Suffering witness to faith, says jailed Vietnamese priest's brother

A Perth man whose brother, Fr Nguyen Van Ly, was recently sentenced by a Vietnamese court to eight years for political activities, says that the dissident priest has converted many people to Catholicism, including prisoners and guards, during his many years in prison.

'He has said that going to jail, for him, is a chance to convert people and baptise them,' Fr Ly's older brother Nguyen Hoang An told the Perth Record.

Vietnamese prisons do not allow inmates to be visited by priests, An told The Record through an interpreter. An has lived in Australia since 1983 but speaks little English.

An said that during Fr Ly's long years in jail he has converted many prisoners and prison guards to the Catholic faith.

Fr Ly, who has already spent 14 years in Vietnamese prisons - much of it in solitary confinement, was recently sentenced to eight more years in jail.

Fr Ly and four pro-democracy lay Catholic activists were jailed after speaking against Vietnam's one-party government.

Though there has been speculation about the mental effect such intense incarceration might have had on Fr Ly, An said his brother is mentally strong and that his frequent prayer to God while in jail acts as a preventative against mental deterioration."

(Catholic News)