Lieutenant-General Le Kha Phieu, who as party general secretary and number one in the elite politburo is Hanoi's top leader, said thrift was more important than festivals during difficult economic times. Phieu was responding to a question why a governmental body last December put restrictions on travel to celebrate the 200th anniversary this August of Mother Maria's Appearance at La Vang in Quang Tri province. The Vietnam Tourist Administration banned travel firms from advertising the festival and barred them from taking foreign visitors to the site. He denied politics was behind any restrictions and said Vietnam respected religious freedom.
Religion is a thorny subject in communist Vietnam.
While the climate has eased in the last decade as the country embraces reform religious groups still face restrictions. As with all religions in the country, the administration of the official Catholic Church falls under the party's mass movement umbrella organisation, the Fatherland Front. Cardinal Pham Minh Tung of Hanoi, chairman of the officially recognised Vietnam Bishop's Council, upped the war of words over La Vang when one of his letters that supported the festival appeared in a February issue of a French Catholic biweekly. Tung also increased tension between the church and party last October when in a letter to Premier Phan Van Khai he outlined long-standing church difficulties. The six-point letter complained that priests still needed permits to travel within their parishes, applications to place new priests faced delays and there were strict limits on the number of youths that could enter seminaries.