200,000 followers, mainly concentrated in the South.[63] The number of followers dwindled as a result of the banning of the practice of the Baháʼí Faith after the Vietnam War. After years of negotiation, the Baháʼí Faith was registered nationally in 2007, once again receiving full recognition as a religious community.[63] In 2009 it was reported that the Baháʼí community has about 7,000 followers and 73 assemblies;[64] by 2022, there were an estimated 3,000 followers in the country.[51]
TheConstitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam formally allows religious freedom,[65] however, government restrictions remain on organized activities of many religious groups. The government maintains a prominent role overseeing officially recognized religions. Religious groups encounter the greatest restrictions when they are perceived by the government as a challenge to its rule or to the authority of the Communist party.[66][unreliable source?] In 2007, Viet Nam News reported that Viet Nam has six religions recognised by the State (Buddhism,Catholicism,Protestantism,Islam,Cao Đài, andHòa Hảo), but that the Baháʼí Community of Viet Nam had been awarded a "certificate of operation" from the Government's Committee for Religious Affairs.[67] In 2007, the Committee for Religious Affairs was reported to have granted operation registration certificates to three new religions and a religious sect in addition to six existing religions.[67] Every citizen is declared free to follow no, one, or more religions, practice religion without violating the law, be treated equally regardless of religious belief, and to be protected from being violated in their religious freedom, but is prohibited from using religion to violate the law.[65]
In fact, there are some limitations in religious practice in Vietnam. Foreignmissionaries are not legally allowed to proselytize or perform religious activities. No other religions than the aforementioned eight are allowed. Preachers and religious associations are prohibited to use religion to propagate ideologies that are opposed to the government. Many Vietnamese preachers who fled for America and other countries say that they were suppressed by the Communist government for no, unreasonable or ethnic reasons; however, preachers and religious associations who abide by the law working in Vietnam today are aided and honored by the government.
The Vietnamese government has been criticized for its religious violations by the United States, theVatican, and expatriate Vietnamese who oppose the Communist government. However, due to recent improvements in religious liberty, the United States no longer considers Vietnam aCountry of Particular Concern. The Vatican has also considered negotiations with Vietnam about freedom for Vietnamese Catholics, and was able to reach a permanent agreement which would allow a permanent representative in the future to the country.
Despite some substantial attempts by the Vietnamese government to improve its international image and ease restrictions on religious freedom, the cases of dissident religious leaders' persecution has not stopped in the recent years. The general secretary of theMennonite Church in Vietnam and religious freedom advocateNguyen Hong Quang was arrested in 2004, and his house razed to the ground.[68] ChristianMontagnards and theirhouse churches continue to suffer from state control and restrictions.[69] In March, 2007, a member of the main Hanoi congregation of the legally recognizedEvangelical Church of Vietnam (North) Nguyen Van Dai was arrested for accusations relating to his defense of religious freedom, including disseminating alleged "infractions" of religious liberty.[70][unreliable source?]
In 2023, the country was scored 1 out of 4 for religious freedom.[71] In the same year it was ranked as the 25th most difficult place in the world to be a Christian.[72]
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