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Ngô Đình Thục

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Ngô Đình Thục
Archbishop of Huế
Native name
Phêrô Máctinô Ngô Đình Thục
ProvinceHuế
SeeHuế
Appointed24 November 1960
Installed12 April 1961
Term ended17 February 1968
PredecessorJean-Baptiste Urrutia MEP (as Vicar Apostolic)
SuccessorPhilippe Nguyên-Kim-Diên PFI
Other post(s)Titular Archbishop of Bulla Regia (1968–1984)
Previous post(s)
Orders
Ordination20 December 1925
by Eugène-Marie-Joseph Allys MEP
Consecration4 May 1938
by Antonin Drapier OP
Personal details
Born6 October 1897
Died13 December 1984 (aged 87)
Carthage, Missouri, U.S.
BuriedPark Cemetery, Carthage, Missouri (present)
Resurrection Cemetery, Springfield, Missouri (formerly)
NationalityVietnamese
DenominationRoman Catholic
ParentsNgô Đình Khả
EducationPhilosophy, Theology, Catholic canon law
Alma materPontifical Gregorian University
MottoMiles Christi
(Soldier of Christ)
(Chiến sĩ Chúa Kitô)
SignatureNgô Đình Thục's signature
Coat of armsNgô Đình Thục's coat of arms
Ordination history of
Ngô Đình Thục
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byEugène-Marie-Joseph Allys MEP
Date20 December 1925
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorAntonin Drapier OP
Co-consecratorsIsidore-Marie-Joseph Dumortier MEP,
Dominique Maria Hồ Ngọc Cẩn
Date4 May 1938
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Ngô Đình Thục as principal consecrator
Simon Hòa Nguyễn Văn Hiền30 November 1955
Paul Nguyễn Văn Bình30 November 1955
Philippe Nguyễn Kim Điền PFI22 January 1961
Michel Nguyễn Khắc Ngư22 January 1961
Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện22 January 1961
Joseph Trãn Vãn Thiên22 January 1961
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez11 January 1976
Manuel Corral11 January 1976
Camilo Estévez11 January 1976
Michael Donnelly11 January 1976
Francis Sandler11 January 1976
Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers7 May 1981
Moisés Carmona17 October 1981
Adolfo Zamora17 October 1981
Styles of
Ngô Đình Thục
Reference style
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleYour Excellency

Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (Vietnamese pronunciation: [ŋo ɗîŋ̟ tʰùk]) (6 October 1897 – 13 December 1984) was a Vietnamese Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Huế in the Republic of Vietnam from 1960 until 1968. He later lived in exile in Europe due to unrest in his country and became a sedevacantist bishop who was excommunicated twice by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church 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 brothers, Ngô Đình Diệm (who was president of South Vietnam) and Ngô Đình Nhu. 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

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Early life and family

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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

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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

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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.[1]

Buddhist unrest and downfall of Diệm

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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

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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

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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.[1] 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.[1]

On 7 May 1981, Thục consecrated the sedeprivationist priest Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers as a bishop.[32] 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.[citation needed] Carmona and Zamora were among the priests who formed the Unión Católica Trento (Tridentine Catholic Union).[26]

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 so far as I am a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, I judge that the Chair of the Roman Catholic Church is vacant; and it behooves me, as bishop, to do all that is needed so that the Roman Catholic Church will endure in its mission for the salvation of souls.[36][37]

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

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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]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Ðình Thục [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org.
  2. ^ Jarvis, pp. 39-40
  3. ^ Jarvis, p. 40
  4. ^ a b Jarvis, p. 27
  5. ^ "University Project Cloaked C.I.A. Role In Saigon, 1955–59", New York Times, 14 April 1966
  6. ^ "The Beleaguered Man", Time, 4 April 1955; accessed 27 March 2008. "For the best part of two years (1951–53) he made his home at the Maryknoll Junior Seminary in Lakewood, N.J.. often going down to Washington to buttonhole State Department men and Congressmen and urge them not to support French colonialism."
  7. ^ Jarvis, pp. 41-42
  8. ^ Jacobs, pp. 25–34
  9. ^ The 1966 Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam Archived 2008-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, HistoryNet
  10. ^ Gettleman, pp. 275–76, 366
  11. ^ Moyar, pp. 215–16
  12. ^ "South Viet Nam: The Religious Crisis". Time. 14 June 1963. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  13. ^ Tucker, pp. 49, 291, 293.
  14. ^ Maclear, p. 63.
  15. ^ SNIE 53-2-63, "The Situation in South Vietnam" Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, 10 July 1963
  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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Einsicht, Sondernummer (April 1998). Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  37. ^ a b Vatican. "Notification". In L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 18 April 1983, Page 12.
  38. ^ "Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo": Autobiography by Mgr. Ngô Đình Thục, written ca. 1978–1980. Einsicht – röm.-kath. Zeitschrift: Munich
  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. ^ Hoang, Tuan (22 August 2017). "The last years of Ngô Đình Thục". tuannyriver. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  43. ^ Donovan, Ned (2018-08-30). "Archbishop of chaos". Catholic Herald.

Sources

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Further reading

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