HANOI: The Vatican has asked Vietnamese Catholics to end mass prayer vigils for the return of seized church land, with the communist government signalling it would return the property, a priest said on Friday.

Catholic followers have held daily vigils since mid-December demanding back the property that was the Vatican’s embassy until the 1950s near Hanoi’s St Joseph’s Cathedral.

The Vatican which received Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung a year ago for a landmark meeting with Pope Benedict XVI has urged local church leaders to settle the dispute through talks, priests said.

“The Vatican asked (the Catholics) to leave the land,” one priest said, asking not to be named. “The Vatican doesn’t want any tension, any quarrel.” He also said that “during a meeting with the deputy minister of public security (Nguyen Van Huong), they have promised to give us back the land. But when and how is the problem. We have nothing written.”

Vietnamese government and Hanoi People’s Committee officials have met several times this week with Hanoi Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, while small groups of Catholics have continued their prayer vigils.

—AFP